After the massive success of Ted, Universal was quick to sign Seth MacFarlane to make a sequel. However with his TV shows to run and a new live action film, A Million Ways To Die In The West, in post-production, it hasn’t been clear when he’d return to talking teddy bears.
Now MacFarlane has revealed on his Twitter page this week that he is aiming to release the comedy sequel Ted 2 in the spring of 2015. He said, ‘RT @JohnnyMctardo: @SethMacFarlane when is Ted 2? // We’re aiming for a 2015 Passover release date.’
Passover begins on Friday, April 3 in the 2015, which is also Easter weekend. It also means it’ll arrive ahead of what’s lining up to be a ridiculously massive and competitive summer movie seasons, with films such as Star Wars: Episode VII, Man of Steel 2 (with Batman), Jurassic Park IV and The Avengers: Age of Ultron slated for release that year.
Seth MacFarlane is expected to return as writer-director and the voice of Ted, along with Mark Wahlberg as John Bennett. Seth MacFarlane co-wrote the original Ted screenplay with Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild, who are also expected to return the sequel.
Universal Pictures has confirmed they are aiming to make sequels from two of its biggest summer hits, the raunchy R-rated comedy Ted and the action-thriller spin-off The Bourne Legacy. NBC Universal CEO Steve Burke spoke at the 2012 Media, Communications & Technology conference in Los Angeles earlier today, where he revealed that the film division needs, “franchises and animation” to achieve a level of stability.
The Bourne Legacy got off to a decent start at the US box office, scoring a $40 million three-day opening. That’s less than the previous Bourne sequels, but that’s not surprising considering the lack of Matt Damon in this one, but it’s still ahead of the first film, which took $27 million on its first weekend. The real question is whether the movie will have legs, which remains to be seen, but the film has had okay reviews and may well do well in the coming weeks.
The Dark Knight Rises has handily won the US box office race for a third week running, taking $36 million for a very good take so far of $354 million. Batman beat out newcomer Total Recall, which took $26 million. That was at the lower end of expectations, and with suggestions it’s not going down well with audiences, it’s unlikely to keep its grosses up in the coming weeks. It may now be hard for Sony to make back the $125 million is spent on the 2012 makeover of Recall.
Going into this weekend, there was a lot of debate over whether the US public was still put off going to the cinema by the terrible events in Colorado. In the end, while there probably was still a bit of a knock on effect, it wasn’t as bad as some had predicted. The Dark Knight Rises handily won the weekend, taking another $60 million for a 10 day total of $289 million, just behind the $313 million The Dark Knight had taken at this stage.
This weekend’s box office numbers were understandably delayed out of respect for the victims of last week’s Colorado shooting. However now they’ve been released, with The Dark Knight Rises taking a massive $160 million, the third biggest opening weekend ever after The Avengers and Deathly Hallows Part 2, and the biggest ever for a 2D release.