Independence Day: Resurgence Pulls In $4 Million On Opening Night

The sequel to the 1996 epic, Independence Day: Resurgence debuted on Thursday and took in $4 million from 3,200 locations.

Now that number includes the double feature screenings as well, but still, it's a pretty solid number for a film with 20 years in between instalments (via Box Office Mojo). Films that have had similar lengthy gaps between sequels have drawn in numbers close to $50 million, those being Men in Black III and Prometheus, and this film needs a debut like that to justify that $165 million dollar budget.

When ComicBook.com caught up with Director Roland Emmerich earlier this year, we asked him if it would take another 20 years to get a third entry in the series. Of course ,that's with the expectation that Resurgence will be successful.

"I hope I am still making movies in 20 years. I don't know. I'm happy I did it because it's a great celebration of something. Independence Day, in a way, put me on the map in a big way and get me to do a lot of movies. The studio always kept saying, "Do a sequel, do a sequel," and I said, "I don't like sequels. I don't like sequels." Then after 20 years and you get older, you know that you owe it to the studio and you owe it to the actors because the actors were very interested in doing it. I don't know."

When asked what other franchise he would be interesting in giving a sequel, it didn't take long for the Director to come up with an answer.

"I'm always working on it because if I direct it or not is a whole other thing, but I think Stargate should be revisited because it's a whole universe and it's such a great device, to go through a gate and you're in other worlds. There was a TV series and there's a lot of material there. That's something I think should be done."