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12 Movie Franchises that Failed After One Film
Could've. Should've. Would've. By
Tim Janson
September 06, 2009
12 Movie Franchises that Failed After One Film
© Bob Trate/Mania
There’s nothing film studios love more than a successful film franchise. They can mean hundreds of millions, even billions in revenue and Hollywood is constantly on the lookout for popular properties to snap up to hopefully turn into the next Harry Potter or Batman. But for every successful franchise the celluloid landscape is littered with those that have failed generate a single sequel. Presented today is our list of 12 of the top potential franchises that failed after one film. Rather than rank these in order in terms of their, uhh… putridness… we have listed them chronologically.
12. The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982)
This fantasy film liberally borrowed (i.e. stole) numerous plot elements from Robert E. Howard’s Conan tales including the resurrection of an ancient sorcerer (Lifted from Howard’s The Hour of the Dragon) and its crucifixion scene (Taken from Howard’s A Witch Shall be Born). The film starred Lee Horsley as the hero Prince Talon and Richard Moll (Night Court) as the sorcerer, and was moderately successful. But so (over) confident were the filmmakers that it would result in a franchise that they actually touted the sequel Tales of the Ancient Empire in its end credits. Twenty-eight years later, we’re still waiting…
11. Remo Williams the Adventure Begins (1985)
This 1985 action film was based on the popular “Destroyer” series of action novels about a cop (Fred Ward) recruited into a secret government organization called CURE where he is trained to become an assassin by Chiun, the Korean master of a martial art called Sinanju. Ward shined as Remo Williams and while Joel Grey was hilarious as Chiun the film was criticized for not using an Asian actor for the role. While a fine action film it made only $12 million dollars versus a budget of $40 million and the franchise never materialized. As of 2009 it was announced a new film was reportedly in the works.
10. Dick Tracy (1990)
The big screen version of Chester Gould’s classic comic strip featured a stellar cast that included Warren Beatty in the title role, along with Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Madonna, James Caan, Paul Sorvino, Kathy Bates, and William Forsythe. To make it look like a comic strip the film used only seven primary colors which only served to make it look too gaudy and comic strip-like, negating any chance of being gritty. The film had a huge marketing campaign that included toys, videogames, McDonald Happy Meals, etc… The problem was that the film was as flat as the comic strips it was based on. No amount of talent could makeup for a dull script. Disney was disappointed with the film’s performance and scrapped plans for a sequel.
The Rocketeer (1991)
Based on Dave Stevens 1930’s era adventure hero, The Rocketeer blasted into theaters in 1991 and quickly nose-dived to its death. It had a solid cast featuring Bill Campbell, Jennifer Connelly, Timothy Dalton, and Paul Sorvino and strong special effects created by ILM. The Rocketeer did a great job of capturing the look and feel of 1930s pulp heroes but concentrated too much on the romantic triangle between Campbell, Connelly, and Dalton’s characters and by the time The Rocketeer took off, it was too little too late. Not even the thrilling fight atop a German zeppelin could save it. The film was planned to be a trilogy but after barely making enough to cover its budget, Disney pulled the plug on any future plans.
The Shadow (1994)
The Shadow is one of the most venerable characters in pop culture. Created in 1930, his adventures appeared in hundreds of issues of pulp magazines and comic books, in radio broadcasts, and in several 1940s films. He was one of the influences on Bob Kane when he created Batman. A big screen film seemed a sure hit… Well, not so much. Star Alec Baldwin looked great as the character but unfortunately there was too much of him as alter ego Lamont Cranston, and not enough of him as The Shadow. With a descendant of Genghis Khan as the villain and a plot that was too heavy with sci-fi elements (an atomic bomb a full decade before the Manhattan project) the film bogged down. The franchise plans included a full line of Kenner action figures and the Voodoo Master was mentioned as possibly being the villain in the sequel… which never came.
Judge Dredd (1995)
Based on the long-running and Uber violent British comic book series, the 1995 dropped the ball in every way imaginable. Sylvester Stallone was simply too old to play the role which might have been OK if he had kept his helmet on all the time they way Dredd does in the comics instead of barely using it. The romantic angle between Judge Dredd and Judge Hershey was typical Hollywood arrogance believing that every film must have a romantic element. While this was almost tolerable what we can’t stomach is Rob Schneider’s insidious presence. The Real Dredd would have found him guilty of impersonating a guy with talent and put a bullet between his eyes. While this steaming pile of crap didn’t deserve a sequel a new film is in the works.
