Movie trilogies can be really special things. But when they end up not being finished, they might be the biggest waste of time in all of cinema. Here's how and why these series went unfinished.
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00:00Movie trilogies can be really special things, but when they end up not being finished, they
00:04might be the biggest waste of time in all of cinema.
00:07Here's how, and why, these series went unfinished.
00:11In Hollywood, not everything goes as planned, and sometimes movies simply never get made.
00:16As a result, trilogies and franchises that once had bright futures can be killed off
00:21before their time.
00:23These are the movie trilogies that, for whatever reason, will never see the light of day.
00:28Comic book movies really took off in the early 2000s, with countless studios giving obscure
00:32comic book characters the big-screen treatment, in the hopes of mining gold from pulp.
00:38So fans' hearts leapt when geek god Guillermo del Toro took on an adaptation of Mike Mignola's
00:43Dark Horse comic series Hellboy.
00:46Del Toro quickly proved his fanboy bona fides when he chose not to cast an A-list leading
00:52man.
00:53Instead, he hired the picture-perfect character actor Ron Perlman to play everyone's favorite
00:57cigar-chomping, monster-busting, gun-wielding half-demon.
01:01Critics were into Hellboy 2, giving it an 81% Tomatometer score.
01:06But its $59 million domestic and $99 million worldwide gross spooked Revolution Studios
01:12into jumping ship.
01:14So Universal picked up the rights and greenlit Hellboy 2, The Golden Army.
01:19This move paid off, with the movie garnering even better reviews and a $168 million worldwide
01:25gross.
01:26Alas, Hellboy 2 had the bad luck of opening one week before The Dark Knight broke box
01:31office records, and sales dropped a mind-boggling 70% in the movie's second weekend.
01:37So while Del Toro hoped to complete the trilogy, he knew his budget of $120 million for a final
01:43movie was a tough sell.
01:45Finally, in 2017, Del Toro tweeted that Hellboy 3 was 100% not happening.
01:51Lionsgate rebooted the series in 2019, with Neil Marshall as director and David Harbour
01:56as the big red guy.
01:57But moviegoers and fans said hell no to the new Hellboy, which was a critical and box
02:02office disaster.
02:03"...Not this crap again, lady!"
02:08Putting it lightly, Spider-Man is kind of popular.
02:11The world's favorite wall-crawler broke the opening weekend record twice on his own, and
02:15then two more times with The Avengers.
02:18The first Spider-Man sent the comic book movie renaissance into overdrive in 2002, when it
02:23became the first film to earn more than $100 million in a single weekend.
02:29Spider-Man 2 continued the trend, and while Spider-Man 3 ended the first series with a
02:32whimper, the Sam Raimi Spider-Man film still earned more than $2.5 billion worldwide.
02:38"...How's the pie?"
02:40"...So good."
02:43Sony rebooted the series eight years later for 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man, this time
02:47with Andrew Garfield in the tights and Mark Webb in the director's chair.
02:51The box office results were solid, and the reviews were strong, so naturally, before
02:55a sequel had even been released, Sony went completely off the rails.
03:00The studio announced a third and fourth film, as well as spin-offs for The Sinister Six
03:04and Venom, effectively launching a Spidey cinematic universe.
03:08The Amazing Spider-Man 2 arrived in 2014, but despite earning decent box office returns,
03:14the horrible reviews suggested Spidey was headed in the wrong direction.
03:18Luckily, Disney swooped in and brought the web-spinner back to his record-breaking ways
03:22in the MCU, while Sony scored huge with Venom, and won an Oscar with Into the Spider-Verse.
03:27But while Spider-Man is today as popular as ever, Amazing Spider-Man 3 has long been squished.
03:34If you suggested 20 years ago that a movie with Iron Man, Thor, and Hawkeye would make
03:38more money than a film with Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, the world would have called
03:42you crazy.
03:43So how did it happen?
03:44Well, many factors are involved, but the shocking underperformance of the DCEU has mostly fallen
03:50at the feet of Zack Snyder.
03:52Snyder was handed the reins to the DCEU after Man of Steel performed relatively well on
03:56its release, and also because Christopher Nolan probably wasn't interested.
04:01Despite fans' disappointment with Man of Steel and Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice, each
04:05made money, mostly because they featured the most popular superheroes ever made.
04:10Unfortunately, Snyder's Justice League wound up lacking, and earned a relatively low amount
04:15at the box office considering the movie's iconic lineup of heroes.
04:20So where would Snyder have gone with the series if things had been different?
04:24According to Kevin Smith, the two Justice League sequels would have featured the Green
04:27Lantern Corps and Darkseid.
04:29The Fantastic Four have had a rough time at the box office, starting with a 1994 film
04:34that's so bad it wasn't even released.
04:36In 2005, the trend continued, when Fantastic Four earned an atrocious 27% Tomatometer score.
04:46However, the movie's light tone stood out against the Doom and Gloom movies released
04:50that summer, and it earned decent returns at the box office $154 million domestically
04:55and $333 million worldwide.
04:58Naturally, Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer did just as badly with critics, but
05:03this time, it flopped at the box office.
05:05While all five main cast members were signed to a three-picture deal, a 13% box office
05:10drop with a 25% higher budget gave Fox executives pause for thought.
05:15Whatever fans the film had left all their hopes dashed when a pre-Captain America Chris
05:20Evans said a third film probably wasn't happening.
05:23But even though that trilogy was doomed, Fox tried to relaunch the series in 2015, this
05:27time with a darker tone that was totally off the mark, resulting in the worst reviews and
05:32box office performance yet.
