10 Movie Franchises That Destroyed Themselves With ONE Decision

4. Going Meta - Gremlins

Unlike most of the franchise-annihilating films on this list, Gremlins: The New Batch is actually a fantastic movie - better than the original in fact.

The problem, however, is that it just wasn't a terribly appealing commercial prospect for mainstream fans of the first, largely ditching its genuinely disturbing horror-tinged tone for a lighter and more surreal satire.

Director Joe Dante ultimately only agreed to return for the sequel because he was both given full creative control and a budget more than four-times that of the original, allowing him to bring every wacky idea he had to fruition.

And Gremlins: The New Batch is basically a live-action cartoon, an hilariously outlandish lampoon of corporate America which amps up the absurdity in every which direction, and proves all the more entertaining as a result.

But it just wasn't what mainstream audiences were expecting after the more sober original, and so they largely left well alone, with the sequel grossing a pathetic $41.5 million worldwide - less than 20% of what Gremlins made.

Though talk of a new sequel or reboot resurfaces every few years, the franchise has currently been in the deep freeze for more than 30 years.