10 More Movies Already Cancelled In 2019 (And Why)

8. Happy Death Day 3

What We Knew

After 2017's Happy Death Day grossed a stonking $125 million on a mere $5 million budget, the hit horror-comedy seemed primed to become the next big genre franchise for Blumhouse Productions. Barely six months after the release of the first film, the sequel, Happy Death Day 2U, had already gone before cameras.

Before the second film hit cinemas, writer-director Christopher Landon already talked up a "really bonkers and fun idea" he had for an expected threequel, which would apparently shift genres yet again, while further building on the expanded world implied by the first sequel.

Why It Was Cancelled & The Future

Happy Death Day 2U ended up massively under-performing at the box office relative to its predecessor, raking in "only" $64.2 million against a $9 million budget.

Though that's still an enviable cost-to-profit ratio, it grossed barely half of what the first film did, prompting Blumhouse head Jason Blum to call a third film "not very [likely] but not impossible."

Blumhouse has a reputation for making canny, low-risk investments, and clearly Blum wasn't convinced that a third film would be able to recover the series' box office momentum.

The "not impossible" statement likely means that over-the-odds performance on home video could save the doomed threequel, but it's tough to imagine Blum investing much more time or effort in a fringe prospect when he's got so many other promising movies on his slate.

The franchise is done before it ever really got started, sadly.