20 Movie Franchises That Carried On For Way Too Long

14. Hannibal Lecter

The Movies: Manhunter (1986), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Hannibal (1998), Red Dragon (2002), Hannibal Rising (2007) Michael Mann's Manhunter served as the first cinematic introduction to Dr Hannibal Lecktor (sic) and despite a great performance from Brian Cox, the hugely stylized and subtly suspenseful movie would become largely forgotten in the wake of Anthony Hopkins' instantly-iconic take on everybody's favorite cannibal that came five years later. Which is a shame, as it's a massively underrated gem. Of course, Jonathon Demme's adaptation of Silence of the Lambs would sweep the Academy Awards to become only the third film in history to win the 'Big Five'; picking up wins for Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Adapted Screenplay. The powerful psychological thriller was also a huge commercial success, grossing over $270m against a $19m budget. A bona-fide modern classic, the crime/horror hybrid became embedded in popular culture, and was one of the most popular movies of the decade. Ten years later, Jonathon Demme and Jodie Foster decided not to return for the hugely-anticipated sequel, but solid replacements were found in Ridley Scott and Julianne Moore. Despite the undoubted pedigree of the creative team they would never be able to recapture the magic of the first entry, and the result was a well-shot, yet bloated and shallow, borderline tedious movie that nonetheless managed to gross upwards of $350m worldwide. Four years later Brett Ratner was handed the reins of the franchise to offer a new take on Red Dragon, and despite the best efforts of a massively talented cast the end result was nothing special and hardly broke new ground for the franchise. The final nail in the coffin for the already-creaking franchise came with 2007's Hannibal Rising, a completely unnecessary prequel that attempted to sell itself merely on the strength of the Hannibal Lecter brand. Thankfully, the movie bombed at the box office (making less in its entire domestic run than the previous two movies had grossed in their opening weekend) and the cinematic adventures of 'Hannibal the Cannibal' drew to a hugely anticlimactic end.