10 Horror Movies You Didn't Know Got Cancelled

Escape Room feels like one of those golden goose ideas that could go on for a long time; just toss a bunch of unsuspecting meat sacks into a series of creatively lethal escape rooms, and you've got a potentially fun horror flick.

The second film in the series, Escape Room: Tournament of Champions, was released in 2021 and quite decisively teed up a third picture with a cliffhanger that left the fates of protagonists Zoe (Taylor Russell) and Ben (Logan Miller) up in the air. And while director Adam Robitel was initially confident about Escape Room 3, four years on, all word on the film has basically dried up. 

Though Escape Room 3 hasn't been formally cancelled, Robitel did add that a green light was dependent on Tournament of Champions' box office performance. It may have grossed a solid $65.8 million against its mere $15 million budget, but this was considered a disappointing figure given the first film's stonking $155.7 million gross, even accepting the impact the pandemic had on general moviegoing in 2021.

Diminishing returns being what they are, Columbia Pictures likely appreciated that a third Escape Room would gross even less while probably costing more. Plus, given that star Taylor Russell has blown up considerably since the release of the last film, there's no guarantee that she'd even be interested in returning.

They needed to strike while the iron was hot with this one, and so, combined with the underwhelming commercial performance of the second feature, it's safe to say that Escape Room 3 is dead in the water.