So let’s look at six movies from different genres that either tried to start or continue a franchise. And we will look at the various reasons why these films failed to spark enthusiasm for their brands. 

1. Dredd (Comic Book Movie)

Dredd proves that not all failed franchise starters are bad. Following Judge Dredd and rookie Judge Anderson on a mission to bring down the head of a Highrise crime syndicate, the film was a gloriously fun and violent alternative to most comic book movies of the time. Unfortunately, Judge Dredd was too obscure a character for mainstream audiences. Along with this, it had generally poor marketing which meant it didn’t make its budget back. Many critics also derided it for having a similar plot to “The Raid“. Nevertheless, Dredd gained a loyal cult following whose hopes for a franchise will never be dashed. 

2. Halloween 3: Season of The Witch (Horror)

After definitively ending Michael Myers’ story in Halloween 2 the producers decided to make the series into an anthology. With each entry telling a different Halloween-themed story. This time focusing on an evil businessman’s plans to destroy the youth of America using masks that kill the wearers when a certain advert is watched. But this attempted change failed. Audiences were confused by the lack of Michael Myers, critics saw it as generally bad and it made less than either of its predecessors. Because of this lack of success, the anthology franchise was scrapped in favour of reviving Myers. A disappointing end for an amazing idea. 

3. Batman and Robin (Superhero)

The film that killed the Batman film franchise for almost a decade. Despite being a fun romp about the ever-growing Bat-Family working together to beat Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy, it was despised by audiences and critics. With reasons ranging from the change of tone from the darker Tim Burton films to the inclusion of aesthetics more potentially appealing to LGBTQIA audiences. This outcry and the overall poor financial reception led to the cancellation of the planned sequel “Batman Unchained“. Ending the then-current Batman series until the Batman Begins reboot 8 years later.

4. The Last Airbender (Fantasy)

Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the most beloved animated shows ever made. And Nickelodeon Movies certainly hoped its success would translate to film. A three-movie series following the tale of Airbender Aang and his companions was planned. Unfortunately, The Last Airbender underperformed in cinemas, and it displeased everyone. Fans hated the film’s handling of the show’s story. And casual viewers, as well as critics, found the film to be a poorly put-together slog. Snuffing out any hope of the live-action films continuing.

5. John Carter (Sci-fi)

Nothing quite kills a potential franchise like being one of the biggest box office flops of all time. Despite having a middling rather than a hostile reception by audiences and critics John Carter lost over £87 million during its run, which ended any hope for future adaptations of John Carter’s adventures on Mars. According to writer Michael Sellers, the marketing sank the film by not driving home connection to its book source material. Ironically saying the film would have faired better if it was more open about its intentions to start a franchise.

6. Carry On Columbus (Comedy)

The Carry On films were never high art and by today’s standards contain more than a few offensive moments and attitudes. But they always found a way to entertain audiences with their double entendres and funny performances. Until Carry On Columbus. The 31st series entry follows the fictionalised life of the eponymous coloniser. It was released 14 years after Carry On Emmanuel (itself quite poorly received). The film flopped. Additionally, it failed with audiences and was dubbed the “worst British film ever” in a 2004 British film workers’ poll. We have seen no other series entries since. It’s safe to say the series ended because the world had moved on from Carry On’s brand of comedy.

Those are just a few movies that sent their franchises to the grave. Did we miss any big franchise killers? Please let us know.

Also Read: How To Revive A Franchise After Many Years

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“Tonight’s Forecast, A Freeze Is Coming”

Batman (George Clooney) and Robin (Chris O’Donnell) face two new challenging villains. They are Mr. Freeze (Arnold Schwarzenegger) who is building a weapon to ransom Gotham for money to find a cure for his terminally ill wife, and Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman) who seeks to punish humanity for its environmental destruction. Meanwhile, Robin feels like Batman doesn’t trust him. Their faithful butler Alfred (Michael Gough) is slowly dying. And Alfred’s niece Barbara (Alicia Silverstone) is poking around Wayne Manor. Will the Bat-family survive?

“If I Must Suffer, Humanity Will Suffer With Me”

One of Batman and Robin’s biggest problems is that the film has numerous plotlines competing for screentime and many of their tones clash greatly. One minute we are indulging in silly slapstick action and ice puns, then we are suddenly dealing with a long-time Bat-family member gradually losing their life. Furthermore, because of the bloated story, several plotlines feel underdeveloped (Batgirl’s subplot) or pointless (Bane’s inclusion).

As well as this some of the film’s components feel very slapdash and can take you out of the experience. This includes the writing plot holes. For example, Mr. Freeze using a machine powered by huge diamonds to ransom Gotham rather than selling the diamonds on the black market. Which would probably be just as profitable. Along with this some of the CGI has aged incredibly poorly. The human figures move very unnaturally and a few sequences look barely finished.

And of course, there is the grating cheesy dialogue and the performances from Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chris O’Donnell, and Alicia Silverstone which range from bland to irritating to hilariously misjudged.

“You Lie”

Unfortunately, a lot of good-faith criticism of Batman and Robin is lost among complaints about its deviation from the darkness of Tim Burton’s Batman films and Batman and Robin’s suits having nipples and rubber bums. You can prefer the Tim Burton films over Batman and Robin. But, a lighter tone doesn’t necessarily make a film bad. And complaining about something as harmless as Bat-bums/nipples feels petty and slightly homophobic through its ridicule of something potentially appealing to a gay audience. It’s therefore regrettable that these complaints are what largely stuck with the film.

“That Is The Nature Of Family”

However, Batman and Robin does have genuinely praiseworthy elements. Firstly, there is Elliot Goldenthal’s music. Full of bombastic epic sweeps and sultry seduction. It makes the film feel exciting throughout and is a fine listen.