05:34In 2012, the Mouse House released one of the biggest bombs of all time, John Carter.
05:41Based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' 100-year-old book series, John Carter is about a Civil
05:44War vet who's transported to Barsoom, aka Mars, where he gets wrapped up in the fight
05:49between the Tharks and the Red Martians.
05:51Sound like a stretch?
05:52Well, Disney didn't think so.
05:54The company spent an astronomical $250 million on the film, with some reports going as high
05:59as $300 million, making it the most expensive original movie ever made.
06:05In the end, John Carter made only $73 million domestically and $284 million worldwide.
06:12Weak numbers for a film on a modest budget, but absolutely devastating for one that cost
06:16over $250 million.
06:19In fact, if not for the Avengers' record-breaking run in the summer of 2012, John Carter's failure
06:24might have sunk Disney's live-action film division for good.
06:28Since then, director Andrew Stanton has revealed there were plans for a trilogy, with the next
06:32two films already having titles and plots based on Burroughs' books.
06:37John Carter's total collapse obviously killed those dreams, but Edgar Rice Burroughs' estate
06:41regained the rights in 2014, hoping to bring the character back to the big screen.
06:46While Leonardo DiCaprio followed up his role in a James Cameron record-breaker by making
06:50movies with Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese, Sam Worthington followed up Avatar with Clash
06:56of the Titans.
06:57Hey, maybe it seemed like a good idea at the time.
06:59A remake of Ray Harryhausen's 1981 star classic, the 2010 Clash of the Titans also had a stacked
07:06cast featuring Ralph Fiennes, Liam Neeson, and a CGI Kraken.
07:11Needless to say, reviews were brutal, but the movie made enough money to buy real estate
07:14on Mount Olympus.
07:16The sequel, Wrath of the Titans, did just as badly with critics, but much worse with
07:20audiences, making measly returns at the box office.
07:24Warner Bros. was already planning a third Titans film, but the sequel's steep 40 percent
07:28decline gave the suits pause.
07:31By 2013, the film's producer declared Titans III dead on arrival, unless there were fresh
07:36ideas.
07:37Although you'd think that the entire span of Greek mythology would have provided at
07:41least a few.
07:42And while Worthington's more recent career has subsequently disappointed, at least now
07:46he can look forward to doing some more Avatar.
07:50Independence Day was one of the seminal summer movies of the 1990s.
07:54It blew up the box office in the summer of 1996 and went on to become the highest-grossing
07:58movie of the year.
07:59When a movie makes that much money, especially on a modest budget, it usually means sequels
08:03— lots of them.
08:05But a funny thing happened on the way to outer space.
08:08Summer after summer, big movies came and went, but an Independence Day sequel never happened.
08:13But 2015 was the year of nostalgia, so Fox figured that Independence Day Resurgence would
08:18be the next blockbuster sequel to rule the summer.
08:21Boy were they wrong.
08:23There were a few problems.
08:24Firstly, Resurgence didn't feature original star Will Smith, who opted not to return and
08:29had his character killed off.
08:31Second, the film wasn't just bad.
08:33It was really silly, too.
08:35Wait a minute, wait, wait, you can't go.
08:38Who's gonna, who's gonna water the orchids?
08:41Who's gonna make sure you put your pants on?
08:45Consequently, Independence Day Resurgence seriously underwhelmed with an alarming 53%
08:49drop on the original's returns, a fall in figures that's even more startling considering
08:54the 20-year difference in ticket price inflation.
08:56Clearly, moviegoers were over the series, given producer Dean Devlin is over it, too.
09:01And how the Disney-Fox merger has shaken up all of Fox's slate, you can safely bet that
09:06there's not going to be an Independence Day 3 in Earth's future.
09:10It's hard enough to make one successful movie, let alone three, so it's no surprise that
09:15many would-be trilogies never see that third installment.
09:19There are some that died on the vine.
09:21Despite their popularity, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles haven't had box office staying
09:25power.
09:26But I can get it back, I can get it back.
09:28Rafael, let it go.
09:30The first film trilogy started strong when 1990's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles earned
09:34$202 million worldwide on a $13.5 million budget.
09:39However, 1991's TMNT 2, The Secret of the Ooze, dropped 62% to $78 million worldwide,
09:48while the third film took a shellacking at the box office in 1993, earning just $42 million
09:53on a $21 million budget.
09:56As a result, America's favorite talking, karate-chopping terrapins went on a 21-year hiatus from live-action
10:02big-screen adventures.
10:04But following the enormous success of the Transformers films, Paramount saw the possibility
10:08of big bucks in movies based on other characters from super-popular 80s toy lines and TV shows,
10:14and decided to give the reptiles another chance.
10:16Released in 2014, TMNT earned $485 million worldwide on a $125 million budget.
10:25Paramount was feeling confident, so they upped the budget for 2016's TMNT, Out of the Shadows,
10:31to $135 million.
10:33But this time, the film saw a 50% drop that made this over-budgeted follow-up a box office
10:38bomb.
10:39We're turtles, whether you like it or not.
10:42Paramount wasn't going to make the same mistake New Line Cinema did with the first series,
10:47so they pulled the plug on the third film.
10:48In late 2016, producer Andrew Form told Collider,
10:51"...I don't think there's Turtles 3, but I wouldn't say there's never going to be another
10:55Turtles movie."
10:56And he was right.
10:57Going back to the franchise's animated screen roots, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' mutant
11:01mayhem arrived in 2023 to solid box office and critical acclaim.
11:06Before 1985's mega-hit Back to the Future, director Robert Zemeckis took the romantic-comedy-action-adventure-hybrid
11:12nobody wanted and turned it into a major hit.
