[[quoteright:280:http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/LBT_movies.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:280:[[TheLandBeforeTime There've been two more since this image was made.]]]]

->''"...'Based on the hit movie series'.... Wait, is it really a hit if the first one was great but the latter two were disappointing failures that made money off the inertia?''"
-->-- '''Morgan Webb''', ''{{X-Play}}''

As the number of films in a series swells, the probability of an entry that is unmitigated crap [[SturgeonsLaw jumps to a number greater than 50% with the second installment, and approaches 100% thereafter]].

{{Sequel}}s to movies, generally unplanned ones (as opposed to a planned trilogy for example) and created on the impetus of box office revenue (RogerEbert, in his ''Bigger Little Movie Glossary'', defines "sequel" as "a filmed deal"), are rarely as good as the movie they're a sequel to. If there is a ''third'' installment, it will frequently mark a sharp downhill turn even when the second movie turned out all right. And even if there's a good trilogy, going beyond ''that'' has an even greater chance of crap.

Common symptoms of {{Sequelitis}} (that is, things which contribute to a sequel not being as well received as the original) include, but are not limited to:

*The casual (and sometimes [[DroppedABridgeOnHim callous]]) bumping off of beloved characters whose actors refused to return for the sequel.
**Low-budget cash-in sequels may take the alternate route of simply [[TheOtherDarrin recasting]] almost every recurring character with a fresh batch of B-list actors, not just those formerly played by child actors now grown too old and big name stars now busy elsewhere.
*The mysterious unexplained departure of a hero's love interest (either because the actor or actress refused to return for the sequel or because the producers thought the [[{{Shipping}} Shippers]] would lose interest in the hero if he or she was married.)
*{{Wacky Wayside Tribe}}s begin choking the plot to conceal the fact that the writers have basically run out of story.
*It's natural for producers to try and recapture the magic and tone which made the first movie so successful. However, oftentimes they'll think to themselves: "Hmm. X worked really well in the first movie. If we [[UpToEleven ramp X up]] and show [[TheSameButMore ten times as much of it]] in the second movie, people will ''love'' it!" Unfortunately for us moviegoers, "X" usually is [[RefugeInVulgarity toilet humor]], [[CrossesTheLineTwice sadistic slapstick violence,]] or something else equally repulsive.
*A tendency for the property to [[ActionizedSequel escalate into more science fiction, fantasy, or all around ''cartoonish'' elements]], when the original at least made some attempt at being [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness realistic]] (or at least [[LowFantasy low-key]] and [[MagicAIsMagicA consistent]] in its unrealism).
*Many sequels begin to suffer from PanderingToTheBase. Although it may ''seem'' like a good idea at the time -- who better to try and get onside than the fans of the franchise? -- this rarely ends well; usually, trying to please the fans ends up both (a) [[ContinuityLockout isolating a potential new audience]] and (b) annoying the fans, who are often made to realize that what they ''think'' they want isn't necessarily what they ''actually'' want, and are [[SeriousBusiness very quick and loud to say so]]. Many filmmakers often have little actual understanding of what fans ''do'' want, having merely perused a handful of message boards and assuming they speak for all fandom, if they even do ''that'' much research; in essence they end up catering to a StrawFan. This is particularly the case when bringing back a much beloved character who unexpectedly won the audience over in the first movie, only to do nothing interesting with them or, worse, [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderize]] them so much that they end up being a one-dimensional caricature of the charming and multi-faceted character they fell in love with in the first place.
*The increasing insistence these days of any successful blockbuster movie to be [[TwoPartTrilogy stretched out to make a trilogy]], whether the plot or characters particularly call for one or not; as such, a high-quality and self-contained first movie will often be artificially extended (with or without a SequelHook) into two bloated, incoherent sequels with the plot extended beyond its limits and stretched too thin between them.

The ''format'' of the sequel also enters the equation. If it's a [=~Direct-to-Video~=] sequel, chances are high that it sucks (unless it is part of the DCAU).

The dreadful compulsion on the part of writers and filmmakers to add new chapters to perfectly good works has been likened to an addiction, sometimes termed sequelholism. The writers sometimes seem aware of this, and as a run of sequels are produced they may drop numbering the movies entirely and start [[ElectricBoogaloo adding cliche subtitles]]. This only makes it harder to guess the order to watch for new fans. If they ''aren't'' aware of this, then, in the end, odds are FirstInstallmentWins.

The inverse is a SurprisinglyImprovedSequel. Distantly related to AdaptationDecay. For a strangely divergent sequel, see InNameOnly. For a sequel that retains the monster or villain but features none of the original heroes, see VillainBasedFranchise. Can be caused by a poor choice in SequelEscalation, and lead up to FranchiseZombie. Backlash against sequels has made many reviewers {{Sequelphobic}}.
----
!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''TokyoMewMew a la mode'' ended up being penned by a different writer (the artist of the original series), but taking place in a universe explicitly the same as the original, something many anime [[AlternateContinuity explictly avoid]] in order to start fresh. And that's the mildest of its [[TheWesley many]], [[CharacterDerailment many]] [[WallBanger problems]].
* ''{{Battle Royale}} 2'' suffered heavily from this. Even the most enthusiastic fans of the sequel will admit that it isn't anywhere near the caliber of the original (whether it be novel, manga or movie).
