10 Horror Movie Franchises That Went Out With A Whimper
1. Jaws
The end result may have been awful, but Universal certainly went hard to make Jaws: The Revenge as big a deal as possible.
For this fourth and final Jaws picture, the $23 million budget represented the highest budget of any Jaws movie. Added to that, the legendary Michael Caine was brought into the fold and there were attempts made to bring back Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss as Martin Brody and Matt Hooper. Ellen Brody actress Lorraine Gary was also coaxed out of retirement for The Revenge, with Gary having retired from acting eight years prior with 1979's 1941.
Universal CEO Sidney Sheinberg saw Jaws: The Revenge as being the ideal way for the struggling studio to turn its fortunes round and to drum up renewed interest in the Universal Studios' Jaws ride. And while The Revenge did bring home a solid $50 million box office haul, that was vastly lower than the box office return of the previous three movies; Jaws netting over $450 million from a $9 million budget, Jaws 2 taking over $200 million from a $20 million budget, and Jaws 3-D earning nearly $90 million from its $18 million budget.
Of course, Jaws: The Revenge ended up being an absolute stinker, angering franchise fans by killing off Scheider's Chief Brody off-screen between movies, totally ignoring the events of Jaws 3-D - which, to be fair, wasn't the worst idea - and bafflingly focusing on a shark with a grudge so big against the Brody family, it followed Ellen from Amity Island to the Bahamas.