Movies that failed as franchise starters – Franchises have been around for a lot longer in Hollywood than some might think. In the 1930s and ‘40s, you had The Thin Man series or the Andy Hardy musicals or the Hope/Crosby Road films. Even then, Hollywood was working on various series of movies they could also sell with merchandising and make popular with audiences.
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It’s increased in the later decades thanks to the success of Star Wars and other series and has really taken off in the last decade. It’s the combination of the success of Marvel’s movies and young adult adaptations that makes Hollywood eager to get on board with these cash cows. However, too often, they make the mistake of putting the cart before the horse and planning the franchise before the first movie hits.
In a way, it’s like a classic episode of Kitchen Nightmares where Gordon Ramsey confronts an owner/chef in denial on his failings in both areas. When the man talks of his dream of franchising his crappy restaurant around the world, Ramsey yells “you haven’t got f—-ing one right yet!” For every Harry Potter and Hunger Games, there are numerous other adaptations that fail to connect with moviegoers and leave plans for follow-ups in limbo. Many an actor has groused over signing on to what they thought would be a multi-film series only to have it fall apart. While it’s increased in recent years, it’s something that’s been happening for a while as too many studios plan the franchise without realizing you need to get the first entry done right. While many of these films are bad, others were actually good and should have kicked a franchise off but somehow never connected with audiences. Here are 16 movies meant to be the start of something bigger but never pulled it off.
16. The Lone Ranger
You can understand why Disney had hopes. The character has been an icon for decades, a fantastic Western hero with a famous theme and with Johnny Depp starring and Gore Verbinski directing, the studio was more than hopeful this would be a smash. However, casting Depp as Tonto seemed to throw things on a bad foot from the start and it wasn’t helped by the budget soon rising to Disney canning the production. They made the mistake of going ahead with Arnie Hammer in the lead and Depp doing a whacky performance but the production soon exploded into troubles with weather, a chicken pox outbreak and the death of a stuntman. It ballooned the budget to $250 million, meaning it would take one hell of an opening to counter it. Said opening never happened as the film died on its 4th of July opening and the critical ravaging helped bury it, causing a massive write-off for Disney.
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