30 Movie Franchises That Started But Never Finished

Movie franchises make a lot of money and they are released in huge numbers every year. Many of them are high-grossing and subsequently get lots of sequels — in some cases, it can be ten or more!

With that being said, many sequels and franchises crash at the box office — meaning that they destroy the entire franchise.

#27 Divergent

After the film series Divergent was released, many people compared it to The Hunger Games franchise since both have similar plots. It had a good box-office debut, but overall it underperformed — not meeting the margins that had been hoped for.

The movie portrays the life of a girl named Tris where society is split up into classes, but she doesn’t want to be a part of any of them.

The first film did well but the second and third did poorly –making sure the fourth movie would never be made.

#26. Fantastic Four

In all the fantastic four movies, none of them have been able to be good enough to carry the comic series’ reputation. The first film adaptation in 2005 had stars like Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, and Ioan Gruffudd.

The second film adaptation, a series reboot, was taken apart by critics since the plot was unclear and the action was lackluster. With two crashing franchise starters, they’ve held off on making any more Fantastic Four movies.

#25. The Spiderwick Chronicles

Spiderwick Chronicles is a strange case. The film was set around three kids who are in a fantasy world full of mystical creatures and received good reception… so where did the franchise go? Well, no one really knows.

One theory is that since the film took the 5 novels of the franchise and combined them into one script, it made thinking of a second movie difficult.

#24. The Last Airbender

Normally, films aren’t quite as good as the TV series that inspired them. This was the situation with The Last Airbender. The animated series was a big hit but the movie was a bit of a letdown.

The series’ premise is about a boy with powers and it is prophesied that he will one day save the world. The movie has an entire season’s worth of events and characters crammed into one movie, and the outcome was bad.

People were let down and no other entries in the movie franchise were made.