13 hit movie franchises that should have quit while they were ahead
Louis Chilton looks at 13 film series that went from ripe to rotten
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Your support makes all the difference.The year is 2023, and Hollywood is in the throes of franchise fever.
For better or worse, the modern film landscape is dominated by sequels, prequels, spin-offs and reboots. The old adage, “always leave ’em wanting more”, has never been less heeded.
Sometimes a film franchise ripens with age – it matures and finds new, exciting ways of exploring material. Earlier this year, for instance, the John Wick franchise hit new heights with the ambitious, propulsive John Wick Chapter Four.
Or take Mission: Impossible. After a couple of misjudged sequels by John Woo and JJ Abrams, Tom Cruise’s spy franchise hit its stride with its fourth entry, Ghost Protocol, and has only grown in popularity and acclaim since. From Toy Story to the recent Planet of the Apes reboots, the last decade has seen several franchises go from strength to strength, avoiding the sort of decline that has historically dogged Hollywood sequels.
This list isn’t about them. Rather, below is a roundup of all the franchises that simply did not know when to quit; the ignominious sagas that continued to release new entries long after the magic was gone.
From Harry Potter to Ghostbusters, here are 13 franchises that should have ended – but didn’t.
Die Hard
Few franchises have enjoyed as straightforward a decline as the Die Hard films: every time Bruce Willis put on his tatty vest, the returns would diminish by 20 per cent or so. The third entry, buddy cop film Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), was still a perfectly good cat-and-mouse thriller – but by the time of Die Hard 4.0 in 2007, the franchise had yippied its last ki-yay. A Good Day to Die Hard (2013) somehow took things from bad to worse. It was indisputable: Die Hard had died, hard.
Fast and Furious
Some franchises come out the gates in a flash; others take a while to go through the gears. The Fast and Furious franchise is an example of the latter, ballooning over time from a modest street racing drama to a bombastic thriller of world-ending stakes. The 2015 film Furious 7 saw the franchise reach the zenith, but everything since has been underwhelming. Between F9 and bonafide stinker Fast X, it feels like Vin Diesel and co have simply run out of road.
Ghostbusters
It’s a testament to the enduring appeal of Ivan Reitman’s 1984 sci-fi comedy that they are still trying to churn out sequels – despite pretty much all of them so far being duds. The badly received GhostbustersII put a kibosh on the franchise for decades; 2016’s gender-flipped reboot was flat and forgettable, sexist backlash notwithstanding. Worst by far was 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which saw the decrepit return of the original franchise stars, including a CGI recreation of the late Harold Ramis. At this point, it’s clear Ghostbusters needs to be laid to rest – who you gonna call?
Halloween
There have been a staggering 13 films in the Halloween franchise – all stemming from John Carpenter’s 1978 horror classic. Naturally, the series has gone through highs and lows, but the roundly well-received 2018 legacy sequel Halloween seemed to make it all worthwhile. What a shame, then, that the franchise went for two more bites of the pumpkin: the dire Halloween Kills (2021) and the execrable Halloween Ends (2022).
Harry Potter/Fantastic Beasts
The Harry Potter films may have peaked with its third entry, Alfonso Cuarón’s moody Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), but Warner Bros can be forgiven for adapting the subsequent four entries in JK Rowling’s popular book series. What is less forgivable, however, is the Fantastic Beasts spin-off. The dreary and imaginationless fantasy series proved so lacklustre that the saga was abandoned after just three films. Still, three too many...
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Indiana Jones
There’s no real consensus on when it was that Indiana Jones went bad. Some hardliners might say Temple of Doom (1984). Others, the cornball antics of Last Crusade (1989). Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) is probably the most popular answer – but even that film has a cadre of staunch defenders. For me, it was Dial of Destiny that finally pushed this franchise into the ravine. Whichever way you slice it, though, it’s clear Harrison Ford’s whip-cracking adventurer should have hung up his hat sooner than he did.
Jurassic Park
Steven Spielberg’s inimitable dinosaur adventure Jurassic Park remains a landmark of blockbuster filmmaking, even 30 years after its premiere. Its sequels not so much. The first two follow-ups were good in spells – though not a patch on number one – but the three subsequent Jurassic World movies were a bigger mistake than John Hammond’s decision to launch a prehistoric theme park.
Lord of the Rings/Hobbit
You can see why New Line Cinema was keen on a Hobbit trilogy: Peter Jackson’s original three Lord of the Rings films were an undisputed triumph of large-scale fantasy filmmaking. Lightning may have struck thrice, but six times was sadly out of the question – the follow-ups turned out to be a bloated mess of narrative filler and shaky CGI.
The MCU
The most expansive serialised franchise of the modern era, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), seemed, for a long time, too big to fail. Over the course of more than 20 films, the superhero saga built up a massive audience of loyal fans. The climactic crossover entry Avengers: Endgame (2019) became, for a while, the biggest movie of all time. (Avatar has since reclaimed the crown.) Since that apex, however, enthusiasm for the MCU has started to dwindle. Despite a slew of new films, not to mention a deluge of straight-to-streaming TV shows, Marvel’s costly “Phase Four” featured several of its weakest efforts; the prospect of another decade of the MCU looms like a tsunami of cinematic sewage.
Pirates of the Caribbean
The original Pirates of the Caribbean never should have worked. Based on a theme park ride, the film took a genre that hadn’t been popular for decades – buccaneering pirate adventure – and somehow made it popular. The initial installment, The Curse of the Black Pearl, was, however, followed up by four increasingly wretched sequels. By the time of 2017’s Salazar’s Revenge, Johnny Depp’s franchise was thoroughly lost at sea – without a hint of treasure in sight.
Spider-Man 3
Everyone knows where it went wrong for Sam Raimi’s Spidey trilogy (the emo haircut! The dancing!). After two films, which successfully redrew the boundaries for what superhero comic adaptations could achieve, Raimi’s trilogy-capper ended in a web of half-baked storylines. It’s a shame that Raimi’s planned fourth entry, featuring the gamehunting villain Kraven, was ultimately shelved in favour of the poorly received Andrew Garfield reboot. Who knows? Redemption may have been on the cards.
Star Wars
Is there any franchise quite so prone to jumping the shark as Star Wars? George Lucas’s sci-fi saga has vaulted enough marine animals over the years to fill a mid-size aquarium. When did it all go wrong? The infamous Holiday Special? The roundly disliked prequel trilogy? The radically divisive The Last Jedi? The unforgivable Rise of Skywalker? As tepid TV spin-offs continue to roll out (see: Ahsoka), it’s clear that the franchise is now far, far away from being the global sensation it once was.
The Terminator
The minds behind the Terminator franchise ought to know what makes a good sequel – after all, they’re responsible for one of the best. James Cameron’s T2: Judgement Day is that rarest of things: a follow-up to a great film that manages to be even greater. Alas, by the time of the flimsy Terminator 3 in 2003, the series’ own ugly metal endoskeleton was showing, and the subsequent sequels – Salvation, Genisys and Dark Fate – were all varying degrees of awful. “I’ll be back” has never sounded like a less appealing prospect.
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