10 Horror Movie Franchises That Overstayed Their Welcome

5. Paranormal Activity

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Universal Pictures

The Paranormal Activity series is the perfect example of a franchise that can continue on regardless of quality, all because it costs so little to make these movies.

Famously, Oren Peli's original Paranormal Activity had an initial budget of just $15,000... and would eventually bring home $193 million at the global box office. Those numbers are obviously absolutely insane, and you can clearly see why the film would be revisited with a sequel or two. To be fair, the first few sequels were actually extremely good, too.

Where quality is concerned, the PA series would've done well to call it a day after the third movie. If so, we'd have seen Katie tormented in Paranormal Activity, her sister Kristi likewise spooked in Paranormal Activity 2, and then seen these siblings younger days and their first interactions with the Tobi entity explored in prequel Paranormal Activity 3.

Of the four films to have followed after PA3, only one - The Ghost Dimension - was realistically any good, but again, the relatively cheap cost of making these found-footage features means it's easy to turn a strong profit regardless of quality. As such, the series has taken an insane total box office haul of $890 million from a cumulative budget of just $28 million.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.