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The Phantom (1996)
Yet another film based on a long-running comic strip hero, Lee Falk’s The Phantom. It’s always bothered us when Hollywood doesn’t use the actual costumes from the comics in superhero films, but The Phantom shoots that complaint all to hell with Billy Zane running around in his bright purple pajamas. Zane wasn’t bad but Treat Williams as the primary villain Xander Drax and a plot that tries to incorporate too much Indiana Jones-style action, sank the film. Zane signed up to do two sequels but the poor box office showing killed those plans.
Daredevil (2003)
Proof that not everything Marvel touches turns to gold was the 2003 film about the “Man Without Fear,” Daredevil. It might have seemed like a good idea to cast Ben Affleck in the starring role but his career was already beginning to teeter on the edge with disasters like Reindeer Games, Pearl Harbor, and Gigli, released later in 2003. The film made the key error of not going all the way in its embrace of the Frank Miller Daredevil stories, utilizing many of the plot elements but little of the edginess. A DVD Directors cut was an improvement over the theatrical release but for Affleck, he was quoted as saying, “Wearing a costume was a source of humiliation for me and something I wouldn't want to do again soon." We could not agree with you more, Ben, perhaps a sequel to Reindeer Games is in order!
Sahara (2005)
Based on the novel by Clive Cussler, Sahara is one of the bigger box office flops in recent history. It reported loss an estimated $100 million dollars. Matthew McConaughey portrayed Cussler’s adventuring hero Dirk Pitt in one Paramount Studios hoped would become a modern Indiana Jones-type franchise. The film was plagued by problems from the beginning, running well over budget and dealing with a lawsuit from creator Cussler against the film’s producer Philip Anschutz. Anshutz countered sued saying the Cussler was trying to sabotage the film. Anshutz won in 2009 when Cussler was ordered to pay the production company $13.9 Million. Small victory as the poor performance of the film doomed any talk of a sequel.
The Golden Compass (2007)
With the success of the Lord of the Rings, New Line Cinema quickly snapped up the rights to another fantasy trilogy, Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials”. Once again there is a wonderful cast that includes Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman, Eva Green, Sam Elliott, and the voice of Ian McKellen. One of the great things about the Lord of the Rings is that it’s relatively simple plot-wise. Not so with the convoluted Golden Compass and its witches, gypsies, Balloon-riding cowboys, and talking polar bears. And there is the sub-plot of whatever the hell Daniel Craig’s character was supposed to be doing. But the kiss of death for the movie was coming under protest by various religious groups for its anti-Christian themes (which were largely diluted in the movie compared to the books). Family film and religious controversy are not a good mix and the sequels were canceled
The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008)
The Spiderwick Chronicles was based on a popular series of children’s fantasy novels by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black. They chronicle the adventures of the Grace children, twins Simon and Jared and their older sister Mallory, after they move into the mysterious Spiderwick Estate with its secret faerie world. While generally receiving positive reviews the film seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle of other higher profile films that had a similar target audience such as Harry Potter, the Narnia films, and The Golden Compass and never made a big impact. While it made its budget back by a comfortable margin, it wasn’t strong enough to green light a sequel.
The Punisher/Punisher War Zone (1989/2004/2008)
The Punisher holds a unique spot on the list…it has tried and failed three times to start a successful franchise. Dolph Lundgren played the role first in a low-budget film that never received a theatrical release in the U.S. Next up was Thomas Jane in 2004 but again the film was handcuffed by a miniscule budget. While it made nearly four times what it cost and a sequel was planned, Jane eventually bowed out as it was taking too long to produce. The next reboot was 2008’s bloody rampage Punisher War Zone starring the Ray Stevenson in the role of an older Frank Castle. Based in tone on the Garth Ennis comic stories War Zone had the largest budget yet at $35 million…but it made only $10 million… Oops! At the 2010 Comic Con, Marvel said they planned for yet another reboot of the character.
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