Lionsgate Going Full Franchise With NOW YOU SEE ME

Lionsgate is showing some remarkable faith in their upcoming sequel to their 2013 hit Now You See Me. Although it is not due to hit theaters until a little over a year from now, the studio is expecting the further story of stage magicians who use their fame as cover for a series of daring robberies, Now You See Me 2, to do well enough to warrant a third film and has gone ahead and begun development on the potential threequel.

The news of the third film comes from Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer during an earnings call earlier today that they are predicting that the box office gross for Now You See Me 2 to surpass the $351.7 million worldwide take of the original movie.

Now You See Me 2 is due in theaters in June 2016 and will see the cast of the original – Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Dave Franco, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine – to return under the direction of John M. Chu. Lizzy Caplan and Daniel Radcliffe are joining in for this second round.

With The Hunger Games wrapping up this year for the studio, it is easy to see that Lionsgate is looking for another franchise to take its place. Interestingly enough, they’re choosing to use an original property, not a comic book or novel or former television show, to do so. But the studio isn’t putting all of its franchise eggs in one basket. It recently greenlight a sequel to the Keanu Reeves action hit John Wick from earlier this year and are also in development on a multi-part adapton of the clasical Greek epic poem The Odyssey.

Via Hollywood Reporter.