It used to be so easy in Hollywood. You made one movie, and then, when a few people liked it, you made a sequel. If a few more people liked it, you made another one, and all of a sudden you had a trilogy for the ages. But then the bigwigs in suits worked out that selling films in sets of three created its own marketing momentum – you could even save money on production costs by filming them at the same time! So they just did that for a while, and all was well in Tinseltown.
But what about when you ran out of story? Not a problem – just release an all-new trilogy set before the original one, about the early years of your core characters, or possibly about their parents. Reverse engineer the storyline – remember when so-and-so was looking at whatshisname funnily in that scene that was never properly explained? Now it has been! – and you had a brand-new reason for cinemagoers to hand over their well-earned dosh.
