10 Movie Franchises Ruined By One Dumb Decision

4. Not Listening To Sam Raimi - Spider-Man

After Sam Raimi made two hit Tobey Maguire-starring Spider-Man movies to a collective gross of $1.6 billion, he'd surely proven he knew a thing or two about what audiences wanted to see from the web-slinger.

But when Raimi was in the early stages of prepping Spider-Man 3, with Ben Kingsley set to the play the iconic supervillain the Vulture, producer Avi Arad vetoed the idea, insisting instead that the film introduce Venom as a major antagonist.

Raimi has made it abundantly clear over the years that he wasn't a fan of Venom, and unsurprisingly, the resulting film was an unenthused slog, with Venom (Topher Grace) proving easily the most disappointing aspect.

Still, it was a colossal box office hit regardless, and though Raimi was hired to return for Spider-Man 4, he ended up walking away due to creative issues, namely "hating" the various scripts he was given and also feeling that the fast-tracked production schedule wasn't long enough.

Given that Raimi was railroaded on Spider-Man 3, many have understandably assumed that this prompted the director to quit the sequel, after which the fourth film was cancelled entirely and Sony pushed ahead with an ill-advised reboot franchise instead.

As a result, Spider-Man fans went a whole 12 years without a quality movie featuring the web-slinger, as it wasn't until he made his MCU debut in Captain America: Civil War, as played by Tom Holland, that the iconic superhero's former glory was undeniably restored.

The lesson here? When talented artists are making you money, listen to them.