10 Sequels That Were Cancelled Due To Box Office Flops
2. Green Lantern 2
Ryan Reynolds might be hot stuff now, but prior to his recent success with Deadpool ($761 million in global takings, in case you're wondering) he was considered to be "box office poison." As in, you put the guy in a movie, and you're almost definitely going to lose a bunch of money.
No Ryan Reynolds venture proved this as much as Green Lantern did; intended as the first installment in a huge, Marvel Cinematic Universe-sized mega-franchise, it turned out that nobody was interested in actually seeing it; it didn't help that the movie in question was terrible, which was kind of unexpected given that it had been helmed by Casino Royale's Martin Campbell, a usually reliable director.
Made on a budget of $200 million, Green Lantern was expected to pull in somewhere in the region of $600-700 million. It didn't. Poor reviews and negative word of mouth resulted in the film taking a measly $220 million, which means that - marketing budget considered - Warner Bros. lost a hell of a lot of money.
You can guess what happened next: the proposed sequel flick, set to be penned by Michael Goldenberg (who co-wrote the first one and the fifth Harry Potter film), was cancelled and the whole cinematic universe idea was put on the scrap heap.