11:15"...It's been the best time I've ever had."
11:21"...Never been anybody's best time before."
11:24Romancing the Stone had a modest $10 million budget, but made $75 million domestically
11:29and $115 million worldwide.
11:32The spring 1984 release wasn't just Fox's biggest hit of the year, it was their only
11:37hit.
11:38So naturally, they wanted to rush a sequel.
11:40The only problem?
11:42Stars Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner didn't want to do it.
11:46But Fox exercised its sequel option and threatened to sue Turner for $25 million if she backed
11:50out.
11:51The troubled production didn't improve anyone's mood, either.
11:54The Jewel of the Nile miraculously made it to theaters 19 months after Stone, but only
11:59made $68 million worldwide.
12:01A proposed third film, The Crimson Eagle, wasn't a high priority for anyone at the
12:06time, though Douglas did drop out of 1997's U-571 a decade later to return for a sequel
12:11that never happened.
12:13In 2008, a new sequel, Chasing the Monsoon, was announced, with Douglas' wife, Catherine
12:17Zeta-Jones, replacing Turner.
12:20That project quickly became a remake instead, potentially starring Gerard Butler and Katherine
12:24Heigl.
12:25But in 2011, it was shelled for a TV series.
12:28With no news since, it's safe to say this romance is dead.
12:32Saturday Night Live alum Rob Schneider had a solid career in Hollywood as Adam Sandler's
12:36friend for nearly ten years when he graduated to above-the-title status with Deuce Bigelow,
12:41Male Gigolo.
12:43I don't have a set price or anything, but I have been getting $10.
12:46Its 22 percent Tomatometer score didn't scream Citizen Kane, but it made more money than
12:51anyone expected, earning $92 million worldwide on an $18 million budget.
12:57While Schneider continued to play scene-stealing backup roles for his A-list superstar friend,
13:01he got to be the center of attention in 2001's The Animal and 2002's The Hot Chick.
13:06It wasn't until 2005 that Schneider returned to his signature role for Deuce Bigelow, European
13:11Gigolo.
13:12But after six years, the audience had moved on.
13:15Besides its atrocious 9 percent Tomatometer score, Deuce Bigelow, European Gigolo earned
13:20a thin profit at best.
13:22Still, with moviegoers' nostalgia for characters they grew up loving, might we see Deuce Bigelow
13:28saves Christmas?
13:29Goes to camp?
13:30Versus Kong?
13:32Not with Rob Schneider.
13:33In 2008, Schneider told Movies.ie,
13:35"...I'd love to do a third Bigelow movie.
13:37The only reason why I did the second one is because everyone was asking for it, but it
13:41notably failed."
13:42But by 2013, Schneider had changed his tune, telling the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,
13:46"...you're not gonna see another Deuce Bigelow out of me.
13:49A Gigolo without Schneider is no Bigelow."
13:53There are actually two Adam Sandlers.
13:55One is the gifted actor of punch-drunk love and uncut gems.
13:59The other is, well, Adam Sandler.
14:01Alas, most of Sandler's $5.5 billion in worldwide grosses have come from his comedies, which
14:06is why there are so many.
14:08Take the Grown Ups series, Sandler's hanging out with his friends franchise, co-starring
14:13Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider, and Salma Hayek as Sandler's wife.
14:19Grown Ups earned $272 million worldwide in 2010, and Grown Ups 2 made $247 million in
14:262013, making it Sandler's highest-grossing franchise besides Hotel Transylvania.
14:31Even with that much talent ballooning the budgets up to $70 to $80 million, such profits
14:37usually spell sequels, yet we've gotten none.
14:39We're irrelevant.
14:40We're losers.
14:41We're old.
14:42And given that Sandler is busy making Netflix films and critically acclaimed movies, we
14:47think he may finally be too grown up for Grown Ups 3.
14:52Hollywood has had a love affair with pre-existing properties for decades, but in 1991, a big-screen
14:58adaptation of The Addams Family based on the Charles Addams comic strip and the 1960s TV
15:03show seemed altogether ooky.
15:05"-That's odd.
15:06What's odd, dear?
15:07I didn't know Cousin Imore wore turtleneck sweaters."
15:12Powered by the iconic main musical theme and pitch-perfect casting, Angelica Houston as
15:16Morticia, Raul Julia as Gomez, Christopher Lloyd as Uncle Fester, and Christina Ricci
15:21as Wednesday, The Addams Family earned a staggering $191 million worldwide on a $30 million budget.
15:29"-I would die for her.
15:32I would kill for her.
15:35Either way went bliss."
15:37A sequel was inevitable, and while 1993's Addams Family Values has been candy-coated
15:42by the sweet nectar of nostalgia, there's no denying that it bombed hard.
15:47With $46 million worldwide on a $47 million budget, Addams Family Values killed the franchise,
15:54further cemented by Julia's tragic death less than a year later.
15:58Once in 1998, Warner Bros. attempted a strange spiritual follow-up in Addams Family Reunion,
16:03which tried to capitalize on the previous film's goodwill with a murky attempt at continuity,
16:08albeit a different cast.
16:09The film was meant to launch a new Addams Family TV show, but with such a creative catastrophe
16:14that the studio released it straight to video and promptly buried it.
16:18It would be more than 20 years before The Addams Family would be rebooted as an animated
16:22film in 2019.
16:24"-Don't catch your eyes on my crew unless you're ready to dance."
16:28Given the success of that film and its 2021 sequel, and especially the massive success
16:33of Netflix's spinoff series Wednesday, we can confidently say a true Addams Family 3
16:39is dead.