* ''{{Shuffle}} Memories''. Though some fans say it's SoBadItsHorrible, other fans say that the FanService laden last episode was more than enough to make up for the terrible recap of ''{{Shuffle}}''.
** "Isn't that right, [[NaughtyTentacles Nerine]]?"
* ''ToHeart: Remember my Memories''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
*{{SDarko}} to the max! Most DonnieDarko fans [[DisContinuity won't even acknowledge its existence]]!
* The entirety of the ''PoliceAcademy'' series. The first movie was an (inexplicably) big success, but every sequel afterward grossed considerably less money at the box office. The seventh and (supposedly) final movie in the series, ''Police Academy: Mission to Moscow'', failed to surpass the $200,000 mark, thus sending the franchise to its doom.
*Most {{superhero}} film franchises follow the same formula: The first film introduces the characters and usually goes through the [[SuperHeroOrigin origin story]]. It meets with general approval. The second film, not being burdened by the need to rehash all that old stuff, is very good and is considered by many to be better than the original. The third film makes you wonder why they didn't stop at two. Then the fourth film is [[SoBadItsHorrible so bad]] it makes the third film look like CitizenKane. Then the series is dead for several years until another sequel is made with massive RetCon (sometimes to the point of {{Reboot}}). However, Film/{{Batman}} and Film/{{Superman}} are the only two to make it past the third (though a Film/{{Spider-Man}} 4 [[MoneyDearBoy has been greenlit]]).
**Batman and Superman have taken separate paths after their fifth installments, with ''BatmanBegins'' a massive success and ''Superman Returns'' a modest failure; while the Batman series later went on to produce the [[TheDarkKnight one of the most popular movies ever]], the Superman series is now enacting what is essentially ''another'' reboot.
**''Superman Returns'' arguably suffers from some Sequelitis, as one of the frequently-raised criticisms was that the producers didn't seem to be able to make up their minds as to whether they were actually making a continuation of the earlier film sequence, or whether they were making a completely fresh start.
* ''ScaryMovie'' expressed the tagline, ''No mercy. No shame. No sequel,'' but as we all well know, did have one anyway (with the tagline "[[ILied We lied]]"), which could qualify as borderline pornography. It got closer back to its roots of satirizing horror movies in the third, but then stepped back again and had that Tom Cruise couch jump parody in the fourth. Rumor has it that a fifth is on the way.
** It's worth noting this is also a massive case of ContestedSequel: [[YourMileageMayVary depending on your sense of humor, you could easily find any one to be funnier than any other (or none of them obviously).]]
** The spinoffs of the franchise have been [[SoBadItsHorrible even worse]], starting with ''Date Movie'', billed as "from [[SeltzerAndFriedberg two]] of the six writers of ''ScaryMovie''," and somehow running on to three more (so far...)
* Most {{Slasher Movie}}s tend to suffer this fate as well. Of course, in several of these cases, the first [[BMovie wasn't that great either]], but horror fans [[GuiltyPleasure still prefer the earlier works]].
** One particularly painful example: The original ''SleepawayCamp'' was surprisingly deep for its genre, and possessed a genuinely unexpected (yet not nonsensical) TwistEnding that ''hasn't'' succumbed to ItWasHisSled. The sequels, by comparison, are almost parodies of their predecessor. According to writer/director Robert Hiltzik, only the most recent sequel, ''Return To Sleepaway Camp'', is canon (he had little to nothing to do with 2 and 3).
* The ''AmericanPie'' series may be descending into this, as they seem to be releasing one movie a year. Now up to six films total, the latest few (''American Pie Presents'') have been direct to DVD releases... with predictable results.
*** It's worth noting that the sole cast member reprising a role from ''any'' of the first three movies is Eugene Levy, which is depressing in a "ordering fast food from your dad" kind of way.
* ''TheCrow'' was a [[YourMileageMayVary powerful, emotionally-gripping]] comic book, that had an equally powerful [[TheMovie film adaptation]]--with a kickass soundtrack, to boot. It had several sequels in both media, and none of them were anything close to the original, or even enjoyable. Thus, ''The Crow'' uniquely has severe Sequelitis in two media.
* ''{{Jaws}}'' 2, 3, 4, ad nauseam. Ken Begg's series of reviews chronicles the slide in quality from ''[[http://www.jabootu.com/jaws.htm Jaws]]'' to ''[[http://www.jabootu.com/jaws2.htm Jaws 2]]'' to ''[[http://www.jabootu.com/jaws3-D.htm Jaws 3-D]]'' to the SoBadItsHorrible ''[[http://www.jabootu.com/jaws4.htm Jaws: The Revenge]]''.
* ''TheNeverendingStory'', of course. Granted, there are people who think that it shoudn't have been adapted to screen at all, but here goes: the first movie, loosely based on the first half of the book of the same name, is a very nice fantasy film; the second movie, ''very, very loosely'' based on the second half of the book, is not ''as'' good as the first one, but still watchable, at least compared to the third movie, which is... [[SoBadItsHorrible just plain bad]].
** Then again, it is rather foolish to assume something called ''TheNeverEndingStory'' wouldn't have at least a few sequels or follow-ups.
* The first ''WeekendAtBernies'' is a amusing little comedy, with Terry Kiser [[EnsembleDarkhorse stealing the show]] as the titular dead guy. Then they went and made a sequel. The female character one of the heroes spent the entire first movie obsessing over/wooing vanishes without even the most cursory attempt at [[HandWave Handwaving]], and it was all downhill from there.
