10 Horror Movie Franchises That Overstayed Their Welcome

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.