16:41Despite winning an Oscar for Oppenheimer, Robert Downey Jr. seemed unsatisfied with
16:45supporting parts in Prestige Pictures and is returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
16:49But we're worried about him playing Victor Von Doom, especially with the Dr. Doom theory
16:54that explains how Downey's casting is just Marvel's backdoor attempt to bring back
16:58Iron Man.
16:59If Downey wants to return to a franchise, especially after the massive failure of would-be
17:03blockbuster Doolittle, might we suggest the other eccentric genius in his oeuvre, Sherlock
17:08Holmes?
17:09The 2009 original earned $498 million worldwide on a $90 million budget.
17:15Will he be facing stiff holiday season competition against a little movie called Avatar?
17:20The 2011 sequel, Sherlock Holmes A Game of Shadows, fared even better, with $535 million
17:27worldwide on a $125 million budget.
17:30Sherlock Holmes 3 seemed elementary, yet nothing has happened in more than a decade.
17:35When a third film's would-be director, Dexter Fletcher, was asked by CinemaBlend in 2023
17:39if any progress has been made, he said no, adding that the script was brilliant, but
17:44blaming COVID-19 and Downey's busy schedule for the delay.
17:47In June 2024, Downey's wife and producing partner Susan Downey told ScreenRant that
17:51Sherlock Holmes 3 was, quote, "...still very much alive in our hearts."
17:55Which, as Hollywood producers speak for, it ain't happening anytime soon.
17:59Given Downey Jr.'s return to the MCU was announced one month later, we suspect this
18:04case is closed.
18:05Shazam earned a respectable $363 million worldwide on a shockingly modest $85 million budget.
18:15But it got obliterated in its fourth weekend by a little pic called Avengers Endgame, which
18:19remains the biggest opening weekend record holder of all time.
18:23Still, that kind of profit is hard to sneeze at, so a sequel seemed forthcoming faster
18:36than you can say Shazam.
18:37But then a pretty big rock got in the way.
18:40Make that THE rock.
18:42Dwayne Johnson believed Black Adam, the D-list character he wanted to play for more than
18:46a decade, should be the new centerpiece of the DC Extended Universe, as evidenced by
18:51statements like this one.
18:53The hierarchy of power in the DC Universe is about to change.
18:58He wasn't just talking about the movies.
19:00Black Adam was technically in Shazam's rogues gallery, but Johnson wanted his anti-hero
19:05to battle DC's biggest babyface, Superman.
19:08According to Johnson, this super-powered showdown wound up getting scrapped due to business,
19:13which is an ego-preserving way of saying Black Adam bombed with $390 million worldwide on
19:18a $200 million budget.
19:21Ironically, Black Adam out-earned Shazam, but at more than twice the price, it was a
19:32financial failure.
19:34Shazam Theory of the Gods was the innocent victim in all this, as the 2023 film barely
19:38earned back its budget.
19:40With James Gunn rebooting the entire DC Cinematic Slate, we can all but guarantee there won't
19:45be a Shazam 3.
19:47How many franchises has Martin Scorsese made in his 50-plus year career?
19:51Answer?
19:52None.
19:53Yes, Scorsese directed 1986's The Color of Money, a sequel to Robert Rossin's 1961 film
19:59The Hustler, but as far as sequels to his own work?
20:02Zero.
20:03Zilch.
20:04That could have changed with 2006's The Departed, which remains Scorsese's biggest domestic
20:10hit, his third-biggest worldwide hit, and his only film to win Oscars for Best Picture
20:14and Best Director.
20:16If Warner Bros. had its way, it also would have been his only movie to get a sequel,
20:20as the studio was eager for one.
20:23While there's no official word on how many sequels Warner Bros. wanted, The Departed
20:26is a Beantown-based remake of the Hong Kong-set Infernal Affairs trilogy, so three films sounds
20:32reasonable.
20:33Scorsese Lao appeared in both Infernal Affairs sequels, but his counterpart in Scorsese's
20:37crime epic, Matt Damon's Colin Sullivan, gets killed, which the studio wasn't happy
20:42about.
20:43Scorsese rejected his sequel idea from screenwriter William Monaghan, while Mark Wahlberg and
20:48Monaghan also pitched a sequel for Wahlberg's character, the sole survivor of The Departed.
20:52How's your brother?
20:53Oh, she's on her way out.
20:56You all are.
20:57Act accordingly.
20:59Despite featuring Wahlberg's return to his Oscar-nominated role, Warner Bros. rejected
21:03the project because Monaghan didn't have a plot nailed down.
21:06After nearly 20 years of attempts as dead as the main characters, it sounds like any
21:11hope for a franchise is, well, dearly departed.
21:16Not every trilogy goes as planned, and some never even make it to the finish line.
21:21Maybe they bombed at the box office, perhaps they were savaged by critics, or maybe there
21:24was behind-the-scenes drama.
21:26Whatever the reason, these movie trilogies were stopped in their tracks and will never
21:30be completed.
21:32Sony Pictures saw dollar signs in the popular Millennium series by the late Swedish novelist
21:36and journalist Stieg Larsson, and assembled an all-star cast and crew to make a movie.
21:41David Fincher was perfectly suited for this dark, sordid material, while Daniel Craig
21:45and Rooney Mara seamlessly brought main characters Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander to life.
21:51The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo won rave reviews from critics, but it wasn't a runaway hit,
21:55earning $102 million domestically and $232 million worldwide on a $90 million budget
22:01in 2011.
