Sightlines · reception

How Gremlins 2: The New Batch was received

1990 · Joe Dante · Gremlins 2: The New Batch on Sightlines

The arc

In 1990 it underperformed badly at the box office and baffled audiences expecting Gremlins redux; decades later it's been fully reappraised as Joe Dante's anarchic masterpiece — a studio sequel that gleefully sabotages the very idea of studio sequels.

What’s debated

The perennial hot take — 'Gremlins 2 is better than the original' — remains one of film Twitter's most reliably re-litigated sequel debates.

Its footprint

Key & Peele's beloved 'Gremlins 2 Brainstorm' sketch — a writers' room pitching ever-more-unhinged gremlins — canonized the film as shorthand for glorious creative excess, and 'Gremlins 2-pilled' became a badge of honor for fans of sequels that go completely off the rails.

Where it stands

A textbook flop-to-cult-classic case: a Letterboxd darling and cinephile handshake, routinely cited as the gold standard for a sequel that torches the formula instead of repeating it.

Did you know? Joe Dante turned the sequel down for years; Warner Bros. only got him back by offering a far bigger budget and total creative control — which he used to mock the studio, the first film, and sequels in general.

Named by the director

• Chuck Jones — Dante repeatedly cited Jones's anarchic Looney Tunes sensibility as the film's guiding spirit — and gave the animation legend an on-screen cameo.
• Hellzapoppin' (1941) — Dante pointed to this fourth-wall-demolishing Olsen and Johnson comedy as the model for Gremlins 2's anything-goes, self-sabotaging structure.