4. Halloween
John Carpenter's 1978
Halloween remains a classic of the horror genre, and helped establish the slasher film, a sub-genre that still stands as hugely popular today. On a budget of merely $325,000, Carpenter turned a $55m profit with audiences who were just realising that, in fact, they quite liked having the shit scared out of them. Of course, this spawned what would be the first big horror franchise, leading the gate for series like A Nightmare On Elm Street and Friday the 13th. However, the next five instalments turned only a small profit - owing to the low production costs of the franchise - and were largely panned by critics. It wasn't until
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later in 1998, that the series was adequately rejuvenated, likely thanks to a returning Jamie Lee Curtis, outdoing most of the previous films both monetarily and critically. The next sequel,
Halloween Resurrection, which offed Curtis' series protagonist, proved less popular, grossing $37m against a $13m budget, causing the series to be rebooted under the eye of Rob Zombie. However, the pattern was repeated, and after a successful first film, the follow-up to the reboot,
H2, grossed only $38m against a $15m budget. Platinum Dunes are currently planning what to do with the franchise, and it is rumoured that they may attempt to reboot the series, because, you know, that worked so well last time... Though the series, which now has 10 films to its name, has already thoroughly tarnished the legacy of the original film, it's only going to get worse with this possible reboot inbound.