22:03Sony wanted to cut costs on the sequel, but Daniel Craig, fresh off Skyfall's global gross
22:07of $1 billion, wanted a raise.
22:10As a result, the studio squashed any hopes of a Mara and Craig trilogy.
22:13Instead, Sony opted to go with an entirely new cast seven years later with the 2018 sequel
22:19The Girl in the Spider's Web, casting Claire Foy as Lisbeth and Svirer Gudnason as Mikael.
22:24But not even the film's modest $43 million budget could save it, with the film earning
22:29only $14 million domestic and $35 million worldwide gross.
22:34With Tom Cruise in the title role, the original Jack Reacher film about an ex-military policeman
22:39was an above-average crime thriller, earning a 63% Tomatometer score and $217 million worldwide
22:46on a $60 million budget.
22:48However, the sequel's subtitle, Never Go Back, unintentionally served as a warning, as it
22:52earned a 37% Tomatometer score and $159 million worldwide on a $60 million budget.
22:59Still profitable, but a troubling 27% drop.
23:02While series creator Lee Child had nothing but nice things to say about Cruise as a person,
23:06he agreed with readers that the 5-foot-7-inch Cruise wasn't the right fit for the towering
23:11character, and the series stalled out.
23:14While Speeds' pedal-to-the-metal premise powered it to $121 million domestic and $283 million
23:20worldwide on a $30 million budget, star Keanu Reeves passed on the sequel, a decision he
23:25said landed him in movie jail with Fox for years.
23:28Reeves' co-star Sandra Bullock returned for Speed 2, Cruise Control, with Jason Patrick
23:32replacing Reeves as her super-cop boyfriend and William Dafoe giving Speed villain Dennis
23:37Hopper a run for his money as a scenery-chewing bad guy.
23:40Alas, Patrick was no Reeves, plus the movie was really, really bad.
23:44Speed 2, Cruise Control sank, earning $48 million domestic and $150 million worldwide
23:50on a $110 million budget, a 47% drop from the first film.
23:55Reeves indicated in 2014 he'd be interested in returning for Speed 3, but after the John
24:00Wick franchise took off, Reeves seems to have decided that reprising his roles in The Matrix
24:054 and Bill & Ted 3 are a safer bet.
24:08Based on the popular young adult book series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the lightning
24:12thief follows a teenager who discovers he's descended from a Greek god.
24:16My father's Poseidon.
24:18God of the seas.
24:20Critics gave it a mediocre 50% Tomatometer score, but its release during the normally
24:25non-competitive February powered the family film to an $88 million domestic, $223 million
24:31worldwide take, a narrow victory on a $95 million budget.
24:35Critics were even less impressed with 2013's Percy Jackson's Sea of Monsters, striking
24:40it down with a 42% Tomatometer score.
24:43Despite shaving $5 million off the first film's budget, Sea of Monsters only managed
24:47$68 million domestically and $200 million worldwide.
24:51Even worse, its $14 million opening weekend was less than half the first film's $31 million,
24:57indicating a major drop in audience interest.
24:59Star Logan Lerman told The Independent in 2014 that he'd be happy to return for a third
25:04film, but eventually confirmed in 2020 that Percy Jackson 3 wouldn't be happening.
25:08Instead, the franchise will soon be moving to the small screen, with a television series
25:12distributed by the Disney Plus streaming platform.
25:15In 1994, Stargate seamlessly blended science fiction with Egyptian mythology.
25:20The film was a surprising hit, setting a new October opening weekend box office record
25:24at the time with $16 million, eventually earning $71 million domestic and $196 million worldwide.
25:31Filmmakers Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin had originally planned a trilogy of films,
25:35with each movie focusing on a different mythology.
25:38However, instead of continuing with Stargate, the duo parlayed their success into one of
25:42the biggest hits of the 90s with Independence Day.
25:45Meanwhile, MGM put the Stargate film series on hold thanks to the success of the TV series,
25:49which started in 1997 with Stargate SG-1.
25:52Twelve years after the original film, Devlin revealed plans for a sequel at 2006's San
25:57Diego Comic-Con, but it would be another eight years before a new Stargate was announced,
26:02this time as a remake.
26:03However, the failure of Independence Day resurgence in 2016 killed any interest in
26:08reviving Emmerich and Devlin's other 1990s sci-fi property, and the Stargate trilogy
26:12was officially canceled in 2018.
26:15The Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher Batman franchise broke the opening weekend record
26:19three times, but neither set of films ever got a proper send-off.
26:23Sure, while all four films are technically part of the same series, they feel like two
26:27different franchises as each director started strong but went off the rails in their second
26:32film.
26:32After moviegoers rejected each director's second film, neither one got to complete his
26:36trilogy.
26:37While Tim Burton never got to the scripting stage on Batman 3, rumors circulated that
26:41Michelle Pfeiffer was returning as Catwoman, and Robin Williams was set to play the Riddler.
26:46However, after Batman Returns terrified children and dropped 36 percent from Batman's worldwide
26:51gross, Burton was politely asked not to return, and Michael Keaton bailed.
26:55Joel Schumacher brought the series back to its record-breaking ways with Batman Forever
26:59in 1995.
27:00Following the film's success, Warner Bros. started planning a third Schumacher Batman
27:04movie before the sequel Batman & Robin was even released.
27:07However, Batman & Robin's critical and commercial failure in 1997 put Batman back in the cave
27:12for eight years, until Christopher Nolan rebooted the series yet again with Batman Begins.
27:17Boosted by strong reviews, the 1984 classic-comedy-horror hybrid Gremlins became a huge
27:23surprise hit, earning $153 million worldwide to become 1984's fourth-highest-grossing movie.
