10 Big Budget Movie 'Franchise Starters' That Totally Failed
6. Van Helsing (2004) Budget: $160m/Total Gross: $300.2m
Rebooting Dracula's dusty old nemesis Abraham into the younger, more Hugh Jackman-shaoed Gabriel and positioning him as a Vatican-sponsered monster hunter is, quite frankly, a great idea for a franchise. Alas, as with most Stephen Sommers movies Van Helsing soon becomes a melting pot of half-formed ideas, poor dialogue and CGI excess. There is a good movie buried somewhere within Van Helsing. The black and white opening scene is brilliantly old school and is in keeping with the tragedy inherent in Frankenstein's Monster. The airborne assault on the beautifully constructed Transylvanian village is suitably tense and atmospheric, and the mirror scene at Dracula's ball is the best in the movie by far. After setting up the characters, Van Helsing quickly escalates and soon becomes set-piece after set-piece, leaving no time for such trifles as characterization and a logical plot. The dialogue is at times cringeworthy, the plot twists obvious and the performances all over the place; Richard Roxburgh's Dracula is one of the poorest ever committed to film, David Wenham's Carl is more irritating than anything, and Kate Beckinsdale's love interest is little more than an accent in a corset. Despite opening with a $57.1m weekend and going on to become the 13th highest-grossing film of the year, Van Helsing suffered from poor reviews and ultimately made less than either of Sommers' entries in the Mummy franchise. It remains a true guilty pleasure, but also a huge missed opportunity.