20 Recent Box Office Bombs EVERYONE Saw Coming

Renny Harlin's The Strangers trilogy is cinema's most recent blatant example of the law of diminishing returns.

The three slasher films were shot consecutively at a budget of $8.5 million a-piece, with Chapter 1 grossing an impressive $48.2 million, but the generally rotten reception ensured a steep drop for Chapter 2, which netted just $22 million - less than half its predecessor's haul.

And so, it as a sure bet that Chapter 3 would drop further, but even so, its mere $8.6 million total marked an absolutely brutal, precipitous drop from the two previous films.

Given this new trilogy's failure to win itself a loyal fanbase and the general lack of enthusiasm about this trilogy-capping instalment, it was a basically neon-signposted outcome.

And above all else, this entire venture seems totally short-sighted on the part of Lionsgate - curling out three terrible movies that have probably killed the brand's ongoing appeal with horror fans, all for the sake of a relatively modest box office take.