* Opinions are divided over whether ''The Lost World: JurassicPark'' or ''Jurassic Park 3'' is worse, although the latter usually wins out in such arguments. Neither of them holds a candle to the original, despite several actors [[MoneyDearBoy inexplicably]] agreeing to reprise their roles.
** Although the big divider here is that ''The Lost World'' was actually based upon a sequel book that Michael Crichton had written for the first Jurassic Park novel. So it makes sense for there to be at least two movies. There was no book to base a third movie on (although a few novel scenes are adapted for the third installment).
* ''{{Airplane}} II: The Sequel'', which ''wasn't'' produced by James Abrahams and the Zucker brothers who did the brilliant ''{{Airplane}}!''. Most of its jokes and plot were re-hashed from the original movie, Leslie Nielsen didn't return, and it did so badly at the box office that the planned 2nd sequel was canceled. The best parts were the courtroom scene and the [[AdamWesting self-parodying performance]] by WilliamShatner.
* The first ''[[TheMatrix Matrix]]'' was generally well-received, and the second and third were seen as as overly long and [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome pretentious]].
* Movies based on video games aren't exempt from this rule, either, even though very few of them get sequels in the first place (and [[VideoGameMoviesSuck usually deservedly so]]). Just ask anyone who paid to watch ''MortalKombat: Annihilation'' or ''TombRaider: The Cradle Of Life''.
* While [[OrSoIHeard not having actually watched]] the sequels to ''TheSantaClause'', I can safely say that it was in effect for those movies, turning most of the reindeer into goofy comic relief types that make strange noises, a far cry from their portrayal from the first movie.
** Indeed. The main draw of the first was the {{parental bonus}} provided by Tim Allen, leading to the eventual [[SwissMoment swiss moments]] that kids would have when they got older. By the second film this was almost completely non-existant.
* ''Film/{{Alien}}'' and ''Aliens'' avoided sequelitis by going in a completely different direction in the second movie, while retaining everything canon. The later sequels, unfortunately, followed this trope perfectly.
* ''[[{{Ghostbusters}} Ghostbusters 2]]'' fell victim to this, as the plot reads like [[RecycledScript a Mad Lib rewrite of the first movie]]: An ancient (god/warlock) is resurrected in modern New York, possesses Dana Barret's nebbish (neighbor/teacher), and needs (her/her baby) as part of its plot to destroy New York. She gradually falls for Peter's quirky charm, while the rest of the Ghostbusters try to convince the skeptical mayor and a sleazy (EPA agent/mayoral aide) that the world's in danger, until the big finale has the heroes facing off with the (god/warlock) in a gothic (skyscraper/library) now overrun by evil, while a giant walking mascot (terrorizes/saves) the city by stepping on things. It's all made even more implausible given how easily all the world-changing events of the first movie seem to have been [[WeirdnessCensor swept under the rug]], and, after throwing in a good measure of CharacterDerailment for some of the supporting cast, the end result was so lackluster, both critically and financially, that the director and other three stars were completely turned off from Dan Ackroyd's plans for a third movie.
** Recently, Atari released a ''Ghostbusters ''video game that reunited the cast and acts as the third story. So far it's been well received. It expands on things from the first movie, provides closure on the Librarian ghost and explains where the mood slime from GB2 came from.
* The ''{{Rocky}}'' series had one of the slowest-acting cases of Sequelitis ever. The series started out gritty and realistic, but gradually became more cartoonish, to where, while the first movie won an Oscar for best picture, the fifth is generally regarded as SoBadItsHorrible. Because of the drawn-out decline, it's hard for anybody to point out a single JumpTheShark moment for the series. After a 16-year gap, a sixth entry was made, and successfully took the series back to its roots, as well as providing closure to Rocky's career.
** A dorsal fin was cleared at the start of Rocky V, unquestionably. '''I''', as stated, best picture. '''II''' pays off [[spoiler: the draw at the end of the first film]] when [[spoiler: Rocky beats Apollo]]. '''III''' was defined by Mr. T's [[LargeHam show-stealing performance]]. '''IV''' featured [[spoiler: Apollo's death]] and a knock down/drag out Cold War metaphor that is possibly the only good role of Dolph Lundgren's career. But '''V''' reduces titular hero to a second banana, features a wooden Tommy Morrison, a very poorly disguised Don King CaptainErsatz and ends [[spoiler: with a street fight, and Rocky still out on his ass]].
* The ''{{Austin Powers}}'' series, once it became insanely popular (i.e. by the first sequel), started becoming a caricature of the first movie, with its taking RefugeInVulgarity and especially their tendency to take gags that were most memorable from the previous movie and [[TheSameButMore exaggerating them]] in the next. It's often said that if you see the first, you've seen the others already.
* Lampshaded twice in ''{{Die Hard}} 2: Die Harder'': ''"Another basement, another elevator--how can the same shit happen to the same guy twice?"'' The series averts this trope, because even though Bruce Willis stated that "the only really good movie was the first", all the ''Die Hard'' installments received some praise.
* ''{{Friday}}'' was a great comedy with good performances from Ice Cube as Craig and Chris Tucker as Smokey, the latter of whom is widely thought to be the funniest part of the film. A sequel, Next Friday, was released in 2000 and is generally considered inferior - mainly due to the lack of Smokey (Tucker had chosen to do the Rush Hour instead and had become a born-again Christian after making Money Talks), who was replaced by Mike Epps as Day-Day - but the movie still has its defenders. 2002's Friday After Next, however, has been almost universally panned.
