The 2017 Power Rangers film from Lionsgate only managed to gross $142.3 million worldwide from an estimated production budget of $100 million. When you factor in the cost of marketing and revenue-sharing with theater chains, the film was a solid failure for Lionsgate. Nevertheless, chatter that there's a sequel in the works remains persistent. After all, the sequel teasingly setup the introduction of the sixth ranger, Tommy Oliver.
Those rumors gained a little more support recently after Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner told investors during a conference call, "As I mentioned, we’ve now announced the acquisition of Power Rangers.
This is really a great statement about where we believe we are in developing our brand blueprint. The fact that we can acquire Power Rangers brand and plug and play that right into our strategy where we activate it in entertainment, motion pictures in the future and then of course across toys and games and consumer products and do so globally.
We felt the brand was very under leveraged and undervalued. We feel we can exploit it to a much greater extent and it was a great opportunity to acquire the brand."
The chance that Hasbro, who recently partnered with Paramount Pictures for a TV and film distribution partnership, opts to continue the story begun in the Lionsgate re-imagining of the franchise is probably unlikely to occur. Still, stranger things have happened in Hollywood.
Earlier reports also stated that toy sales from the film and rentals were faring much better than the film itself.
Perhaps the Hasbro will quickly greenlight a Power Rangers film not for the movie itself but for all the ancillary tie-in products that come with it?