10 Directors Who Bailed On Their Own Movie Franchises (But Should Have Stuck Around)

8. Steven Spielberg - Jurassic Park

Steven Spielberg's legacy as a blockbuster filmmaker speaks for itself, and few of his films are as genuinely thrilling as Jurassic Park, a marvel of tripwire tension and jaw-dropping special effects which have aged incredibly well.

Once the film was a major box office smash, Spielberg reportedly pressured the novel's writer, Michael Crichton, for a sequel, which eventually became the basis for the misguided Spielberg-directed The Lost World. The film blew up the box office but was critically divisive, causing Spielberg to exit the franchise as a director, swearing off sequels for the rest of his career and instead sticking to that snazzy producer credit.

Joe Johnston's Jurassic Park III was mediocre but the question of what could have been still hangs over the series.