Two films starring Gerard Butler and a Disney flick starring Emily Blunt and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson have been shot in Georgia in recent years.
All three movies ― 2018′s “Den of Thieves,” 2020′s “Greenland” and 2021′s “Jungle Cruise” ― have been cleared for sequels.
It’s too early to say if any or all of the films will shoot in Georgia, but Georgia has become the mecca for sequels and reboots since the amped-up tax credits came into play in 2008. Examples include “Neighbors 2,” “Dumb and Dumber To,” “Anchorman 2,” “Pitch Perfect 3,” three “Hunger Games” films, many Madea movies, and the current trio of “Creed III,” “Wedding Crashers 2″ and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”
“Den of Thieves” is an action heist thriller with Butler playing a ruthless, burnt out sheriff hellbent on stopping a crew trying to make a daring heist of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank in downtown Los Angeles. The film, budgeted at $30 million, generated about $80 million worldwide in box-office gross and received a subpar 42% positive rating on RottenTomatoes among critics.
The sequel was announced awhile ago and is called “Den of Thieves: Pantera.” “Den of Thieves” director Christian Gudegast previously revealed to Screen Rant the sequel would be based on the Antwerp diamond exchange heist of 2003. It is not yet in production.
Butler also starred in “Greenland,” a film originally destined for theaters but moved to HBO Max last December. He plays Atlanta architect John Garrity, who is picked to be part of a small group of survivors in a Greenland bunker as a planet-killing comet hurtles to Earth, but he and his family get split up during the chaos of evacuation.
The film received a positive 73% Rotten Tomatoes rating. Its budget was $35 million. It was only seen domestically on HBO Max, which did not reveal how well it did but it did pull in $52 million in 26 countries worldwide.
The sequel is called “Greenland: Migration” and was sold to STX for $75 million at the Cannes Film Festival in June. The plotline features the Garrity family leaving the safety of their Greenland bunker and seeking a new home in the decimated frozen wasteland of Europe. Production is set to begin in 2022.
Disney’s big-budget family adventure film “Jungle Cruise” was given the green light for a sequel this week, just a month after release. Over the weekend, it hit $100 million in domestic box office gross, with another $87 million worldwide. Both Johnson and Blunt are expected to return as well as many of the key executives.
It was well liked, with audiences giving it an A- Cinemascore and a 92% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
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