Any writer will tell you that coming up with a good ending can be difficult. In general, you want to stay true to what has come before while at the same time providing a satisfying resolution. Coming up with a good ending for a movie can be particularly frustrating because you have to factor in the audiences expectations. You dont want them to leave the theater feeling like theyve been cheated. Today, it seems like every other DVD release contains an alternate ending. They all provide glimpses into what might have been had the filmmakers chosen to go a different way. And on very rare occasions, they show how films that spawned franchises might have remained standalones.
5. Clerks
Now this one technically isnt a franchise in the traditional sense but it is a series of interconnected films. The View Askewniverse as creator Kevin Smith calls it. In addition to films like Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Dogma, Clerks was followed by an animated series and a sequel. But none of that would have happened if Smith hadnt cut the films last scene. As originally scripted and filmed, Clerks ends on a downbeat note as main character Dante Hicks is gunned down in cold blood. On the DVD commentary, Smith admits that the View Askewniverse as we know it would not exist if he had kept this ending: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1le7VzB8P8