27:29Later in 1990, Gremlins 2 The New Batch earned a respectable amount of critical praise,
27:34but the mogwai magic had worn off, and the film only made $41 million.
27:38The Gremlin franchise was put on ice for decades, but screenwriter Chris Columbus
27:42said Gremlins 3 was on its way in 2018 and would be a full reboot.
27:47In April 2020, The Hollywood Reporter said that a new Gremlins was indeed set to arrive on HBO Max,
27:52but would presumably be a series. So while we do expect there to be more Gremlins in the future,
27:57a third film in the original franchise might never see the light of day.
28:01Austrian bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger was catapulted to worldwide fame as an
28:05action star with 1982's Conan the Barbarian, which earned $38 million domestically and
28:11$79 million worldwide on a $20 million budget.
28:15"'Conan, what is best in life? To crush your enemies,
28:20see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women?"
28:24A sequel was pushed into production, yet despite its lower $18 million budget,
28:28Conan the Destroyer proved Conan was a one-hit wonder, bombing with $26 million
28:33worldwide in the summer of 1984. The Terminator became a massive hit just a few months later,
28:38making Schwarzenegger one of the biggest stars of the 80s. After Terminator,
28:42Schwarzenegger passed on making Conan 3. But a few decades later,
28:45the former governor of California sought to make The Legend of Conan,
28:48playing the Barbarian as an aged king. When that project died a grisly death,
28:53an Amazon series was announced, but that was also scrapped, with Arnold claiming
28:57the rights holders were the issue. While screenwriter Chris Morgan hoped to breathe
29:01new life into Conan 3, the poor box office performance of Terminator Dark Fate stalled
29:05any hope for Schwarzenegger nostalgia projects.
29:09"...I won't be back."
29:11It seems that almost every movie gets a trilogy these days. Truth is, though, a number of hugely
29:16popular movies, each followed up by sequels, have yet to see a third installment join the
29:21franchise, and likely never will. These are the trilogies that will never be completed.
29:27Bringing a hilariously gruesome reverence to the world of superheroes long before Deadpool made his
29:33silver screen debut — no, we don't count X-Men Origins Wolverine, and neither should you — director
29:39Matthew Vaughn's adaptation of writer Mark Miller and artist John Romita Jr.'s Kick-Ass was a hit
29:44with critics and audiences alike, earning $48 million domestically and $97 million worldwide.
29:50Universal wisely played it safe, only spending $28 million on the sequel, but made a few critical
29:56errors in the meantime. The first being that it was released in 2013, a full five years after
30:01the original. The second was that directing duties were given to Jeff Wadlow, as Vaughn was occupied
30:06with X-Men First Class in 2011 and Kingsman The Secret Service in 2014. Critics KO'd Kick-Ass 2,
30:13with a 32% Tomatometer rating, a significant drop on the first movie, and it earned just $28
30:19million domestically and $63 million worldwide. While Vaughn revealed his hopes of directing both
30:25a prequel and a sequel in 2015, he eventually stuck to the Kingsman series instead. Given
30:30Kick-Ass 2's diminishing returns and the several years that have passed, it's probably fair to say
30:35that Kick-Ass and company won't be making a return anytime soon.
30:39With a combined $1.2 billion domestic and $2.29 billion worldwide box office across
30:47all his movies, Quentin Tarantino can pretty much call his own shots.
30:51Ooh, that's a bingo!"
30:56Still, one of his hardest sells was Kill Bill, a kung fu, spaghetti western, revenge thriller
31:01mishmash that was originally meant to be one four-hour film but was wisely split into two
31:07releases. Both Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2 were hits with the critics and both made
31:14a decent amount at the box office, although Vol. 2 saw a 14% drop on the first movie's takings.
31:20While the Kill Bill films were modest financial successes, Tarantino went over-budget and
31:25over-schedule on the movies, forcing him to cut a climactic beachside battle between the bride and
31:30Bill, and eventually having to miss the Cannes Film Festival. He revealed plans for Vol. 3 in
31:362004, suggesting it would follow Vernita Green's daughter as she sought revenge against the bride,
31:41with the hope being that Tarantino would begin filming 15 years later.
31:46While 15 years seemed like an impossibly long time then, 2019 came and went with no Vol. 3,
31:52and Tarantino conceded in 2012 that a third film was probably not happening.
31:57Probably not seemed to turn into definitely not when Uma Thurman called Tarantino out
32:03for a stunt that nearly killed her during filming on the first two. They have apparently
32:07buried the hatchet since, however, and now Tarantino says Vol. 3 is definitely in the cards.
32:12Believe it when you see it.
32:14Chinatown brilliantly mixed the film noir genre of the 1940s with the new Hollywood aesthetic
32:20of the 1970s and quickly became one of the definitive films of the latter decade. While
32:25its $29 million box office didn't break any records in 1974, the movie's 11 Oscar nominations
32:32and one win at the 1975 Academy Awards cemented its sterling reputation. While Chinatown is
32:38remembered as an all-time great today, however, its 1990 sequel has been practically forgotten.
32:45Jack Nicholson returned as private eye J.J. Jake Gittes in The Two Jakes,
32:49also stepping in for Roman Polanski as director, for pretty obvious reasons.
32:53The Two Jakes did all right with the critics, though it didn't blow anyone out of the water,
32:58and its box office performance was truly atrocious, earning just $10 million.
33:03Nicholson told MTV in 2007 that a third film, titled Gittes vs. Gittes, would have been set
33:09in 1968, following Jake as he goes through a divorce. Given Nicholson effectively retired
33:14in 2010, however, it seems that this pulp detective take on Kramer vs. Kramer will
33:19probably never see the light of day.
