10 Sequels That Were Cancelled Due To Box Office Flops

You have to kind of feel sorry for people who backed The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. It came out at a time when Harry Potter and The Hunger Games were all the rage, and must've seemed like a real safe bet.

The only problem was that the market was already saturated with Young Adult novel adaptations, and this was the franchise that people kind of deemed to be a step too far, as if to say: "I accepted Percy Jackson, but please, God, no more."

Without any notable stars or anything to separate it from the pack, it was doomed.

So, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, based on the series of the same name by Cassandra Clare, arrived feeling like the cinematic equivalent of the guy who arrives at the party when everyone has gone home and there are three people left drunkly cleaning up. Not only was it met with terrible reviews, it made only $90 million on a budget of $30 million; not the worst box office result ever, but nowhere near enough to keep the franchise alive.

Still, the sequel, City of Ashes, didn't die straight away; Screen Gems committed to it, and claimed production would begin in 2014. It didn't, but the studio insisted it was definitely happening. Now, it's three years later and everybody has forgotten that this franchise ever existed.