Disney knew they had a winning formula in their hands when they casted America's most desirable actress, Mila Kunis, and the versatile James Franco to star in a prequel to a story that's captured hearts for over seven decades. Every project Kunis touches seems to turn into gold, and Oz: The Great and Powerful is no exception. Racking in an impressive $80 million domestically in its opening weekend is enough to consider the film a success; the fact that it's grossed $150 when you factor in overseas ticket sales, it becomes a large talking point. And Disney knows it.
In today's Hollywood market, big tent-pole films aren't getting made anymore unless they have a trilogy built into the script, particularly the CGI intensive pictures. The math is easy: why make one and net $300 million when you can stretch it to three and net $1 billion?
Disney already has plans for sequels to Oz, as they leaked last week to Variety, writer Mitchell Kapner - who wrote the first one - is currently working on penning the first sequel. That's the good news so far, but the animation studio is mum on whether Director Sam Raimi or the leading actors will return for any future projects.
Kunis and Franco are becoming some of the most in demand in their craft and already have tentative schedule that would make fitting in an Oz sequel difficult, particularly if the story doesn't adhere to their characters personal stories. However, since we don't know what the subject of the sequel may be, it's too early to rule them out.
Speculation has started that Disney may allow Kapner freedom to pursue the many different avenues of Frank Baum's tales. The Wizard of Oz itself is somewhat of a melting pot of different stories, so it'll be interesting to see if Disney goes the same rout or tries to be more traditionalist in the adaptations ahead.
Still, no timetable on when we may see these future Oz flicks, but it's safe to assume it would be late 2014 at the earliest, and possibly pushed back to 2015 to fit with Disney's new two year sequel cycle they've established with other properties.
In a related note: Disney is also planning a sequel for its other magical fantasy picture, Alice in Wonderland.
Watch the trailer for Oz below.
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