Whenever a film comes out, few people would expect it to become a franchise with sequels, spin-offs, video-games, or what have you. It usually happens when the initial film makes a ton of money and is popular with the general audiences. Star Wars, Star Trek, X-men, any of the Marvel or DC movies, Friday the 13th, and what have you. These franchises make money because people go to see and enjoy these films. I know I do. But what about franchises that absolutely refuse to die, despite the fact that nobody really goes to see these movies anymore? How are these films still getting made? I would imagine they still have an audience, albeit a rather small one, but it’s not enough people to really warrant putting forth millions of dollars. That’s why you see some of these franchises go direct-to-video. That’s not necessarily a bad thing as certain franchises like the Undisputed sequels have been really good. So, for this list, I’m going to talk about the franchises that have mysteriously continued to exist against all odds. Stuff like Star Wars and the Fast and Furious franchises will be kept off this list because those films have a massive audience. So, let’s have a bit of fun with this one, shall we?
Tremors
Here’s one that I don’t think anybody expected a sequel to, let alone an entire film and television series. The original Tremors is considered to be a cult classic by many, myself included. It’s a perfect homage to the monster movies of the 50s spiced up with its own brand of humor. Starring Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward, Tremors sees a small desert town being attacked by giant man-eating worms. It’s a premise that’s as ridiculous as it sounds, but it works. It’s funny, exciting and scary at the same time. The first sequel, Aftershocks was released in 1995 with Back to Perfection in 1999. A prequel was released in 2004 and was set in the Wild West. Between those two films, a television series debuted on the Sci-Fi channel, but only lasted 13 episodes. A 5th and 6th film were released in 2015 and 2017 respectively. A seventh film, Island Fury is currently in production and is set to be released within a year or two. You know what’s really funny? I don’t think there’s a bad film here. Yeah, they’re not great, but the sequels were really not meant for the wider audience. These films were designed for a specific audience which includes yours truly. They’re all fun in their own way. The television series? Not so much. There was supposed to be another series starring Kevin Bacon, but it was canned before the first episode aired, so I’m not happy about that. I’m not entirely surprised this one’s still going. The next one, though….
Dragonheart
I’m not entirely sure HOW this one got a sequel, given how the movie ended. I thought it was a one and done kind of film. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the hell out of it. It was a ton of fun, but it wasn’t exactly a film that screamed “FRANCHISE ME!” I was legitimately shocked when I saw the VHS tape for Dragonheart: A New Beginning in my local Blockbuster store when they were still around. Oof, that was NOT a good movie. Even as a direct-to-video film back in 2000, the movie was legitimately awful. The special effects were lame and the dragon was total weak-sauce. Not to mention the acting was terrible. 15 years later, we get a third film: The Sorcerer’s Curse, which was actually a prequel to the original film. You know what? It wasn’t bad. The CGI in the film was actually pretty good and the battle sequences were not awful. It wasn’t a classic film, by any stretch and the acting was questionable, except for Ben Kingsley’s voice as the dragon, but it was moderately entertaining with some decent set-pieces. Who knew? We ended up getting a FOURTH film, Battle for the Heartfire, which I wasn’t particularly fond of, despite Patrick Stewart voicing the dragon instead of Mr. Kingsley. Next month, we are getting a FIFTH film in the Dragonheart franchise: Vengeance. I honestly wasn’t aware that there was a particularly large audience for the original film, let alone any of the sequels. The only thing I can really think of, is that these films are being made as essentially tax write-offs. A lot of these films were filmed in other countries like Bulgaria possibly because of the tax incentives and tax breaks that the studios can get by making movies over there.
The Scorpion King
The first Scorpion King film was itself a spin-off of the Mummy films, specifically, The Mummy Returns which saw Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson star as the titular ancient bad-ass, The Scorpion King. I have to admit, The Scorpion King is a guilty pleasure for me. It’s not a great movie that borrows too many elements from superior films like Conan: The Barbarian. This was the first leading role for Dwayne Johnson and he did a pretty damn good job with what he had. It was a really fun little sword-and-sandals film. This was definitely a film that I could see having some sequels. There’s a bit of a problem, though. The first sequel, which was actually a prequel, was genuinely god-awful. It was one of the worst films I had seen at that point. The third and fourth films were lame, but they weren’t Scorpion King 2 lame. The fifth film: Book of Souls was actually not that bad and was a “proper” sequel to The Scorpion King. While I haven’t seen or heard anything about a 6th film, I would not be surprised if one was to be released within a year or two. Again, like Dragonheart, The Scorpion King didn’t strike me as the kind of film that garnered a huge audience. It did well enough at the box office, but it wasn’t enough to sustain a franchise. Shows what I know.
