10 Movie Franchises That Probably Just Died
3. Ice Age
Once upon a time, Ice Age was an absolute juggernaut at the box office, what with the five theatrically released films grossing an astonishing $3.2 billion worldwide.
While it's fair to say that 2016's Ice Age: Collision Course marked the series' decline with audiences - grossing $408.5 million, less than half its predecessor - the series' sensible budgeting ensured it still turned a solid profit.
Development of a sixth film stalled somewhat when Ice Age studio Blue Sky Studios was acquired by Disney in 2019, and last year Disney closed Blue Sky amid the economic impact of the pandemic.
At this point the franchise pivoted to servicing Disney+, with the release of the recent Scrat Tales shorts - produced by Blue Sky before their closure - and a spin-off film, The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild, which was outsourced to Bardel Entertainment.
The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild was centered around Simon Pegg's one-eyed weasel Buck, yet Pegg was the only original cast member to appear, with every other voice actor being replaced with a presumably cheaper alternative.
The spin-off was panned by critics and received mediocre notices from audiences, criticising the slack script, absent cast members, and most of all the cruddy, cheap animation quality.
Though Disney still lists a sixth mainline Ice Age film as in development, The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild is a pretty damning indictment of how little Disney actually cares about the IP, so don't be surprised if it never materialises.
Considering that some of Blue Sky's animators released a brief farewell short to fans earlier this year - in which Scrat finally got his damn acorn - it actually feels like the right time to close up shop.