X marks the spot where a season of sequels kicks off with X-Men 2 on Thursday, as Hollywood puts its money on more of the same thing. Steve Pratt reports.

Writer Alan Bennett tells how producers felt the need to change the title when his hit play The Madness Of George III was made into a film. American cinemagoers would be puzzled by the numerals, they argued. Audiences used to sequels would wonder why they hadn't seen the previous two parts.

So the film became The Madness Of King George, a victim of Hollywood's preoccupation with the numbers game.

Now comes X-Men 2. In the space of three days this week, X-Men 2 will open in 93 countries, making it the biggest and most rapid worldwide theatrical window ever seen. Makers Twentieth Century Fox are determined that the comic book-inspired picture will be the first big event movie of 2003.

More significantly, X marks the spot where another summer of sequels kicks off. Last year brought Austin Powers 3, Star Wars Episode 2 and Men In Black II, followed by the second instalments of Harry Potter and The Lord Of The Rings at the year's end.

The only non-sequel or prequel in the worldwide top five highest grossing movies of last year was Spider-Man - and the sequel to that is currently being filmed with Tobey Maguire back as the webbed wonder.

Hollywood is putting its money on cinemagoers wanting even more of the same old thing, in the belief that second, third, or even fourth time around can be as profitable, financially if not artistically, as the first.

Cinema listings are beginning to resemble football results more and more - Charlie's Angels 2, Tomb Raider 2; Terminator 3, Bad Boys 2. Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolution may lack numbers, but remain Matrix 2 and Matrix 3 in all but name. The makers of 2 Fast 2 Furious is just a fancy way of saying The Fast And The Furious 2. All these are due on cinema screens in coming months.

As for Dumb And Dumber 2, that must sum up what producers think of audiences as they foist them off with endless episodes of hit films.

Sequels and series are nothing new, except today they're more likely to be called franchises - branded goods with a name on the label that people recognise. For producers and studios, why pump millions of dollars into developing new stories and characters when tried and tested ones can be recycled?

Admittedly, the nature of sequels has changed. All too often in the past they were an excuse for a quick, cheap carbon copy of the original. The phrase "making a quick buck" covers sequels rushed into production to capitalise on the success of a film.

The difficulties of a repeat performance were admitted by producer Joel Silver, who recalled that when he made Die Hard 2, star Bruce Willis asked him, "how can the same thing happen to the same guy twice?".

This isn't something to which makers of sequels give much thought. A follow-up was generally assumed to be inferior to its role model. The important thing was that familiarity meant a sequel was virtually guaranteed to pull in 60 per cent of the original's take, whatever its artistic merit. With careful budgeting, a profit was a sure thing. All that changed when The Godfather Part II was released, winning a best picture Oscar just like the original Godfather.

More adventurous film-makers pay the price for this emphasis on playing it again. Director Spike Lee, whose new film 25th Hour has just opened in British cinemas, says: "The most discouraging thing about Hollywood is that if you're trying to say something unique in a different voice, it's become much harder."

A major factor is the vast amounts of money to be made from merchandising associated with a series, like Batman or Superman. Serious attempts are being made to revive both those franchises, with talk that they might face each other on screen in two-pronged attack on the box office.

Nowadays, sequels are often in the works before the first film is released. Last summer's Spider-Man would have had to be a spectacular flop - it wasn't - for plans for a second movie to be abandoned. Some thought X-Men seemed like an expensive, extended trailer for the further adventure. Director Bryan Singer admits that the original "left open avenues and set up ideas that were intended for expansion."

Once makers are on a roll, two more films may be made back-to-back, as with the forthcoming Matrix movies. The Matrix Reloaded opens next month, followed by The Matrix Revolution in November. Again the distributors, Warner Bros, aim for maximum impact by creating a whole Matrix world around the movie including video games, animated shorts, comics, books and a website. Next year screens will be filled with yet more sequels. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban is due around Easter, followed by the second Spider-Man adventure in May. Mel Gibson is being paid $25m for a fourth Mad Max adventure. The success of crime caper Ocean's 11 is leading to Ocean's 12, and Shrek 2 is in production.

Harrison Ford will show it's never too late to make another sequel. As his pension day draws ever closer, he'll pick up his battered hat and whip as archaeologist adventurer Indiana Jones for director Steven Spielberg.

Even if Superman and Batman don't come together, the rumoured pairing of monsters from Alien and Predator may finally happen. We can also look forward to the teaming of cult horror figures as Freddy, of Elm Street fame, sinks his claws into Jason, the masked murderer from the Friday the 13th stories.

Elm Street creator Wes Craven has mixed feelings about the project, which he's not writing or directing. "If they've come into it with some brilliant surge of imagination, then it could be fun," he says. "But it could also just be people trying to wring one more dollar out of this, and it could be the stupidest thing in the world."

It's a comment that could justifiably be applied to almost any sequel.

* X-Men2 (12A) opens in cinemas on Thursday.

TEN SEQUELS COMING IN 2003

X-MEN 2. Marvel comic strip superheroes save the day, again.

CHARLIE'S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE. Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu tackle Angel-gone-bad Demi Moore.

TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised "I'll be back" - and he is.

2 FAST 2 FURIOUS. Paul Walker is back behind the wheel.

LARA CROFT AND THE CRADLE OF LIFE: TOMB RAIDER 2. Angelina Jolie searches for another artefact.

THE MATRIX RELOADED. Keanu Reeves tries to stop the destruction of a hidden city. Followed by...

THE MATRIX REVOLUTION. Everyone bundles back into the Matrix to solve its puzzles.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING. Tolkien's story reaches its conclusion.

LEGALLY BLONDE: RED, WHITE AND BLONDE. Reece Witherspoon goes to the White House.

TEN SEQUELS YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE

THELMA AND LOUISE 2. They drove over a cliff at the end of the film.

HEAVEN'S GATE 2. Michael Cimino's western is among the biggest flops of all time.

ON THE BUSES 4. Two sequels to the top British film of 1971 are quite enough.

BONNIE AND CLYDE 2. Unless they come back from the dead.

DIRTY HARRY 6. Clint should have hung up his badge years ago.

ROCKY 6. Ditto Sylvester Stallone and his boxing gloves.

RAMBO 4. In which the gun-toting American hero - Stallone again - liberates Iraq single-handedly.

CASABLANCA 2: Computer-generated figures of Bogart and Bergman play it again, Sam.

SWEPT AWAY 2. The Mr and Mrs movie from Guy Ritchie and Madonna.

AMERICAN PIE 3. In which the randy teenagers finally get married.