10 Movie Franchises That Set The Bar Too High For Themselves

Whenever a brave new film goes on to become a critical/financial success, the first question a production company tends to ask is 'How can we do this again...but BIGGER?'

Sometimes a series achieves this feat and produces yet another smash hit, topping the previous entry and setting the stage for years of steady income courtesy of beloved characters and an enticing world.

However, some film franchises unintentionally set the bar too high for themselves early on and therefore become victims of their own success further down the line. What was once a cherished feat of filmmaking can soon become a frustrating measuring stick for all subsequent sequels/prequels.

How can you top a T-Rex fighting off Velociraptors next to a huge dino-skeleton? Is it possible to have too many Xenomorphs? What happens after 'Happily Ever After'?

These film franchises all learnt the answers to those questions the hard way and haven't been able to reach the heights that they once did (either commercially or critically) in earlier entries.

There's still time, however, and in the future we could be forced to eat our words if Jurassic World III turns out to be a 2021 Oscar contender.

Yet, as of writing, these ten movie franchises have all unquestionably struggled to live up to the high standards of their predecessors.

When Ridley Scott first introduced us to the terrifying alien known as the Xenomorph back in 1979, a lot of critics didn't quite no what to make of this creature and the film it called home.

Roger Ebert noted that the film was 'basically just an intergalactic haunted house thriller set inside a spaceship'.

Yet, it was this meshing of the sci-fi and horror genres (on top of the film's impressive Academy Award winning visual effects) which helped turn Alien into a surprise box office sensation. Raking in a substantial $203 million from a mere $14 million budget, this success eventually paved the way for another huge hit in the form of James Cameron's Aliens in 1986.

Fans clearly couldn't get enough of this world and welcomed the shift from suspense filled horror feature to high octane space action flick.

However, these first two entries proved to be tough acts to follow as Alien III, Alien Resurrection, Prometheus (it counts!) and Alien Covenant all failed to recapture the magic of those earlier classics.

Variety reported in 2019 that another Alien prequel is currently in the 'script phase' with Scott returning to direct.

Will he finally be able to hatch a beautiful little monster again or are we set for even more rotten eggs?