INDEPENDENCE DAY 3: Roland Emmerich Reveals He Has a Story for a Third Film in Science Fiction Franchise

Director Roland Emmerich Has Story for Third Independence Day Film

Roland Emmerich has revealed that he has a story in place for a third entry in the Independence Day science-fiction film series.

In 1996, Independence Day (also known back then as ID4) was a box-office blockbuster that made a fortune and catapulted Will Smith to movie-star status. In 2016, a sequel was made, Independence Day: Resurgence, and fizzled at the domestic box-office. Nevertheless, director Roland Emmerich has recently stated at San Diego Comic-Con that he has a story for a third picture in the franchise which he is hoping to discuss with Disney.

Keep in mind that there have been no official discussions to bring this project into light but Emmerich has admitted that he does, indeed, have a story line for the potential third Independence Day movie. The 20th Century Fox-released Independence Day pictures were successful in certain respects but the first one was a flat-out classic and surely Emmerich hopes to rekindle that magic with a third film in this series.

Perhaps, Independence Day: Resurgence could have been a bigger hit today with its stars like Maika Monroe and Liam Hemsworth now doing better than ever. Though the first movie in the franchise made $817 million worldwide and $306 million of it came from domestic ticket sales, the second picture stalled with $389 million in worldwide ticket sales. In fact, it barely cracked $100 million domestically, coming in with just a few million over the $100 million threshold. That’s still nothing to sneeze at in terms of a box-office gross these days and a third movie could be more profitable if it’s a better picture from an artistic standpoint than the second one (which co-starred original actors Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum).

The CinemaScores for the first two Independence Day movies were like night and day. ID4 from 1996 earned a coveted “A” grade while the sequel managed to get a deadly “B” mark. A “B” is only OK in the world of CinemaScore for horror movies. That’s because horror movies are barely upbeat and not always crowd-pleasers. Some people believed the pacing was off in the second picture but the aliens were nevertheless impressively brought to the screen. Will Smith was still greatly missed.

At this point, there’s nothing else to report on this upcoming potential project. If Disney does give it a “go,” the studio will have to watch the budget carefully to ensure the movie is profitable. While the casting and construction of the movie will make a big difference in how well audiences would accept it, ID4 came out almost 30 years ago. To rekindle interest in the series, they will have to do something different this time out to make audiences receptive to a third Independence Day film.

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