Then there are the undervalued performances by George Clooney, Uma Thurman, and Michael Gough. Clooney perfectly fits the role of playboy Bruce Wayne. He also adds a sly self-awareness to his Batman which makes him an enjoyable presence. Additionally, this allows him to get away with his cheeky humour more than other cast members. Uma Thurman is an absolute blast as Poison Ivy. She really embodies Ivy’s seductive and bold nature and every time she appears her energy makes it impossible to look away. That said Michael Gough is the film’s true star. Effortlessly humorous and heartfelt, his interactions with the Bat-family, particularly Clooney, add real dramatic weight to proceedings. Truthfully his storyline is worth the watch alone.

Finally, the cheesy dialogue, flimsy plot, varying acting quality, tonally mismatched story elements, loud colours, wild theatrical costumes, and other elements combine well to create a fun, campy atmosphere that helps excuse some of the film’s worst excesses. Making the film genuinely entertaining to watch despite itself.

Was It Really That Bad? No

Regrettably, most audiences only view Batman and Robin as a punching bag. Yes, the film has a story, CG, and minor acting problems but it also has many aspects to appreciate and enjoy. Including its infectious atmosphere, its music, and some underappreciated performances. After years of dour, joyless Batman films, we need something as unapologetically bright and fun as Batman and Robin.

Also Read: The Batman: Snyderverse and the DCEU

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I once went to an all-night cult film festival and the cinema had three screens so essentially you had a choice of three films at any time. First up was The Big Lebowski, Brazil and The Room. The first is probably my favourite film. Brazil is Terry Gilliam’s masterpiece and a film that is so good that it can get away with casting Michael Palin as a sadistic torturer. And The Room is considered to be one of the worst films ever made. Its entire fame is based on that it is terrible and yet people were choosing to see this over either of the two classics. It is a mystery to me why anyone would want to watch it at all. I’ve never seen Raging Bull, Vertigo or Oldboy all of which look brilliant and interesting but I just have never gotten round to watching them and it feels a bit wrong to see something like The Room before Raging Bull.

The Room would fit into a category of film known as “so bad it’s good”, that a film with glaring and obvious flaws, with failures of writing, acting, directing can be enjoyable because of these flaws. Usually, it’s not just films that aren’t very good, there are lots of those films, normally it needs something more like the filmmakers thought they had something good. That certainly seems to be the case with The Room and while the filmmakers seem to have embraced the awfulness of their film it certainly seems like they weren’t making it ironically.

Despite its terribleness, The Room is genuinely a cultural landmark with special fan screenings across the world and perhaps has wrestled the title of worst film ever made from Plan 9 From Outer Space. Both films are so notorious that each has been the subject to follow-up films (The Disaster Artist and Ed Wood respectively) which to me look far more interesting than the original films. I understand that I am in a distinct minority in this opinion with many people taking great pleasure in watching bad films. Mystery Science Theatre 3000 has been going for thirty years on the simple premise of watching bad films and making jokes about them (while that premise is simple the rest of the show involves evil scientists, talking robots and captured spaceship pilots). There are many bad movie podcasts such as The Flop House, a show with clever, witty hosts who know lots about films – good as well as bad ones.

The Worst Film Ever Made That Cost $125,000,000

Another contender for the worst film ever made is Batman & Robin and I have seen this one and in my defence, I had hoped it would be good. Before Christopher Nolan resurrected Batman it had been thoroughly killed by this film. There is a supposed Batman curse and that accepting a high profile role in a Batman film will harm your career and this was certainly true for Batman & Robin. The careers of George Clooney, Chris O’Donnell, Alicia Silverstone, Uma Thurman and Arnold Schwarzenegger suffered severe harm and some have still not recovered. This should have been a big success. George Clooney has since proven himself to be a great dramatic actor, director Joel Schumacher had made good films like Falling Down, and it’s easy to forget that Schwarzenegger was once the biggest movie star on the planet. The film is a total fiasco with everything from the script to costumes being picked apart in the subsequent twenty years for being absolutely awful. Personally, I’d say this is a far worse film than The Room; as that was a small film with no stars and not much money the budget of Batman & Robin was $125,000,000 and for that amount people expect results.

Guilty Pleasures

Many people say they enjoy “so bad it’s good” films as a “guilty pleasure”. Personally, I’m with the brilliant comedian Josie Long who said instead of having guilty pleasures said you should have “brazen pleasures”, things you love and are proud to love them. This doesn’t mean everything has to be  Kieślowski’s Three Colours Trilogy but you don’t need to feel guilty about what you love. Ultimately there are only two types of films – bad films and good films, and what goes in what category is just a matter of opinion. It’s hard to make a definitive argument that Citizen Kane is better than Clueless and it is perfectly valid to say that Alicia Silverstone’s performance is better than Orson Welles’. Personally, I really like Clueless and probably enjoyed watching it more than Citizen Kane and have had to defend it to other people who consider it awful. To me, Clueless is not a guilty pleasure it is a film I’m proud to say I enjoy. If a film engages you entertains you and interests you then it must have something going for it.

So what do people get out of so bad it’s good films and guilty pleasures? Is it just to see a whole group of people fail? After all, many writers and philosophers have talked about the odd pleasure in seeing our friends fail and apparently we get the same pleasure when total strangers do so as well. Maybe it’s even better for us when they spend hundreds of millions of dollars doing it. It still seems bizarre to me to spend time watching something that even the people who made who it aren’t proud of it. I have no plans to ever watch The Room. Maybe when I’ve watched every good film ever made I’ll move onto watching the bad ones but that will probably take me quite a while as people keep making good ones.

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