Mike Judge's 1999 comedy Office Space is a beloved classic for many, yet there's oddly never been any firm talk of an Office Space 2 happening. While "work sucks" is a common refrain, one aspect of modern life it's impossible to escape is having to work for a living, unless one is born rich of course. To be fair, not everyone hates their job and, in fact, some absolutely love it. At the end of the day though, most people work for one main reason above all else, and that's to pay the bills necessary to keep a roof over their head and food in their mouths.
In an age where there tends to be more job seekers than jobs to go around, keeping one's job is of paramount importance, no matter if doing so requires one to put up with demands and treatment they would never tolerate in their personal lives, and no matter if the monotony of doing the same thing day after day becomes soul-crushing. That's the mindset given the spotlight in Office Space, which centers on Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) and his co-workers at the company Initech, which seems to do nothing of much value for the world.
Management at Initech is also both callous and unreliable, making the lives of its employees that much worse. Office Space ultimately charts Peter's rise and Initech's fall, as well as taking a side look at Joanna (Jennifer Aniston), and her similarly awful job at the restaurant Chotchkie's. Office Space is both a hilarious and bitingly satirical look at workplace life, and fans would no doubt love a sequel. Here's why they never got one.
There's a fairly obvious reason why Fox wasn't jumping at the chance to make Office Space 2 soon after its release. Despite positive reviews, Office Space absolutely tanked at the box office, earning only $12.2 million on a budget of $10 million, likely not even enough to break even after marketing costs are considered. It took several years of life on home video and cable for Office Space to finally catch on, and start building the following it has today. At that point, Fox offered Mike Judge the chance to make a sequel, but he turned it down.
Naturally, the topic of an Office Space 2 has continued to come up in the decades since then, but Judge has maintained that he would only do a sequel if he felt a good enough idea was on the table to make the prospect worth it. Since nothing is in the works, one assumes a good idea is still elusive. Another factor is likely that Judge didn't exactly have a great time working with Fox on Office Space to begin with. During production, Judge found himself in repeated battles with the studio over creative decisions. While Fox is now part of the Disney family, it's not hard to understand why Judge has never seemed very keen to work with them on a sequel.
Finally, it's possible Judge feels that making an Office Space 2 would be redundant, as he already made a sort of spiritual sequel in 2009 called Extract, which starred Jason Bateman. Extract tackled similar themes of workplace malaise and career dissatisfaction, but this time flipped the script by making the focus character a boss instead of an employee. In the end though, the lack of an Office Space sequel might be for the best. Peter and company's story came to a satisfying conclusion, and that's probably where it should stay.
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