If you want to make a successful movie in Hollywood and you don't own the rights to either Star Wars or Marvel (i.e. you're not Disney), then your best bet is to make a 3D animated film. Four of the ten highest-grossing films so far this year, Zootopia, Finding Dory, The Angry Birds Movie, and Kung Fu Panda 3, are all 3D animated family films. The next big release in this wave, The Secret Life of Pets, opens on July 8, and odds are that it will become yet another box office sensation. But will The Secret Life of Pets get a sequel?
Update: On Aug. 2, it was announced that Secret Life of Pets 2 will be released on July 13, 2018.
The answer probably depends on just how successful the film is. The movie is likely to face some competition at the family-aimed box office from the likes of Finding Dory and The BFG. But although Dory has shown incredible staying power, the film will be entering its fourth weekend by the time Pets debuts, and The BFG, which isn't expected to be a huge box office hit anyway, will be in its second. Therefore, The Secret Life of Pets should have a sizable opening weekend, and should control the family audience for a couple of weeks until Ice Age: Collision Course hits on July 22.
You could also look to the film's production studio as a predictor for whether or not it will get a sequel. Illumination Entertainment, the family film arm of Universal Pictures, has released five films over the course of its short history: Hop, The Lorax, two Despicable Me movies, and their spinoff, Minions. The Lorax was based on a book and was never meant to earn a sequel, and Hop was a seasonal film that just wasn't that successful. Despicable Me, however, turned into a wildly successful franchise that spawned a second, even more successful franchise, and Secret Life of Pets will be looking to duplicate those results. The movie has franchise written all over it, with a colorful cast of characters that could easily be brought back for another adventure. The film is also a hit with critics, boasting an 83 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating based on its first 24 reviews.
So if The Secret Life of Pets becomes a box office success, and there's no reason to think that it won't, then I'd say the chances of the film earning a sequel are pretty high, which is good news for fans of adorable animals voiced by hilarious comedians.
Images: Universal Pictures; Giphy
