10 Movie Franchises That Died In 2017

7. Cars

The Franchise: The Cars franchise has always been the black sheep of Pixar's library of hit movies, with the 2006 original being the studio's first film to receive mixed reviews, in spite of a $462.2 million box office.

The 2011 follow-up grew to a healthy $562.1 million worldwide total, but scored just 39% on Rotten Tomatoes, making it Pixar's first and only critically Rotten movie to date.

With its impressive box office and tendency to sell billions in toy car and lunchbox merch, though, it seemed clear the series wasn't going anywhere, and this year a third movie finally rolled along.

What Happened?: Though Cars 3 was universally deemed an improvement over its predecessor, it grossed just $383.2 million worldwide against a sizeable $175 million budget, making it the studio's fourth lowest-grossing movie to date.

Though Cars 3 does end with a surprisingly decent sequel hook, it's hard to imagine there being much interest in a Cars 4 when Pixar can either explore potentially more successful new ideas or make sequels to their more-celebrated series such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles.

Given that the aforementioned merch flies off the shelves regardless of whether there's a new Cars movie out or not, it's clearly not in Pixar's interest to keep churning out films that few are actually interested in watching. Cars 4 just isn't necessary when the wares can sell itself.