10 Movie Franchises That Should Have Stopped At One Film
Part of the art is in knowing when to stop.
There is an inherent problem with a great movie that does big box office - the temptation to carry on milking that cash cow until it is utterly dried up. Truth is, there are virtually no sequels that are as good as the original that inspired them, ditto for prequels as well. Whatever it is that makes a movie great is caught in that momentary spark when everything coalesced to perfection. Sequels prove you can't catch that lightning in a bottle twice.
As soon as a movie does big business, the first thing the studio thinks is how can we do that again. Artistry goes by the wayside. As has often been said, Hollywood is ruled by fear. Fear of not making money, of not doing as well as another picture or of not maximising the last few dollars that can be squeezed out of a tired old concept.
The problem with endlessly recycling ideas is that creativity suffers. Most of the movies on this list are classics, written by people who wanted to create something new. If that same Hollywood fear had gripped them in the first place, we wouldn't have a fraction of the great iconic films that we return to time and again. Come on moviemakers, dare to be different, stop feeding us seconds!
Warning - there are some mild spoilers in this feature.
10. Pirates Of The Caribbean
The first Pirates Of The Caribbean movie was a surprising breath of fresh air, although by number five in the series that freshness had become stale to the point of asphyxiation. The greatest thing about the first entry was Johnny Depp's unexpected channelling of the essence of Keith Richards, with an impersonation so uncannily 'right', that Richards himself was even moved to make a cameo appearance in 2007's At World's End.
So what went wrong? Maybe the question should be 'what went right?' Answer, nothing - except that unfortunately for the quality of the movies, each subsequent entry managed to make enough money to justify dragging the whole sorry mess back time after time.
The films lasted longer and longer until it felt like we were watching them in real time. Depp's performance became unbearably arch, the joke was no longer funny. The plots lost coherence and all that seemed to matter was how to keep the franchise going.
Apparently entry number six in the interminable snore-fest is due in 2021, and given that, to date, the first five films have grossed approximately $4.5 billion, what are the odds that it will be the last? Slim to none methinks!