The very notion of a "movie franchise" speaks volumes: in essence, a movie franchise exists to convince audiences to spend as much cash on a single product as possible. And once you have somebody hooked into an idea, concept or character, chances are that you can probably exploit them for at least a couple of years, selling fans the same premise for as long as possible, until finally - exhausted and disillusioned - they fall by the wayside, spluttering the words: "No, that really is last time I see a Transformers movie!" In short, then: franchises, in general, get a bad wrap. A lot of the time, they totally deserve their earned reputations as cash-grabbing scum, especially when said franchises start out terribly to begin with - you can't sympathise with filmmakers who clearly don't give a damn. But occasionally you might find yourself feeling sorry for a franchise that, once upon a time, was the toast of the cinema scene... or looked as though, with a few more solid installments, might have entered the pantheon of greats. The worst occurs when a franchise that contains a good movie or two ends up remembered for the wrong reasons entirely: reasons that don't really have anything to do with the movies themselves, or because their reputations have been tarnished by outside events that could not be controlled. Sometimes a franchise will garner a reputation based on what it didn't do, whilst overlooking its successes. Here, then, are 10 major franchises that - ultimately - will be remembered for all the wrong reasons...
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
