It has been revealed that Pineapple Express 2 was never made because it would've cost more money than Sony was willing to spend on the sequel. Pineapple Express hit theaters in the summer of 2008, where the action-comedy followed box office juggernauts, Iron Man, and The Dark Knight. Despite being met with a lukewarm reaction from critics, the film went on to be a hit with mainstream audiences, scoring a fresh 73 percent audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes and grossing $101 million worldwide against a budget of just $27 million. In fact, the film is even considered to be one of James Franco's best films.
Pineapple Express follows a process server named Dale Denton (Seth Rogen). After inadvertently witnessing a murder, Dale must go on the run with his marijuana dealer, Saul Silver (James Franco), and evade hitmen and a corrupt police officer who intend to kill them. The film was directed by David Gordon Green, who recently directed the highly successful Halloween sequel, and also starred Gary Cole, Danny McBride, Kevin Corrigan, Craig Robinson, Rosie Perez, Amber Heard, and Joe Lo Truglio. Despite the fact that the film was financially successful and considered to feature one of Rogen's most iconic roles, a sequel never saw the light of day. Fortunately, the main reason why the sequel never happened has been uncovered.
According to CinemaBlend, Rogen wanted to make a sequel, but Pineapple Express 2 ultimately fell through because it would've cost Sony more money than they were willing to spend. Rogen spoke to this during a previous appearance on The Howard Stern Show where he stated, "I think we probably wanted too much money… Studios, they don't like giving away money. Weird thing." During the Sony hack back in 2014, a thread of e-mails were uncovered between producer Amy Pascal and other executives at the time that discussed Judd Apatow's $50 million pitch for the sequel. It appeared that Sony was standing their ground, only willing to give $45 million. The e-mails detailed the $5 million dispute between the studio and Apatow, with neither party budging, causing the sequel to never see the light of day.
Despite the fact the sequel never came to be, that didn't stop Rogen and company from making a fake trailer for the sequel in 2013. It was also recently revealed by Apatow that Pineapple Express 2 would've dealt with legalized marijuana. Following the success of Pineapple Express, Rogen kept moving full-steam ahead, churning out more comedy hits, such as Sausage Party, This Is The End, and Neighbors, which grossed $270 million at the worldwide box office and spawned a sequel that was also financially successful, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, which proved Rogen and his creative team could make a sequel that was financially viable.
Considering the box office success of the first film and the passionate built-in fanbase, it came as a shock that Sony never gave a sequel the green light. Rogen has proven to be one of the most consistently reliable and successful comedy writers/performers in the years since the comedy's release. In fact, during the time of the Sony hack, Rogen's star was starting to rise considerably, hot off the heels of successful and well-received comedies, such as Knocked Up, Superbad, and This Is The End. Naturally, it seems surprising the studio wouldn't give the film an extra $5 million to make a sequel that could've easily been just as successful as the original, if not more so. Regardless, curious fans can now rest easy in finally knowing why Pineapple Express 2 never made its way to theaters.
Source: CinemaBlend
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