Retaliation wasn't a flop, it made more than Rise of Cobra. Retaliation was made on a smaller budget as well, even with the added cost of adding in 3D to the movie. Retaliation made nearly 75mil more at the BO than the first movie and it cost 20mil less to make. The third movie was announced soon after release as well but constant delays got it canned.
Paramount and Hasbro stated in the past the reason why the first movie even got a sequel with only a minor success at the BO was because of the merch/toy sales revenue tied into the property. The toy line being mishandled killed all the toy sales potential they had, after words no retailer would take shipment of product after they felt abandoned by being sold product that just sat on toy shelves due to the last minute film change. Any future waves of GI Joe was tainted, the big box retailers all dropped GI Joe products, and only way they kept producing product was by doing store exclusive deal with Toys R Us.
Sigma 6 toy line sales were a disaster. The old school fans hated the line, so it was stuck having to depend on new fans but the show and toy sales fell flat and quickly ended. The early 2000 toys I was speaking of were the smaller scale figures that were being released at the same time as Sigma 6 was going on.
The toy line was revitalized when they went after the collectors market, and really that's what they need to do, just like how MOTU toys are being made higher quality for the adult collectors. Hasbro needs to make larger scale and better quality collectible GI Joe figs to bring things back.
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