*The first ReturnOfTheLivingDead is an almost perfect mix of black comedy and horror and is also a {{deconstruction}} and/or AffectionateParody of the Romero's "Dead" series. It's a CultClassic.
**The second uses a lot more comedy than the first making which makes it less scary.
**The third disregards continuity from the first two and makes it DarkerAndEdgier. More scary but without the charm.
**The 4th and 5th aren't well regarded, making the zombie franchise into a FranchiseZombie.
* The {{Godzilla}} films often fall under this considering there are [[LongRunner 27 sequels]] to the original Japanese film and one remake. The first film is regarded as a classic and a few sequels are beloved by the fans. However, many films (Especially the ones made in the 1960s-1970s) are considered to be SoBadItsGood or, at the very least GuiltyPleasures. They're not great, but they're certainly not terrible either...except for [[SoBadItsHorrible Godzilla's Revenge and Godzilla VS Megalon]]. As for the American remake? [[DisContinuity It's best NOT to mention the remake]].
* Three trivia questions. '''1.''' How many sequels to JimCarrey movies has Jim Carrey appeared in? (Answer: 1 - ''AceVentura: When Nature Calls''.) '''2.''' How many sequels to Jim Carrey movies has he ''not'' appeared in? (Answer: 4 - ''SonOfTheMask'', ''Dumb And Dumberer'', ''Evan Almighty'' and ''Ace Ventura Jr.''.) '''3.''' How many movies in the answer to the last question were ''any good''?
** Jim Carrey so throughly detested working on ''When Nature Calls'' that he declared that he would never do a sequel ever again. (As for ''Batman Forever'', that predated the ''Ace Ventura'' sequel and didn't follow on from one of his films.)
* Some say ''TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' had a sequel called ''Shock Treatment'', but surely that's just an UrbanLegend.
** This is a DisContinuity TakeThat, right?
*** Sadly, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_Treatment yes]].
* Both averted and straight in ''The Karate Kid''. ''Part II'' was different enough from the first movie to avoid falling into this trope, but ''Part III'' fell here ''hard''. And don't get us started on ''The Next Karate Kid''.
* ''StarWars''. The holiday special sucked. ''Empire'' was good. ''Jedi'' wasn't quite as good as ''Empire''. The Ewok movies sucked. But then came ''pre''quelitis. But that's nothing compared to the ''The Clone Wars'' movie.
* Nicely averted by the ''EvilDead'' movies, which stayed great. There's an arguable case that they even got better as they went.
* ''TheFly 2''. No Goldblum. No Davis. No [[DavidCronenberg Cronenberg]]. No point.
** There's also a ''{{Scanners}} 2'' and ''3''. And then there's some type of bizarre spinoff called "''Scanner Cop''", which probably has something to do with the success ''RoboCop''.
* Just ask ''{{Highlander}}'' fans about the sequels, and you'll be told, [[DisContinuity "There can be only one."]]
* The ''PinkPanther'' movies escalated the slapstick comedy, wacky disguises, and whatnot quite a bit in the 1970s entries, even bringing in science fiction elements in ''The Pink Panther Strikes Again''. There were also new female leads in each entry, whether they became Inspector Clouseau's love interest or not. The series also hit FranchiseZombie status with ''Revenge of...'', which United Artists commissioned for summer 1978. Still, they were all hits -- the franchise jumped the rails in TheEighties when director-writer-producer Blake Edwards attempted to continue the series in spite of the death of PeterSellers, who played Clouseau. It turned out that without [[Main/JustHereForGodzilla Sellers]], people weren't interested in more of the same hijinks.
* Averted with {{Robocop}} 2, but played painfully straight with {{Robocop}} 3.
* ''InterviewWithTheVampire'' vs. ''Queen of the Damned". Case closed.
* ''{{Saw}}'' fans debate whether the series has suffered from {{Sequelitis}}, and if so, at what point. This argument is closely tied to the one over Jigsaw's successors.
** We've just gotten ''Saw VI'', I do believe that counts...
* The ''[[{{Ptitle319iyvng}} Ju-On]]''[=/=]''TheGrudge'' film series, which began life as a Takashi Shimizu's V-Cinema TV special but is now up to a second special (which recycled most of the first,) two theatrical Japanese films, two Japanese shorts, an American remake, and two American sequels. Special honors to the first Japanese and American films because they reenacted, almost scene-for-scene in some cases, the exact same plot as the original V-Cinema special.
* Similarly, the ''TheRing'' franchise has suffered from this. While each of the three "original" films has been well-received (Japanese, American, and Korean, respectively,) their sequels have met with various degrees of scorn and failure. To the point that the very first sequel, a film adaptation of the novel's follow-up ''Spiral'', is [[AdaptationDecay so bad]] it's considered DisContinuity by the Japanese producers, who went on to make ''The Ring 2'' instead.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* PiersAnthony's series of {{Xanth}} novels has reached 30 novels. It JumpedTheShark a long time ago, and currently consists [[RunningTheAsylum almost entirely of puns and plot developments suggested by readers]].
* It's general consensus that any sequel to a classic book written in the modern day is guaranteed to suck. See ''Phantom of Manhattan'', see ''Cosette'', etc. etc.