33:21"'Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown.'"
33:24Escape from New York introduced one of the most iconic characters ever conceived in the
33:30eye-patch-wearing, smack-talking Snake Plissken, played with a rebellious swagger by Kurt Russell.
33:36"'We'd make one hell of a team, Snake.
33:43The name's Plissken.'"
33:46While the film made a profitable $25 million worldwide on a $6 million
33:50budget in 1981, it wasn't the kind of breakaway blockbuster that demanded an immediate sequel.
33:56Carpenter and Russell focused on other projects for the rest of the 1980s,
34:00including their equally beloved collaboration Big Trouble in Little China. Meanwhile,
34:04Escape from New York's reputation continued to grow. So, in 1996, the duo returned for
34:10Escape from L.A. Releasing a sequel to a cult hit 15 years after the original was a risky bet,
34:16especially with a $50 million budget — twice what the original film even made.
34:22Unfortunately, Escape from L.A. face-planted with critics and
34:25bombed with crowds, earning just $25 million worldwide — much less than the first movie
34:31after inflation is taken into account, and with 10 times the production budget to boot.
34:36While an Escape from sequel wasn't going to theaters,
34:39there were plans for a TV series in the early 2000s, although they never amounted to anything.
34:44A remake was also announced in 2015 with Robert Rodriguez set to direct,
34:48though the movie's screenwriter has more recently said that the project is still in development.
34:53Everyone knows that, if you want to add prestige to your young adult movie franchise,
34:58you simply turn the final film into a two-parter. For a while, everyone seemed to be getting on
35:02board with the trend, from Harry Potter to Twilight to The Hunger Games. Of course,
35:06this was probably down to the fact that it's an incredibly easy way to make money,
35:11especially when you film both parts at once,
35:13and surely nobody would be foolish enough to only film part one of a two-parter, right?
35:19Enter The Divergent Series. The first movie managed $276 million worldwide on an $85
35:25million budget, while the second made $295 million against a $110 million budget,
35:31though its domestic opening weekend and box office were smaller than the first.
35:35That should have been a clue, but Lionsgate still went full steam ahead on the series'
35:39two-part conclusion. This wasn't a great move. The Divergent Series Allegiant tanked with $66
35:45million domestic and just $172 million worldwide. It was decided that spending the money to properly
35:51conclude the trilogy would be a waste, so the final installment was announced as a TV movie
35:56instead before being abruptly canceled. Still, you've got to give Lionsgate credit for releasing
36:01the first-ever two-and-a-half-film trilogy. The Wayne's World franchise is the most
36:08successful SNL film series ever, with both movies earning $169 million domestically and
36:14$231 million worldwide. Bringing in that much bacon usually spells more sequels,
36:20but instead we wound up with mediocre SNL spinoffs such as Superstar and The Ladies' Man, so
36:26what gives? Well, for one, Wayne's World 2 absolutely plummeted at the box office, earning
36:31$136 million less in 1993 than Wayne's World, a terrifying 76% drop in earnings. And while
36:39Paramount may have still been willing to produce Wayne's World 3, it sounds like the creative team
36:44just wasn't interested. Mike Myers left SNL in 1995 and went on to star in the hugely successful
36:50Austin Powers and Shrek franchises.
36:52"...Layers!"
36:53Dana Carvey, meanwhile, starred in his own short-lived TV show, The Dana Carvey Show,
36:58starting in 1996. In 1993, Entertainment Weekly had reported that the ego-swelling success of
37:04Wayne's World is taking its toll on the relationship between Myers and Carvey,
37:09which started when Myers wrote a draft of Wayne's World 2 that included plenty of Wayne, but
37:14not a lot of Garth. Couple that with Carvey's medical issues, and it's no surprise the world
37:19never got to see Wayne's World 3. Still, the duo at least reunited for an Uber Eats commercial
37:24during Super Bowl LV, which is probably as close to a third film as we'll ever get.
37:30When it comes to box office bankability, Denzel Washington is the king of Hollywood.
37:35In the gritty Equalizer series, Washington plays Robert McCall, a former Marine who
37:40comes out of self-imposed retirement to take on Russian mobsters. The Equalizer and The Equalizer
37:452 earned similarly impressive numbers at the box office, though the sequel cost 29% more than its
37:50predecessors. As such, Sony Pictures may have been cautious about spending more on a hypothetical
37:55Equalizer 3 and potentially earning less. Worse still, Denzel Washington doesn't seem interested
38:02in franchises in general. In fact, Equalizer 2 was his first and thus far only sequel.
38:08One person who is interested, however, is director Antoine Fuqua,
38:12who told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018,
38:14Personally, I'd love for it to happen. It would be great to do it again with Denzel.
38:18I'm looking forward to The Equalizer 3, if that happens. But it hasn't,
38:23and it doesn't look like it will — at least, not on the big screen.
38:26CBS recently rebooted the series on which the movies were based,
38:29premiering the show right after Super Bowl LV on February 7, 2021. In this iteration,
38:34Robert McCall is now Robin McCall, with Queen Latifah stepping in for Denzel Washington because
38:40if you don't have the king, you get the queen instead.
38:43Video game movies are generally synonymous with the word
38:46awful, but for one brief moment, it looked like the Mortal Kombat series would break the curse.
38:51And yes, obviously, 1995's Mortal Kombat is still bad, but it's at least bad in a fun kind of way.
38:58It also made a lot of money, earning $122 million worldwide on a $20 million budget.
