> Speaking of movie franchises, 2003 looks to be even more sequel/prequel laden than most years.
>
> Freddy Vs. Jason
> Rugrats Meet the Wild Thornberrys
> The Return of the King
> Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions
> Terminator 3
> Spy Kids 3
> Scary Movie 3
> Jungle Book 2
> The Fast and the Furious 2
> Bad Boys 2
> Barbershop 2
> Legally Blonde 2
> X-Men 2
> Charlie's Angels 2
> Tomb Raider 2
> Shanghai Knights (Shanghai Noon 2)
> Once Upon a Time In Mexico (Desperado 2)
> The Whole Ten Yards (The Whole Nine Yards 2)
> Gods and Generals (Gettysburg prequel)
> Dumb and Dumberer (Dumb and Dumber prequel)
> The Exorcist: The Beginning

That's 21 sequels/remakes slated for release in 2003 at the time I posted. A few of those were delayed until 2004.

The list of remakes/sequels currently slated for release in 2005 is as follows:

Sequels/Prequels

- Ancient Evil 2: Guardian of the Underworld
- Batman Begins
- Be Cool (sequel to Get Shorty)
- The Corpse Bride (sequel to A Nightmare Before Christmas)
- Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
- The Devil's Rejects (sequel to House of 1000 Corpses)
- Elektra
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Herbie: Fully Loaded
- King Kong
- Kronk's New Groove
- Land of the Dead (Night of the Living Dead 4)
- Legend of Zorro
- Miss Congeniality 2
- Palindromes (sequel to Welcome To the Dollhouse)
- Red-Eye (theatrical sequel to three direct-to-video films)
- The Ring Two
- Sahara (a Dirk Pitt story, following 1980's Raise the Titanic)
- The Sandlot 2
- Son of the Mask
- Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith
- Underworld: Evolution
- Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Wererabbit
- XXX: State of the Union

Remakes

- All the King's Men
- The Amityville Horror
- Assault on Precinct 13
- The Bad News Bears
- Bewitched
- Bride and Prejudice
- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
- Dark Water (remake of the 2002 Japanese film)
- The Dukes of Hazzard
- Fever Pitch (Farrelly Bros. remake of the 1997 film)
- The Fog (remake of the 1980 film)
- Hellraiser: Deader (direct-to-video)
- Hellraiser: Hellworld (direct-to-video)
- House of Wax
- Into the Blue (remake of 1977's The Deep)
- Little Men
- The Longest Yard
- The Merchant of Venice
- Oliver Twist
- The Pink Panther
- Pride and Prejudice
- The Producers
- The Prophecy: Forsaken (direct-to-video)
- Revenant (remake of 1903's Le Revenant (!))
- Tarzan II (direct-to-video)
- The 39 Steps
- The War of the Worlds (Spielberg version)
- The War of the Worlds (Timothy Hines version)

Other Movies Based On Established Franchises:

- Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
- Doom
- Fantastic Four (a proper remake if you count the unreleased 1994 film)


That makes a grand total of 50 sequels/remakes -- 53 if you count the last three. It seems Hollywood's production of remakes and sequels has taken an exponential turn for the worse.

Even if we're generous and filter out things like Roman Polanski's "Oliver Twist" (more properly described as another adaptation of the book, rather than a remake of a prior film) and "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (originally conceived as a series, rather than a cash-in sequel) we still wind up with a sequel/remake count of double 2003's.

If we double the sequel/remake count every two years, we'll have 160 by 2009, 640 by 2013, and 10240 by 2021.