**Susan Kay's ''Phantom'', however, is genrally considered to be pretty good by the phandom, and is even accepted as (admittedly dubious) canon by some. The sequel to the [[PhantomOfTheOpera Phantom of the Opera musical]], however, is expected to be this.
** Not always, as Stephen Baxter's ''The Time Ships'', a sequel to ''The Time Machine'' is considered quite good.
* ''River God'', by Wilbur Smith, was quite interesting and different to mainstream fiction. The sequel ''Warlock'' went from the engaging and amusing first-person narrative style to third-person, which allowed for us to see scenes from several characters' perspectives, but mostly allowed for gratuitous shoehorning-in of sex scenes to pad out the already inflated-but-largely-empty plot. The most recent installment, ''The Quest'', has almost completely dispensed with any ties to the Ancient Egypt pantheon, instead substituting some vaguely New-Agey mumbo-jumbo universally-recognised quasi-religious belief system. The plot, such as it is, consists of [[spoiler:the couple-hundred-years-old-by-now protagonist Taita finding the prepubescent reincarnation of the woman he loved ever since she was a foetus a few hundred years ago and sporting a figurative boner for her for the first half of the book and a literal one for the second half when an evil cult who make stem-cell jelly out of forcibly-created-and-aborted-just-prior-to-term foetuses grow his wedding tackle back for him. He then spends far too many pages learning to control his newly-grown sex equipment so that he can have a sexual psychic showdown with the FemmeFatale antagonist, in which they stay locked in the missionary position for hours until Taita finally manages to suck her life force and magical power out through her vagina with his penis. He then bathes in the Fountain of Youth and gets his thirty-or-so body back, transforming him into the biggest Marty Stu in all of literature, and meaning that when he finally ''does'' bone the now-teenage girl he's been lusting after for the past few hundred years, the readers don't have to picture an ancient man made up almost entirely of a beard banging one of the Olsen twins at the beginning of their career. In the end, she manages to bathe in the Fountain of Youth as well, meaning that they can travel the world together and be the biggest Sue-couple ever written for ever and ever and ever.]] Any of it.
* James P. Hogan's ''Giants'' series. It's not as if the sequels are bad - it's just that they tend to detract from the previous books. The first book, ''Inherit the Stars'' is the story of a bunch of scientists trying to wrap their brains around a massive enigma. The second one, ''The Gentle Giants of Ganymede'' brings in aliens, but is fairly similar. The third one, ''Giants' Star'' alters the style by bringing in conflict.
** The third also adds the idea that [[spoiler:the reason people are evil is because evil time-travellers have made them that way]]. The fourth expands this to [[spoiler:the evil time-travellers were actually taken over by aliens who lived inside a computer]].
* The sequel novels to TheBourneSeries, which contain, in the first addition, [[spoiler:[[DroppedABridgeOnHim Dropped A Bridge On]] two of the most important characters in the first twenty pages, a character who is canonically supposed to be dead suffering from ParentalAbandonment, ComicBookTime, and much, much, much, much CanonDefilement.]] The second addition is no less [[TVTropesDrinkingGame egregious]], including [[spoiler:[[DroppedABridgeOnHim Dropping A Bridge On Marie In Between Books]], having Bourne abandon all common sense, ridiculously atrocious pseudoscience, almost downright offensive portrayals of Washington, DC, and Bourne suddenly becoming an expert on everything, including knowing every language from Arabic to an obscure Ethiopian dialect, when in canon he's just supposed to be a professor of Oriental Studies. Seriously. Also, he carries around a Playstation 3 for no other reason than [[RuleOfCool it looks cool]].]]
* AnitaBlake books by Laurell K. Hamilton, anyone? Started as quite cool detective store it degraded from book five onward.
* [[UrsulaKLeGuin Ursula K. Le Guin]] completed the original EarthseaTrilogy in 1974. Sixteen years later, she wrote a fourth book ''Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea'', which suffers from MoodWhiplash, WriterOnBoard and a lack of plot. And it wasn't even the last book.
* 55 years after publication of ''GoneWithTheWind'', ''Scarlett'', an "authorized" sequel appeared. Critics were not impressed.
** Another sequel,''Rhett Butler's People'' also appeared. The critics panned that one too.
* Terry Goodkind's ''the SwordOfTruth series'' started putting more and more focus on [[MagiBabble magical history]], [[AuthorTract objectivist philosophy]] and the main character's role as a leader after the second book. YourMileageMayVary on the results, but the common opinion on this site is that it JumpedTheShark, with each book getting worse and worse. Goodkind gave the last three books a rather good attempt to emulate the first two's plot and style, at least.

* Robert Aspirin's ''Phule's Company'' series; the first two books are decent, the rest can go rot. But this is partly the fault of RealLifeWritesThePlot issues.
** His "Myth Adventure" series, while maintaining a high standard for quite a while, has also recently begun to sag for pretty much the same reason.
** Arguably, this developed for the Myth series in part due to LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters.
* The ''Rocheworld'' series by Robert Forward likewise has a great first book, a moderately good second, and utter crap dragging along behind.
* The ''{{Ringworld}}'' series by LarryNiven has succumbed to this as Niven has caught RetCon Fever and begun tearing down the conventions of his own universe.
* Most people have the latter half of StephenKing's ''Dark Tower'' series falling into this trope. It became especially evident when he had elements of ''DT'' leak into his non-''DT'' novels (especially ''Hearts in Atlantis'' and ''Insomnia''.)