39:04The studio rushed a sequel, which never turns out well, and despite its $30 million budget,
39:09Mortal Kombat Annihilation ended up looking like a sci-fi original. Its 2%
39:14Tomatometer score is the second worst in video game movie history,
39:18while the $51 million worldwide was a horrible 58% drop in takings.
39:23Now there's a franchise fatality for you.
39:26"...flawless victory."
39:28New Line Cinema had been banking on at least three Mortal Kombat films, however,
39:32and signed Robin Shou, who played Liu Kang, to a three-picture deal. Annihilation
39:38any chance of that happening. But a third film, reportedly titled Mortal Kombat
39:42Devastation, was apparently supposed to happen. The movie spent more than a decade in development
39:47hell before Warner Bros. purchased Midway Games, which owned Mortal Kombat for $33 million.
39:53Rather than throw good money after bad,
39:55Warner Bros. relaunched the series with an R-rated reboot in 2021.
40:00Jim Carrey had pretty much the best year ever in 1994, starring in back-to-back-to-back hits
40:07Ace Ventura Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber. The Mask was the biggest hit of the
40:12bunch by far, earning $351 million at the box office — incredible numbers for an ultra-violent,
40:19C-list character from Dark Force comics. Despite The Mask's insane profitability,
40:24the only sequel was 2005's horrible misfire Son of the Mask,
40:29which tanked with $59 million on a $100 million budget.
40:34"'Smokin'!"
40:37Carrey wisely sat that one out — an unsurprising choice, giving his longstanding distaste for
40:43sequels. However, it sounds like the star may be open to putting back on The Mask,
40:48as he told ComicBookNews.com in 2020,
40:50"...it would depend on a filmmaker. I don't want to just do it. But I would only do it
40:55if it was some crazy visionary filmmaker."
40:58So granted, Carrey sounds reluctant about the whole deal, but there were rumors in 2020 that
41:02Warner Bros. was considering both a female-led reboot more in line with the darker comic and two
41:07new Mask movies starring Carrey. Since then, there haven't been any updates on this potential
41:12franchise — and until Carrey warms to the idea, it's doubtful there ever will be.
41:18Both Basic Instinct movies drew in a bunch of money at the box office,
41:22with the first one earning $117 million domestically and $352 million worldwide in
41:271992, despite its mediocre critical reception. And while Strike While the Iron's Hot may not be
41:33a basic human instinct, it is Hollywood's mantra, making it all the more surprising
41:38that it took 14 years for Basic Instinct 2 to arrive on screens. Michael Douglas was out this
41:43time, but Sharon Stone returned as the psychotic novelist Catherine Tramiel. While the first movie
41:48made Stone a star, however, the sequel probably killed any chance of her headlining a film again.
41:54It tanked with the critics and did nothing for audiences, either, bringing in $35 million
41:58box office on a $70 million budget. You'd think that'd have killed the franchise Stone dead,
42:04but according to a 2006 Empire Online article, Stone was optimistic about a sequel, and she even
42:10hopes to direct. She said,
42:12There's a script for the next part of the story, but I would like to direct it rather than star in
42:16it."
42:16According to a 2013 HuffPost article, Stone has changed her mind about not starring in the film
42:21and is still eager to give Tramiel closure.
42:25In Crank, Jason Statham has to keep his adrenaline going to stay alive by any means necessary.
42:30In Crank 2 High Voltage, Statham's heart is replaced with a battery that needs constant
42:34jolts of electricity. What would have happened in Crank 3? Sadly, we'll never know.
42:40Crank cost $12 million and made $43 million worldwide. Cue sequel.
42:45Crank 2 High Voltage cost $20 million and made $35 million worldwide.
42:50So, game over, right? Well, co-director Mark Nevildine was confident the franchise
42:55would keep going, telling Empire Online in 2011,
42:58Crank 3 is going to happen. The studios are really excited about it. It's just all about timing."
43:04Four years later, Statham told We Got This Covered,
43:06I'd love to do it.
43:08Nevildine and co-creator Brian Taylor have to get their heads together,
43:11and if they want to do it, then there's a conversation.
43:13In 2018, Taylor told the movie Crypt podcast that given Crank 2's disappointing box office,
43:19it's got to be a great idea, something insane.
43:22Crank 3 should be as exponentially more f----- up than Crank 2 as Crank 2 was with Crank 1.
43:29The Blues Brothers was one of the best comedies of its era,
43:33and Blues Brothers 2000 was among the worst SNL movies ever. Nearly 20 years separated
43:39these two movies, but given the sequel lacked John Belushi or, you know, any redeeming value,
43:45it absolutely tanked, earning just $14 million at the box office.
43:49About 17 years later, commemorating the original's 35th anniversary,
43:53Dan Aykroyd told CBS News that if Universal ever wanted to make a third film,
43:57I have a story, of course, but it involves handing it off to a younger generation.
44:02Aykroyd was even more emphatic in a 2015 interview with the Daily Mail,
44:06telling the outlet that the Blues Brothers will return for a DVD and video-on-demand special,
44:12with Jim Belushi stepping in for his late brother. Aykroyd said,
44:16The focus will be on Elwood helping find a new generation to lead the Blues,
44:20and that idea is handing down to a new generation, finding a pair of girls who are 20, 21,
44:25and want to be the Blues Sisters. In a 2018 interview with ET Canada, Aykroyd even revealed
44:30his dream cast for this sequel, saying,
44:32I like Lupita Nyong'o, and I like Taylor Swift.
44:36Whether the Blues Sisters ever comes to pass, however, is pretty much anybody's guess.