10 Movie Endings That Basically Doomed Their Franchise
10. Superman Dies...But Nobody Cares - Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice
The Ending
During the heroes' final battle against Doomsday (Robin Atkin Downes), Superman (Henry Cavill) is mortally wounded and dies, after which a funeral is held for the fallen hero, before the film's final shot hints at his impending resurrection.
Why It Doomed The Franchise
To be fair, the DC Extended Universe was very nearly derailed right out of the gate by the wildly divisive Man of Steel, which was widely criticised for its huge amounts of collateral damage and the decision to have Supes snap General Zod's (Michael Shannon) neck.
Batman v Superman was intended to be a corrective, then, and the marketing seemed to suggest Snyder might actually pull it off.
But then the movie came out, and Snyder made the ill-advised decision to kill off the Man of Steel way too early, only to suggest his return literally minutes later.
The problem is that Man of Steel and Batman v Superman both reinterpreted the iconic superhero as a dour, charmless dope, such that nobody really cared when he died.
This had the unfortunate knock-on effect of rendering his revival in Justice League completely flat and underwhelming, unaided by Henry Cavill's infamous mustache debacle and heaps of obvious re-shoots.
Justice League then grossly under-performed at the box office amid the blatant lack of fan interest, and though the DCEU is technically still a franchise, it's clearly moving away from the ensemble model and banking instead on standalone hits such as Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Shazam.
Honestly, it wouldn't be a surprise if we don't see a Justice League 2 for years, if ever, and it's all because of Batman v Superman.