20 Movie Franchises That Carried On For Way Too Long

By Scott Campbell /

8. Underworld

The Movies: Underworld (2003), Underworld: Evolution (2006), Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009), Underworld: Awakening (2012) Despite an interesting central concept and some stylishly Gothic production design, the first movie was an unforgivably dull affair, with poorly-written characters delivering OTT performances. It found a niche at the box office though, and ultimately recouped $95.7m worldwide from a $22m budget. Underworld: Evolution followed three years later with double the budget, yet seemed to make no improvement in terms of story and characters. Still, it managed to gross over $110m worldwide. Running out of ideas for your franchise? Why, make a prequel of course! Despite winning performances from Bill Nighy and Michael Sheen, the final product was merely more of the same only this time with less Kate Beckinsdale, and Rise of the Lycans would deliver the lowest box-office returns of the franchise. Like many a seemingly burnt-out franchise, the Underworld series was given a shiny new coat of 3D, and Awakening was released in January 2012, grossing upwards of $160m worldwide. Despite never amounting to more than middling box office and unenthusiastic critical response, the Underworld franchise should be commended for even making it to four movies, but let's just leave it at that shall we?