8 Lessons Studios Must Learn To Avoid Making Box-Office Duds

Given that cinematic universes are still relatively new, this is a problem that's only recently started to rear its head, but it's proving quite a troublesome one for studios.

Because they all want their own Marvel-esque cinematic universe, they'll focus their efforts on crafting a movie built specifically for that purpose, rather than making a good movie that can stand on its own.

Numerous projects over the last few years have been guilty of this, and audiences (as well as critics) haven't responded kindly.

Tom Cruise's The Mummy was a domestic failure, with critics rightly pointing out that it seemed more focused on future instalments in The Dark Universe than accomplishing anything as a standalone movie.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2, while it did turn a profit, is the lowest-grossing Spider-Man movie domestically. That too was a result of its poor reception, its attempts to create numerous spinoffs and sequels proving that audiences don't want to be sold the next movie while they're watching the current one.

There is a right way to build a franchise. The original Iron Man is a damn good movie even if you remove every single MCU reference, and it reaped the financial rewards. But making the franchise the whole point of the first movie will only ensure that it stumbles at the first hurdle.