* Andrzej Sapkowski named it as one of major SF&F plagues in his ''No Gold in the Grey Mountains'' article... and didn't forgot to add HypocrisyNod.
--> I myself, while considering myself an attentive inspector of the news of fantastics, sometimes don't buy the freshly released sixth book of [[TheEpic a saga]] because my attention somehow failed to register previous five. But much, much more frequently I decline to buy tome one if its cover grins with a warning: 'First Book Of the Magic Shit Cycle'.
* Orson Scott Card with his Ender and Shadow saga (the first of each series being parallel, and the rest a split following different characters). While the sequel to ''[[EndersGame Ender's Game]]'', ''Speaker for the Dead'', is widely considered to be just as good if not even better than the first, the final two in that saga are overly pretentious and bloated philosophical works that could have easily been cut into one shorter volume. They also leave on a horrible cliffhanger that rivals that of ''[[{{Dune}} Chapterhouse: Dune]]'' which Card has had 13 years to end, but instead written a midquel between the first and second books as well as a short story collection. The Shadow series fairs even worse, with the first book being equal to or better than the parallel ''Ender's Game'' (YourMileageMayVary) but taking a steep decline starting with the second. While not as bloated in narrative as the Ender saga's latter books, the Shadow series instead destroys most of the mystery behind Peter's unification of earth by making him into nothing but an annoying schoolchild, and literally doing absolutely nothing. A fourth sequel is planned, thus putting the entire series at 11 books.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]
* ''DeadRingers'' had a sketch in which different versions of Arnold Schwarzenegger came back from the future to warn him not to sign up for any more lousy ''Terminator'' sequels, [[spoiler: eventually reaching [[OverlyLongGag Terminator 23]] before Sarah Connor shot the present Arnie to save the future. To her dismay, another Arnie came back and revealed she is now his co-star in ''Kindergarten Cop 14''!]] [[BigNo Nnnnnoooooooo!]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* The musical ''Of Thee I Sing'', a cheerful satire on the American political system, opened on Broadway late in 1931 to immense popular and critical acclaim, which not only made it one of the longest-running shows of the decade but won a Pulitzer Prize for its writers; it was the first ever musical play to win the award. Almost two years later, a sequel, ''Let 'Em Eat Cake'', appeared from the same authors, with the same principal actors and even the same producer. It was not a commercial success; many of its jokes were recycled from the earlier show, and a bewildering series of plot complications (involving, among other things, a baseball-playing League of Nations) stretched WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief too far.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theme Parks]]
* Many rides in Disney Theme Parks fall prey to this. Perhaps the most puissant example of this trope in a Disney ride is the "Imagination" rides featured at the EPCOT theme park in Disney World. The original ride, Journey Into Imagination, was a much beloved and very creative ride centering around the world of a child's imagination and stared the Dreamfinder, a red-bearded eccentric who collected dreams and creative thoughts, and his pet purple dragon Figment. {{ExecutiveMeddling}} involving a potential change in sponsors caused the ride to close in 1998 for a complete overhaul. It was reopened in 1999 as "Journey Into Your Imagination," a completely redone ride featuring none of the charm posessed by the original and with both Figment and the Dreamfinder MIA. The new ride set a record for the most complaints received over a new attraction at a Disney Park. The revamp was received so badly, it was closed a mere 2 years later in 2001. In 2002 the ride received its most recent update, "Journey Into Imagination With Figment." Though it is a notable improvement over the second version of the ride, most long time Disney parkgoers tend to agree that the ride's first incarnation was by far its best.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Opinion differs on whether ''Master of Orion'' or ''Master of Orion II'' is the better game, but almost no-one thinks ''Master of Orion III'' is anything but unmitigated crap.
* ''[[XCom X-Com: UFO Defense]]'' (or ''UFO: Enemy Unknown'', depending on where you live) was a surprise hit, with its great atmosphere, fine management section, and superb tactical section. Microprose decided to ride the wave and, after less than a year, released ''X-Com: Terror From The Deep'': under a shiny package of better graphics and sound, the game was exactly the same, only taking place underwater, with difficulty re-balanced for the worse, and bugs that could block the tech tree, making the game unwinnable. ''X-Com: Apocalypse'' was from the original developers but, sadly, it completely lacked atmosphere and, while trying to be more complex, it became cumbersome. ''X-Com: Interceptor'' (a mediocre WingCommander clone) and ''X-Com: Enforcer'' (a shallow ThirdPersonShooter) followed and were quickly and deservedly forgotten, while more interesting projects were cancelled thanks to [[ExecutiveMeddling the mismanagements of Microprose and Hasbro Interactive]]. No wonder the franchise is dead.
* ''BaldursGate'', a great game, was followed up by ''Shadows Of Amn'', which was ''amazing''. Then came ''Throne Of Bhaal'', which could best be described as...rushed.
** Thankfully, the Ascension modification, created by one of the original designers of ''Throne of Bhaal'', adds, changes, or corrects most of the rushed aspects and makes the expansion pack much more fun.
* Nearly any ''{{Lemmings}}'' game after ''Lemmings 2: The Tribes''.
* ''TombRaider 2'' was generally considered almost equal or superior to the original on release, 3 and 4 both involve heavy amounts of YourMileageMayVary as to where you place them. By 5 the series had firmly fell into this trope and Angel of Darkness was the last straw before the series began recovering by being moved to another developer.
