10 Major 2014 Films That Will Probably Kill Their Franchise

2. Robocop

Although it's very tempting to try and forget it, Paul Verhoven's Robocop was far from the be all and end all of the franchise; multiple cartoon and live action TV series, videogames and, of course sequels all followed. It even got the honour of a string of semi-rip offs (rumour has it Mel Gibson even ripped off some of the themes for The Passion Of Christ). And it'd be pretty naive to think MGM didn't have similar plans with the remake, which was first conceptualised almost ten years ago. Although the film didn't get as harsh a critical grubbing as expected, those who treat the original as gospel weren't impressed and neither were audiences; taking marketing into account the film ended up being a minor loss. Unlike Dredd there's not going to be a fanbase keen to snap up DVDs, making Robocop the latest failure in a long line of films that attempt to bring together two of audiences' biggest bug-bears; remakes and the potential for endless sequels. Remember when the makers of Carrie were keen to emphasise it was an origin story? Or when Ash popped up after the credits of Evil Dead? It's all to build towards more movies and more money. With a budget of $130 million, Robocop had all the money of a sequel builder (despite its ending, which, while not sequel-proof, makes a follow-up a narrative challenge) but none of the form.