Ever watched a movie and immediately wondered when the sequel would be released? Or finished one and thought, “Wait…that’s it? I need to know what happens next”? Every massive franchise has to start somewhere, and movies like Iron Man and Twilight proved that one great movie can turn into something much bigger.
But not every movie gets that second chance. Some are specifically designed to launch sequels, spin-offs, and even entire cinematic universes, only to be stopped by disappointing reviews, box-office bombs, or simply not making enough money to justify continuing. Here are 11 movies that were probably supposed to launch a franchise, but failed miserably:
1.
Released in 2016 around the same time as The Angry Birds Movie, The Nice Guys had some stiff competition at the box office, which was one of several factors that contributed to its disappointing performance. However, despite its poor box-office numbers, the movie received positive reviews from fans. The Nice Guys only grossed $62 million on a $50 million budget, making a sequel difficult to justify financially.
But producer Ken Kao revealed that The Nice Guys 2 has actually been discussed, with the biggest hurdle being finding a way to make it on a smaller budget. “Funny enough, Joel Silver had reached out to a mutual acquaintance of mine and brought up Nice Guys this past week, and it sparked a conversation about exactly [that]. Like, ‘What would it take, maybe, to get [The Nice Guys 2] to happen again?’ And I think that we just have to make it on a budget. I think that continues to be the producers’ challenge and the filmmakers’ challenge now.”
2.
“Go Go Power Rangers” — or maybe not. Power Rangers was supposed to be the beginning of a four-movie franchise modeled after The Hunger Games, but its disappointing box office numbers put an end to those plans. Dacre Montgomery, who played Jason Scott in the 2017 movie, confirmed the scrapped franchise plans, explaining, “It was gonna be a whole big thing.”
“But what can you do, right?” he continued. “We’re talking about money and big business, and it didn’t make enough on the investment that the studio had made to continue making more.” The movie grossed $142.5 million against a $100–$105 million budget, which wasn’t enough to justify continuing the franchise. And while audiences were somewhat more forgiving than critics, giving the movie a 65% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, it ultimately wasn’t enough to save the planned sequels.
3.
Mortal Engines was supposed to be the next big sci-fi franchise, but its massive ambition quickly became its downfall. The $110+-million movie opened to a disastrous $7.5 million and had only made $42.3 million worldwide opening weekend. The biggest problem? Audiences simply weren’t familiar enough with the book series to care about this new world.
As Deadline put it, Mortal Engines was “a casualty of its own ambition to create a brand new world on screen.” Even with Peter Jackson’s name attached, the movie couldn’t convince enough people to show up, and its poor box office numbers made any potential franchise plans essentially dead on arrival.
4.
I just want to start off by saying I LOVED Beautiful Creatures. It had all the ingredients for a successful young-adult franchise, but several factors worked against it from the start. The movie had three sequels and a spin-off waiting in the Caster Chronicles book series, yet it grossed just $60.1 million on a $60 million budget. Plus, Warner Bros. reportedly saw the movie as a competitor to Twilight, which rubbed the franchise’s loyal fanbase the wrong way. Box office analyst Jeff Bock told E! News, “It actually enraged the Twi-hards, who vehemently defend their cherished cinematic turf.”
On top of that, the movie faced backlash from its own fans for straying too far from the books. Director Richard LaGravenese later acknowledged the problem, saying, “And then because we were making it, and they started marketing it, it started to outsell a lot of the other young adult books. So that when it was done, American teenagers completely rejected it because it was too different from the book!” So while the franchise had plenty of source material left to adapt, Beautiful Creatures ultimately couldn’t overcome its disappointing box office and divided fanbase.
5.
The Golden Compass was supposed to be the beginning of a major fantasy franchise, adapting the first book in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy and setting up two more movies based on the remaining books. The 2007 film followed Lyra, played by Dakota Blue Richards, as she navigated a fantastical world filled with daemons, magical animal companions bonded to humans, and introduced characters like Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter.
But despite having a massive $180 million budget, the movie made $372 million worldwide, which wasn’t sufficient in convincing the studio to move forward with the rest of the trilogy. And that became especially unfortunate, because HBO’s His Dark Materials would later adapt the same story for television, meaning audiences eventually got another version of the franchise after the original movie failed to take off. So while The Golden Compass wasn’t technically a franchise yet, it was clearly designed to launch one, and its disappointing box office performance stopped the story after just one movie.
6.
