1. John Carter
Few films in recent years have become as synonymous will the term "flop" as Disney's 2012 feature John Carter. Fans of Edgar Rice Burroughs' genre-defining science fiction adventure series John Carter of Mars waited close to a century for the novels to find their way to the big screen. If the blandly titled John Carter could hit the mark then a cavalcade of sequels would follow. Warning signs loomed early for the bloated production that found the would-be franchise starter's budget spiralling disastrously out of control. Once costs reached $250 million, John Carter's chances of producing a sequel-worthy box office became virtually nil. Paul Dergarabedian of Hollywood.com noted that"
John Carters bloated budget would have required it to generate worldwide tickets sales of more than $600 million to break even...a height reached by only 63 films in the history of moviemaking." John Carter went on to make just over $280 million at the worldwide box office. Disney intended John Carter to be the first in a trilogy but once the numbers started coming in the studio put their follow-up into permanent limbo. There you have it, 10 franchises that exploded on the launchpad before lift-off. What other franchise nonstarters did we miss? Let us know in the comments below.