10 Movie Franchises That Died In 2017

2. The Alien Prequels

The Franchise: The tangential Alien prequel franchise began of course with 2012's Prometheus, a critically-praised sci-fi romp, albeit one that proved much more divisive with fans. Still, it made an easy $400+ million worldwide against a $130 million budget, and a sequel was quickly given the greenlight.

That sequel didn't materialise until this past summer with Alien: Covenant, which director Ridley Scott promised would serve as an apology for Prometheus' more divisive elements.

More to the point, Covenant was intended to be the launching pad for several more movies featuring Michael Fassbender's inquisitive, villainous android David, with Scott suggesting there could be as many as six more Alien films.

What Happened?: Though critics praised Covenant, fans weren't happy once again, and the film ended up grossing just $240.7 million against its $97 million budget.

While not a bomb by any means, such a steep drop from Prometheus' haul has left Fox re-evaluating the future of the franchise. Though Scott claims that Covenant's sequel is already being written, it's hard to believe that Fox will officially sign off on another movie in this sub-franchise which could perform even worse after fans expressed so much dislike for the first two.

What's much more probable is that Fox's already-discussed soft reboot of the core Alien franchise will be pushed forward, with a new setting and characters that nevertheless still features the xenomorph.

This has the added benefit of potentially allowing Fassbender's David a chance to re-appear, but a direct follow-up to Covenant is pretty much off the table at this point.