Hoping to ride the wave of Twilight’s widely popular success, Vampire Academy had a six-book series behind it, but the movie never got close to becoming the franchise its studio hoped for. The film wasn’t even screened for critics ahead of its release, which Rolling Stone’s Pete Travers called “a surefire sign of disaster,” and the reviews that followed weren’t exactly the most positive.
The Washington Post’s Stephanie Merry wrote that “the only thing that distinguishes this teen-magnet wannabe from its predecessors is how lazily it appears to have been slapped together.” The movie ultimately cost $30 million to make but brought in just $15 million worldwide, with its UK theatrical release canceled altogether. But the wildest part came afterward: Producers launched a $1.5 million crowdfunding campaign in 2014 to complete the budget for Vampire Academy 2: Frostbite. They raised over $250,000, and the movie didn’t end up being made.
7.
The Last Airbender had one of the biggest built-in fanbases imaginable, but the 2010 live-action movie managed to turn that advantage into a major problem. The film was heavily criticized for straying from the beloved animated series, controversial casting choices, and trying to cram too much of the original story into a single movie.
Years later, Shyamalan reflected on his experience making the film and admitted that trying to work within the Hollywood studio system taught him that it wasn’t necessarily the right fit for his style. “So I made a genuine effort to join the system, but I learned that the special thing that makes me happy was hard to do within that system.”
8.
Ender’s Game was explicitly designed to launch a franchise, with the studio hoping to replicate the success of The Hunger Games. The movie even set up a sequel, but its opening weekend made those plans look shaky almost immediately. The sci-fi adaptation opened to $28 million in North America against its $110 million budget. One major issue was that the movie struggled to attract the younger audience its studio was counting on: 54% of its opening-weekend audience was over 25, despite the popularity of the young-adult source novel.
It also faced negative publicity surrounding author Orson Scott Card’s controversial views, including a boycott campaign that called for audiences to skip the movie. While Ender’s Game wasn’t universally disliked — the film earned a 65% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and The Guardian called it a “surprisingly decent effort” — it had another problem working against it: Thor: The Dark World arrived the following weekend, which stole whatever momentum the film was trying to build.
9.
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword wasn’t supposed to be a one-and-done movie — it was meant to launch an entire King Arthur cinematic universe. Warner Bros. had reportedly planned six additional films that would expand the Arthurian world and eventually introduce major characters who were cut out of the first movie, including Lancelot and Guinevere. The 2017 film, directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Charlie Hunnam as Arthur, was essentially designed to be the starting point, with the ending setting up even more adventures: Arthur becomes king and begins building the Round Table for his newly knighted friends. But the plans quickly fell apart when the movie bombed at the box office.
With a massive $175 million production budget, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword made only $148 million globally, meaning it didn’t come close to making back its production cost. Critics weren’t exactly rushing to save it, too, taking issue with many factors including the way the movie reworked the classic Arthurian legend. So while Warner Bros. had an entire shared universe mapped out, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword ultimately ended with one movie.
10.
The Mummy was supposed to be the movie that kicked off Universal’s Dark Universe, a massive shared franchise built around its classic monsters, with plans for several films to follow. Instead, the $125–$195 million movie brought in $410 million worldwide, which wasn’t enough to justify the studio’s ambitious plans once additional costs were factored in.
And Brendan Fraser, whose Mummy movies had already made the concept a hit, later offered his opinion of Universal’s reboot. When asked about the possibility of the 2017 Mummy aligning with his earlier films, Fraser admitted, “I really don’t know. I know Tom Cruise tried to make his movie and it ain’t easy! We all know how hard this movie is to make.” He also offered his own take on Cruise’s version, saying the 2017 film was “too much of a straight-ahead horror movie,” adding, “The Mummy should be a thrill ride, but not terrifying and scary. I know how difficult it is to pull it off. I tried to do it three times.”
11.
Not even Stephen King himself could save this movie adaptation. The Dark Tower was supposed to be much bigger than the movie audiences ultimately got. Before its 2017 release, there were already plans for a TV series and a potential sequel: The Drawing of the Three, the second book in Stephen King’s series.
But the movie’s disastrous reception — earning just 16% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes made those plans increasingly unlikely. And despite the backlash, King himself defended the movie, saying, “I thought [screenwriter] Akiva Goldsman did a terrific job in taking a central part of the book and turning it into what I thought was a pretty good movie.” In the end, the movie’s disappointing performance meant audiences never got to see where the planned franchise could have gone next.
Which of these movies do you think absolutely deserved a franchise, and which ones are you glad never made it past the first movie? Tell us in the comments below!
