From Reed’s perspective, the problem was twofold. The first issue was that National Treasure never really felt like a franchise. “What I felt happened is even though the movies were extremely successful and had a really strong fanbase, it’s a movie that gets brought up all the time, the company was never able to capitalize on it as a franchise. It was more of a movie with a sequel and National Treasure 3 would have been another sequel." Essentially, it seems that the IP never had the blockbuster ambitions of something like Pirates of the Caribbean or Star Wars, and Disney wasn’t interested.
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The other issue is more surprising. Reed continues: “They never figured out a way to intergrade it into the parks. It never caught on, even though there were a lot of consumer products, it never caught on as an independent franchise. That makes the numbers look different. It makes it harder to make a company like Disney focus resources on something when they can go make Toy Story or buy a cruise ship." It is worth noting that majority of Disney’s profit comes not from films, but theme parks and merchandise. So even though people love the movies, Disney’s inability to spin out related merchandise and experiences make National Treasure a less enticing venture for them.
However, this is all no reason to despair. In fact, Reed insists that the time is ripe for a third film, supposedly already in the works. “But I know Jerry [Bruckheimer] keeps working on stuff and I know there’s a lot of interest in a series and another feature and I think it’s ripe to reinvent.” So perhaps fans won’t be deprived of a new National Treasure forever, as long as Reed has something to say about it.
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Source: Collider
