Christopher Waltz Supports Alita Sequel

With the movie industry being in shambles due to the virus, fans of border line movies would be wise not to expect any movement on those titles sitting on the fence of make-abilty, but while talking with Collider, Christopher Waltz supports an Alita sequel.

Waltz Supports Alita Sequel: What’s the Hold Up?

Alita: Battle Angel came out in Feb 2019, the graveyard of movie release season. Despite that, it managed a global haul of $404.8 million on a budget of $170 million. That seems like a no brainer. Many a movie received sequels with less, so why is Alita on the fence for another movie?

The problem with Alita lies with where it made money. In a dead zone of movies, it only pulled in $85.7 million. That type of total will never get a sequels unless it’s a low budget movie like horror. Where Alita blew totals out of the water were areas like China. Internationally, Alita made $319 million largely thanks to China and its $133.4 million. Its opening weekend alone nearly eclipsed the domestic total.

We are reaching an era where Hollywood needs to decide if making a film for foreign markets alone is worth making. Movies like Alita, Warcraft and Transformers: The Last Knight all fared very well overseas but suffered domestically.

Waltz Supports Alita Sequel: Help From Within

What can help these fence sitting movies is when actors from within stand up and attempt to rally support for the project. Actor Christopher Waltz, who played Alita’s father/creator, recently had the following to say:

“But, you know, I’m as wise as you are,” Waltz said. “I haven’t heard anything and I’m a little disappointed and surprised that I haven’t heard a thing so far, because I know that it has followers. I know that people liked it and aside from what others said, I loved it and I liked working on it and I liked the result. You know, it was Fox and Fox doesn’t exist anymore. Now it’s Disney. Maybe it doesn’t fit into the Disneyfication, but I have no clue. I have no clue. Maybe they’re working on something and I wouldn’t be the first person to hear, but meanwhile, I haven’t heard anything.”

Christopher Waltz talking with Collider

Often actors are the last to know what studios develop. Movies go through many steps before actors are included, but when actors step up and champion a film it sometimes helps. It is good to hear actors in movies like this step forward and attempt to help the sequels along.

Waltz Supports Alita Sequel: Factors From Without

Two things now vie for control over Alita’s future. The first force belongs to the fans. Alita looks to be movie underestimated the first time, but grows in the hearts of fans and new viewers. It may very well follow the path of movies like Dark Crystal or Labyrinth, movies that started as box office duds but grew into cult hits. This type of fan fervor must push hard against the second factor vying for control.

Check out our exclusive interview with Alita FX Supervisor Eric Saindon here

The other major factor comes from the House of Mouse itself. Alita initially released under the FOX banner, but now Disney owns Alita. The question remains, what does Disney see as potential for an Alita sequel? Do they see a future for the franchise? Or with the pains of the Corona virus and the log jam of misplaced movies, will Disney stick to more “sure” titles? Disney may simply decide not to gamble, in which case Alita may never get the sequel it deserves.