Despite a disappointing worldwide box office of $219m so far, there’s still hope for a Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets sequel according to director Luc Besson.
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The sci-fi adventure movie starred huge stars including Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne and Rihanna, and is said to be the most expensive French movie ever with a budget of roughly $180m. Of course, a disappointing performance in the box office usually means there’s no hope of a movie receiving a sequel, but Besson isn’t accepting that fate just yet. “I value the Italian option,” the director told BadTaste, pointing out that there are international markets the film has yet to debut in. “And there’s still Japan also to open. We still have a couple of countries.”
“There’s a huge, huge fanbase for Valerian,” Besson added. “I’m very surprised. Like I receive messages every day, I mean like people screaming for Valerian 2 already. So there’s a community for sure. So it’s positive.”
The director also commented on the different way audiences consume entertainment now, versus when his earlier films debuted, not to mention the possibility of turning a profit once Valerian arrives on home video. “What happens today, you know it’s a little different than like 5 or 10 years ago. Because the way people consume the film is very different. Like people are very busy, so they go to the cinema, but you stay on screen like three weeks. Before when I start my movie like Fifth Element or Leon, you stay 12, 15, 20 weeks in theater. Now you stay on screen for like two, three weeks and the VOD very soon, you have the DVD, the TV, so sometimes people they want to see a film and miss it, so they go there.” he explained. “So let’s wait till the end of what we call the first circle. The first circle is really theater, VOD, DVD and to see what is the audience.”
Directed by Luc Besson, and starring Cara Delevingne, Dane DeHaan and Clive Owen, alongside Ethan Hawke, Rutger Hauer, John Goodman and Rihanna, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets arrives on Blu-ray November 21, 2017.
Via Screen Rant