10 Horror Movie Sequels That Killed Franchises

There's probably a fair argument to be made that Stanley Kubrick's The Shining didn't ever need to be a franchise at all, because it's such a perfectly formed one-off that said and did everything that the story needed to. But Hollywood sure loves adapting Stephen King novels, and so when the author penned a follow-up, Doctor Sleep, in 2013, of course, they were going to make it.

And once they got the great Mike Flanagan on board to write and direct, with Ewan McGregor signed to play an adult Danny Torrance, it was tough not to be excited.

To be fair to Flanagan, he absolutely delivered a worthy follow-up to The Shining, albeit one that flopped catastrophically at the box office, grossing just $72.4 million on a $55 million budget. As a result, plans for a direct sequel focused on the character Abra Stone (Kyliegh Curran) and a prequel revolving around Dick Hallorann (Carl Lumbly) were both scrapped by Warner Bros., making it intensely unlikely that the studio will make another Shining film any time soon, if ever.

Though various TV projects have been in the works for years, it seems like the failure of Doctor Sleep shook the confidence of just about everyone with a financial stake in The Shining IP.

But frankly, that's just fine - the two great movies we got from Kubrick and Flanagan are plenty.