* ''MarioParty'' has pretty much fell into this and CapcomSequelStagnation, going nearly completely off track from the source material and decaying in quality by the game in general (up to a total of 12 games in just a few years so far).
** 90% of this suck is from the computer [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard blatantly cheating]] in anything even mildly luck based, even ''dice rolls'' from 6 onwards.
* ''EarthwormJim'' was a weird and well-received game. The second game was even better in nearly every aspect. Then the series met the PolygonCeiling courtesy of a different developer, and anything resembling quality went out the window. Then Shiny Entertainment themselves [[FallenCreator threw their own quality off their windows]] some time after dumping Jim.
* ''MegaMan'' has been all over the place with this. At some point a given series starts sucking hard and a spinoff is made. It starts off great, then slowly slides into crap until a spinoff is made and the [[CapcomSequelStagnation cycle begins anew.]]
** ''Mega Man 7'' was released after the series' [[MegaManX first spinoff]], and it and its following installments are considered massive improvements. Fans still consider Mega Man 2 and 3 to be the pinnacle of the series, however. Also, [[YourMileageMayVary Your Mileage May Vary]] when it comes to ''Mega Man & Bass''.
** ''Mega Man X8'' was also surprisingly good despite the enormous amounts of {{Fake Difficulty}}. Apparently Capcom sequels go in cycles.
*** I submit the awesomeness that is ''Megaman 9'' in support of that theory.
** ''MegaManBattleNetwork'' actually really improved for the last installment, although the two proceeding ones were pretty mediocre.
*''PerfectDark'' is considered one of the best Nintendo 64 games. Prequelitis ensued with ''Perfect Dark Zero'', you can essentially call it a InNameOnly prequel. The continuity of of the first game is only glanced upon, Joanna is a spunky [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main.Stripperiffic oddly clad]] girl with red hair and a penchant for [[BondOneLiner one liners]]. The Carrington Institute makes an appearance.....with Carrington himself having become 200% more Scottish complete with a kilt. The aliens are non-existent only hinted, the main antagonist being a company connected to dataDyne being run by a small stereotypical Chinese man. The gameplay? The game was developed by a different team, that speaks for itself. Go watch [[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/134677 Perfect Kirby]] for some real fun and without having to pay anything.
* ''DestroyAllHumans!'' The less said about the incoming ''Way of the Furon'', the better.
** It's ''Path of the Furon'', and it was certainly better that that atrocious [[GaidenGame Wii Spin Off]] called ''[[DoubleEntendre Big Willy Unleashed]]''. Thanks to it DAH! is RuinedFOREVER.
* ''StarControl'' was a fun turn-based strategy game. [[SurprisinglyImprovedSequel Star Control 2]] was an epic action-adventure. Star Control 3, made by none of the people involved with the first two, is a game most fans [[DisContinuity try to forget about]].
* Some fans of the ''NeedForSpeed'' series argue the series got really bad after the third or so installment, especially when it started drifting into GTA territory.
** Nobody liked ''Undercover'', to the point where EA seems determined to overhaul the franchise.
*** ...by having every game in the series from then on being about underground street racing with storylines (as opposed to the previous games, which were focused entirely on the racing).
* There's a lot of flame wars out there about whether this applies to ''FinalFantasy''. Seeing as the ''FinalFantasy'' title is pretty much just a way of adverting that it's a JRPG that SquareEnix put a lot of money into, this is somewhat nonsensical.
** The few actual sequels have had mixed results. Some of them, like ''CrisisCore'', have been considered worthy follow-ups. Some of them, like ''AdventChildren'', ''Dirge of Cerberus'', and ''FinalFantasyX2'', start flame wars.
** The real downside is that Square is now making games which effectively require sequels (I'm looking at you [[FinalFantasyXII FFXII]]) instead of making self contained stories.
* Arika's ''Tetris: The Grand Master'' series got better with each new release for its first three installments. Then came the very un-TGM-like title ''{{Tetris}}: The Grand Master ACE'', the tragic byproduct of The Tetris Company's and {{Microsoft}}'s ExecutiveMeddling. Most of the trademark TGM gameplay mechanics have been stripped (including Master mode, and by extension the unique TGM-style leveling up and grade system), you get a variation of [[GameBreaker infinite spin]] (limit of 128 rotations and 128 movements) as opposed to TGM's "step reset" lock delay, and you need an Xbox Live Gold membership to unlock proper TGM rotation. Good ''Tetris'', but bad TGM.
* The ''ArmyMen'' franchise was initially insanely popular. Then somewhere the lack-luster spin-offs and InNameOnly sequels slowly choked off sales until the company finally went bankrupt in 2003. Even with the parent company dead, other companies are ''still'' trying to make cash off of the brand, the latest entries getting some of the worst reviews in shooting games.
* ''{{Manhunt}}'' was a well-received game for its creepy tension, innovative use of sound, complex enemy AI, and [[{{Gorn}} wide variety of kill moves]]. ''Manhunt 2'' was a step back from that, with less intelligent enemies, less menace and tension, and a [[MindScrew confusing story]]. At least the {{Gorn}} is still good.
