10 Iconic Movies That Spawned A Thousand Imitators

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone saw Warner Bros. capture a cultural phenomenon, bottle it, mass market it, weaponize it and sell it to the masses to the tune of multi-billion dollar success. Despite the fact that very few literary properties in history had a fanbase as large or as passionate as the Wizarding World, Hollywood began snapping up the rights to virtually every vaguely-similar book series they could get their hands on regardless.

At the height of Harry Potter's success, if there were a string of novels that appealed to both younger viewers and older audiences alike, then there was an extremely high chance that a movie adaptation would be in the works. Out of them all, only The Twilight Saga and The Hunger Games managed to find any lasting appeal.

The last decade is littered with the remains of Potter-inspired projects that failed at the first hurdle. Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, I Am Number Four, The Fifth Wave, Mortal Engines, Stormbreaker, Vampire Academy, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Inkheart, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones and a whole lot more all attempted to follow in Harry's footsteps and fell flat on their faces as a result.