8 Once-Popular Movie Franchises (That Will Never Work Again)

2. It's Not Had A Success In Decades - Terminator Genisys

2015 was the year mega-franchises came home to roost. Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Jurassic World, Spectre - it was a smörgåsbord of nostalgia. Joining them was Terminator Genisys, which was being pushed as another big-hitter, but it ended up sticking out like a sore thumb.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day was the then-most expensive movie ever made and also one of the most successful. Because of that (it turned $100 million into $500 million), there's this belief Terminator is a perpetually relevant, universally-beloved series. And even though any attempts this century to prove that have failed miserably - Rise Of The Machines barely made a profit and Salvation actually lost money - Hollywood trundles on tossing the rights around waiting for the inevitable hit.

That hit, however, won't arrive because (and here's the shocking twist) Terminator isn't a big blockbuster franchise. Oh, it's certainly treated as one in terms of budget, but aside from that one success back in 1991 (when the main audience of Genisys weren't even born) it's never had any mainstream popularity to back it up; the first film was an indie sci-fi and nowadays the second is popular, but only to genre fans (which, thanks to being a vocal minority on the internet appear a bigger force than they are).

Terminator's a niche property through-and-through, and any attempts to turn into something more mainstream are doomed to fail - the bite of (the very much awesome) first two the fans want is lost in favour of pandering to regular cinema-goers who have limited interest in the property. Now that's a paradox.