10 Movie Franchises That Died In 2021
5. Home Alone
Can we finally, finally accept that the Home Alone franchise is dead and buried for good now?
While the general public is scarcely conscious of any of the movies beyond the Macaulay Culkin-starring first two, we're now six films deep into this shambling zombie of a franchise.
The theatrically-released Home Alone 3, focused on a new kid, was a modest commercial success back in 1997, but not enough for Fox or John Hughes to push for a direct sequel.
After this, the made-for-TV follow-up Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House was aired in 2002 to near-universal disdain from critics and fans alike, enough that few bothered to pay much attention to the next TV movie sequel, Home Alone: The Holiday Heist, which was also panned.
But with Disney attempting to regurgitate every brand name in their cachet in order to prop up Disney+, it was of course just a matter of time before Home Alone got the reboot treatment, and late last year the execrable Home Sweet Home Alone hit the streaming platform.
While not quite as insultingly terrible as the two previous films, this was still a cynical, lazy cash-in with little viable reason to exist beyond gross brand awareness, resulting in a brutal critical drubbing.
Now, it's important to distinguish that success means something completely different for streaming-exclusive films, and if a movie gets enough eyeballs on it reviews really don't matter at all.
Yet given that Disney hasn't publicly disclosed viewing figures for the film - something they enthusiastically did for streaming successes such as Black Widow and Jungle Cruise - one can certainly infer it hasn't much moved the needle for them.
Disney clearly hoped that viewers who grew up with the Culkin-starring originals would watch the new film with their own children, but given the vitriol from fans, it's far more likely they just showed their kids the first two instead.
On the plus side, this just might be the final nail in the coffin for a franchise that hasn't been good in almost three decades. Then again, Disney could decide to try again with a TV series reboot - but let's not give them ideas, now.