Hellraiser
I’ve been a massive fan of the Hellraiser films since I first saw the original film when I was a kid. It was dark, Gothic, and gruesome. It also gave us one of the greatest movie monsters of all time: Pinhead. The first two films in the franchise are beyond reproach as far as I’m concerned. They are absolute classics, with Hellbound being one of the best sequels ever made. After that, they started going downhill. Hellraiser III and Bloodline were the last two films to be released theatrically. The following sequels would end up going direct-to-video. Inferno would be the best of the initial four DTV films. Out of the 10 Hellraiser films, only 4 are maybe worth watching: The original, Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Inferno, and Judgment, the latest one. There’s been a lot of talk about doing a reboot of the franchise, but I would like to see a sequel to Judgment before they start over, but I haven’t really seen any movement for the last three years. I would imagine that there’s still talks and possible scripts that are floating around out there, but there’s nothing that’s set in stone, at least not yet.
Terminator
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. I have a confession to make: I love the Terminator movies, all six of them. That being said, this was a franchise that never should have made it past the second film, especially without James Cameron in the lead. The original two films are some of the greatest science fiction films of all time with the original being more of a slasher movie than your typical sci-fi adventure. These were smart films that had awesome characters, visual effects and compelling story-lines. It all ended perfectly with the way Terminator 2 ended. The second film’s ending was ambiguous for a reason, it left open the possibility that they succeeded in destroying Skynet before it was born, but there was also the possibility that they didn’t. Terminator 3 undid all that with a fairly entertaining, albeit generic action film with a ballsy ending. I’ll give it credit for that. Salvation was set in 2018(two years ago, where does the time go?), about ten years after the bombs fell and Skynet took over. It was an interesting idea that was surprisingly fun, but it still ended up feeling like a generic post-apocalyptic film. Genisys was an attempt to reinvigorate and reboot the franchise. When that didn’t work, James Cameron came back to co-write and produce Terminator: Dark Fate, the sixth film, which was a third attempt to start a new trilogy. I enjoyed it, but honestly it felt like a rehash of the first two movies. Make no mistake, it was awesome to see Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton on screen together again, and they were awesome. Mackenzie Davis was pretty good too. Diego Luna played the new evil Terminator. It’s not a bad action film, but as a Terminator film, it was awful. It pissed on everything that made the first two films so great. Considering the box-office performance of Dark Fate, I think I can safely assume that Terminator is going to be put on hold for the foreseeable future. They just need to stop.
Pirates of the Caribbean
I’ve been a huge fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean films since the original came out back in 2003. Pirate movies were not necessarily popular during the 90s, so it was a surprise that The Curse of the Black Pearl ended up being a huge sensation. Filled to the brim with awesome adventure, visual effects and Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, it was everything that we wanted from a pirate movie. It was a simple and straight-forward adventure on the high seas. It did so well, that a sequel was inevitable. Dead Man’s Chest introduced the mythical Davy Jones as the main villain and he was pretty creepy. Problems with the franchise began to creep up with the third picture: At World’s End. The movie was nearly three hours long and over-stuffed with convoluted plots and betrayals. Nothing made any sort of sense and throwing in a heathen sea goddess was a bit too much for some people. The final battle was epic, though. On Stranger Tides and Dead Men Tell No Tales were the worst of the bunch. People were getting real tired of Johnny Depp’s shtick as Jack Sparrow. To be fair, his gimmick was getting old by the time Dead Man’s Chest came to an end. Depp’s personal and legal issues impacted the fifth film’s performance to the point that Disney wants to reboot the series. I’m curious to see how they’ll do it without Depp, but I honestly wish they would leave it alone.
Well, those are some of the franchises that I felt went on for far too long. To be honest, some of those franchises, like Tremors, I have no issues with as long as they’re done fairly well for DTV films, but the others? Please stop, movie studios. You’re not doing them or us any favors trying to get water from a stone that has long since dried up and turned to dust. What do you folks think? Are there any franchises that you think are getting too long in the tooth, or would you rather they went on until the end of time? Let me know down below.