We’ve all heard plenty of horror stories about successful films riding the rush of critical and box office acclaim, announcing a bunch of planned sequels that are then delayed, or stuck in development hell for decades, or simply never come out at all. There’s really only one foolproof way to stop this well known phenomenon from happening: make all your movies at the same time.
That’s not exactly feasible for your average production — most directors and cast focus on making one movie at a time — but for movie franchises with big studio money and beloved stars and veteran directors on board, it happens more often than you’d think. Usually productions employ this tactic when there are sequels to a successful first film to be made, but sometimes the first film and its sequel(s) are made simultaneously, both to streamline the production process and to make sure there’s actually something to release when production is done.
This is called “back-to-back” production, and it has plenty of perks. Audiences won’t have to wait so long for the next movie in the series. Studios can save money by only transporting everyone to and from an on location shoot once. Plot arcs across films will make more sense because they were written and filmed at the same time. Subsequent movies will have a cohesive aesthetic design, and will look visually like they’re multiple parts of a whole. Here, we’ve gathered ten of the most famous back-to-back film productions in movie history, and explained exactly why they did it.
10 Movie Series That Filmed Their Sequels at the Same Time
What better way to ensure every movie in a series comes out than to make them all at the same time?
Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky
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Yet another reason to keep expanding your physical media collection.
Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky
