Hangover Ii: Should They Have Done a Second Round?

Hangover II: Should they have done a Second Round?

Everyone has had that night - the night when you are out with your friends and the drinks (of any sort) seem to refill themselves, the night when you have never been more charming or funny. Everyone has had that night and then the morning that follows. You try and do the play by play and periods of time seem to be missing. You may have a bruise that you don't remember getting or text messages that you know you didn't mean to send. The 2009 hit, The Hangover, played off of this relatable event and took it to the extreme. It followed a group of men on a bachelor party adventure to Las Vegas. The movie was full of crude and dry humor and had audiences raving about it. The movie grossed $44, 979,319 opening weekend and $277,372,503 overall. Not only was it a box office success, the movie produced a cult following that had young men relating themselves and their friends to a "wolf pack". These two facts made it an easy choice for Warner Brothers to attempt another success with The Hangover Part II.

The Hangover Part II was released in the summer of 2011. Its budget was a whopping 80 million; over double the budget of the original. Like its predecessor, it was labeled under the comedy genre and received an R rating for its crude humor, strong sexual content including graphic nudity, drug use and brief violent images. This R rating clearly states the demographic as someone over 18. However, due to the raunchiness of the humor and the predominately male cast, it can be assumed that they were targeting the over 18, male population. Audiences, who had loved the original Hangover, clung on to the jokes that revolved around the men being drugged and having no idea what happened or where their friend was. Because of this, The Hangover Part II continued with the same theme and changed only the location. The premise remained exactly the same; the men go on a trip to Thailand for Stu's wedding. The first night, the men have a beer and that is all they can remember the next morning. All they know is that the night was full of debauchery and that Teddy, Stu's soon to be brother in law, is missing. Warner Brothers calculated every variable with The Hangover Part II and it worked. It produced around $85,946,294 at the box office on opening weekend- around 40 million more than its original.

When making a sequel of a comedy, it's important to calculate everything and look at the reasons why certain sequels failed and succeeded. The Hangover Part II specifically timed its release and made sure to not make the same mistakes other movies have made in regards to plot and actors. The timing between the release of an original comedy and its sequel is vital - especially with a movie that has a cult following. Too often, producers will wait too long to release a sequel. Examples of this are with Caddyshack and the The Blues Brothers. Both of these movies waited an excessive amount of time before releasing their second features (Caddyshack waited eight years and The Blues Brothers waited 18 years). Both of these originals were blockbuster hits and remained as classics throughout the years. People clung on to these as their favorite films and the time left between them and their sequel gave time for the haze of nostalgia to set in. It allowed even more people to declare Caddyshack their favorite movie of all time and judge whatever came next even harsher. Of course it doesn't help that both of these sequels are legitimately awful, but they probably would have been given the benefit of the doubt if everyone hadn't also felt like they were ruining their childhoods. Warner Brothers waited two years to release The Hangover Part II and this was clearly thought out. Austin Powers was a huge surprise hit. It did moderately okay at the box office but killed it in home video sales. The sequel came out exactly two years later and they practically quadrupled the box office profits. Other comedic sequels that surpassed their originals using the two year formula are Grumpier Old Men and American Pie 2. It was no coincidence that The Hangover Part II came out almost exactly two years later.

In regards to the plot and stars of sequels, it's important to not stray too far from the original. If you have a winning formula, one that created a dedicated and loyal fan base, it is hardly ever a good idea to change things around a lot in the sequel. An example of a cult movie that did this remodeling of sorts in the second movie is Legally Blonde. Fans loved the simple charm and humor of the first one. In the second film, they gave her a larger job in politics, the man who was her crush in the first movie was now her husband, and her outfits were even more over the top. Everything was just too big; so big that the sequel made around 20 million less than the original. The Hangover Part II learned this lesson well - even though they switched to a bigger, "wilder" location in Bangkok, the stakes and situations are almost identical to what the characters did in Vegas. When it comes to having the same leading actors from original in the sequel, it is very important. One of the bigger comedic sequel flops in the last ten years was Evan Almighty - the sequel to Bruce Almighty. In Bruce Almighty, Steve Carell played a side character. Grant it, he played a side character very well, but the original, successful movie starred Bruce (played by Jim Carrey). By switching the main character, they not only changed the movie completely, but they lost the large fan base that comes with Jim Carrey. The sequel did not make half of what the original did. The Hangover Part II made sure to keep ALL of the actors the same. They even included Tyson back in the cast since he was such a hit in the first movie. Director Phillips described this as a price they had to pay because of the first film's success. Another concern that Phillips had concerning the sequel is the talk that would be spread about its release.

"It's nice to make a comedy where you're flying under the radar," Phillips says. "On this movie, obviously, we were not under the radar as a sequel to the biggest R-rated comedy of all time..... That said, I call it an 'uptown' problem. In other words, people are anticipating the movie so much that they want to talk about it on the Internet or on entertainment shows. It's nice to have them talking about it (Voice of America, 2011)." One of the benefits about being a sequel of a cult move is the word of mouth that follows the making of it. Word of mouth is often very influential and is used as a marketing tactic. Another benefit is that it's free. When you google, "The Hangover Part 2", blog after blog pops up with people discussing the movie. The major gossip dates back to when the initial