* The original ''{{Double Dragon}}'' was a fairly innovative beat-em-up that introduced some of the conventions used in later games of the genre like two-player co-op and obtainable weapons, while the arcade version of ''Double Dragon II'' was mostly a MissionPackSequel with a fairly improved NES version. ''Double Dragon 3'' on the other hand, featured crappier "realistic" graphics, replaced half of the original game's moves and weapons with ineffectual new ones, and added a gimmicky shopping system where you can purchase power-ups for your character (including a replacement character) [[{{Bribing Your Way To Victory}} by inserting more tokens to the machine]]. There were a few more ''Double Dragon'' games after the third one, but the series never achieved the same level of popularity it once had with the first two games.
* ''{{Shift}} 4'' lampshades this in the ending, aware that it is now a quadrilogy. ''"Who is the game that risks its rep on Sequel Shame? Shift!"''
* ''BackyardSports'' is the MostTriumphantExample of this trope; within a few years, it went from a clever game series with lots of [[AffectionateParody jokes both kids and sports fans can get]] to one of the worst ever.
* {{Homeworld}} averted this, barely, with 'standalone expansion' ''Cataclysm'', despite it being a literal MissionPackSequel. It caught some flak for the dramatic shift in narrative tone and the new tech and ship designs were a bit hit-or-miss, but it did some pretty cool stuff with the existing graphics engine and generally came across like the development team at sub-contractee Barking Dog had at least ''played'' the original. ''Homeworld 2'' was a bit less fortunate, however; a lot of the original creative team had moved on in the interim, and Relic massively over-extended themselves trying to create game environments with 'megastructures' straight out of the best kind of {{SpaceOpera}} and generally go BeyondTheImpossible, and much of the more CrazyAwesome stuff failed to make the final cut. The end result was by no means ''bad'' -the graphics stand up quite well six years later and it's a ''lot'' more [[GameMod mod-friendly]] than the previous two- but the finished product had several minor but annoying bugs and balance issues and generally felt rushed. The gulf between Relic's original vision and what we actually got didn't help.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* [[DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney]] + [=~Direct-to-Video~=] Sequels = WhatWereYouThinking?
** This includes a sequel midquel to the classic 1942 film ''{{Bambi}}''. That's right, '''a direct-to-video sequel to Bambi''' that came out '''''more than six decades''''' after the original was released. Disney recently realized that having lots of horrible, cash-in sequels was a really terrible idea, and locked them in the vault forever. This is perhaps the only good thing that came from that vault...
** One of the conditions {{Pixar}} put when they joined with Disney was that they wouldn't be [[ExecutiveMeddling required]] to make sequels. In fact, because one of the parts of the merger was putting Pixar's people in charge of Disney's animation studio, one of the first things they did was transfer production of ''ToyStory 3'', which had been started by Disney themselves when it looked like the studios were about to part ways, over to Pixar.
** You know what happens when you let a ten year old fan girl watch ''{{Pocahontas}} 2''? Tantrums. Boycotting. Door slamming. Increased phone bills. ''Pink hatemail''.
** ''[[TheEmperorsNewGroove The Emperor's New Groove]]'' managed to really break the mold in terms of Disney animated movies, but its sequel was rather generic, playing out more like three episodes of a TV show strung together than an actual movie.
* ''TheLandBeforeTime'' was a great movie. Some of the sequels weren't bad if you could get past the part that they were musicals while the original wasn't. Among fans (keep that in mind) there's usually a downhill slide in quality starting from the second to the sixth (a dinosaur movie which, I shit thee not, contains a WESTERN-THEMED NUMBER), then a slow increase in quality leading to the tenth, which is generally thought of as the pinnacle of the sequel movies (although still certainly a long way down from the original) And then came second, more rapid downhill tumble, leading to the 13th(!!!) and final movie, as well as the RecycledTheSeries, before the offices at Universal responsible for the series were finally closed.
**And an animated TV series.
**You know sequelitis has set in when they stop mentioning the number it is. They even went as far as to retroactively remove the numbering from the older movies, too.
*** All of Don Bluth's classic films got hit with Sequelitis: in addition to the above-mentioned ''Land Before Time'', there were also sequels for ''AnAmericanTail'', ''AllDogsGoToHeaven'' (which also got a [=TV=] series), and ''TheSecretOfNIMH''. In all of those cases, Bluth was not involved with any of the sequels; the only sequel he was ever actually involved with making was the ''{{Anastasia}}'' direct-to-DVD sequel ''BartokTheMagnificent'', which became a classic that we've all heard of. Oh, wait...
* ''TheSimpsons'' comic book storyline "When Bongos Collide!", in which everyone in Springfield [[HowToGiveACharacterSuperpowers gets superpowers]] as a [[ILoveNuclearPower result of a nuclear explosion]], parodies this trope with Troy [=McClure's=] alter-ego, The Sequelizer. As he describes it, his power is that he "can create an infinite number of copies of [himself] -- although each is only 50% as powerful as the one before."
* Like in DonBluth's franchises mentioned above, {{Balto}} had a case of Sequelitis. The first sequel was just undeniably horrible, with the second [[YourMilageMayVary arguably]] being a lot better (but still way down the original, obviously). The sequels caused so many plot holes that many fans asked for the release of one that fixes everything so that the franchise can rest in peace, but given Universal Picture's irrational hatred of the movie they opted for making more TheLandBeforeTime sequels until their traditional animation studios were closed for good
[[/folder]]

----
<<|FilmTropes|>>
<<|SubjectiveTropes|>>