The year 2019 has ended, and a great moment has come to look back and recall the media franchises, which from the box office winners “slipped” to failure and disappointment.
10. The Rambo franchise
The active career of Sylvester Stallone still proves that he is not afraid to become a hostage to one role, to prove that there is still “hoo.” He still exploits the previously popular role of Rambo, starring in the last (at the moment) film from this franchise called "Rambo: Last Blood".
While the training camp in the world became moderately successful, exceeded $ 91 million, the audience was unfriendly. Last Blood gained only 27% of positive reviews in Rotten Tomatoes and 26 in Metacritic.
Some critics drew attention to unintentional xenophobic halftones, an abundance of caked blood and battered plot moves. What do you think, maybe John Rambo should really take a break?
9. The Universe of “Spells”
Back in 2013, James Van released the horror film Spell, which was so successful at the box office that it soon spawned an equally successful sequel in 2016.
Later, the universe of “Spells” expanded to include paintings such as:
- The Curse of Annabelle (2014).
- “The Curse of Annabelle: The Birth of Evil” (2017).
- The Curse of the Nun (2018)
- The Curse of Annabelle 3 (2019).
And if the first two Annabel enjoyed success with film critics and ordinary viewers, then starting with The Curse of the Nun, the ratings crawled down, and it became obvious that the franchise was moving in the wrong direction. “The Curse of Annabelle 3” is one of the worst films of 2019, which has grossed even less than the “Curse of a Nun” ($ 228 million versus $ 365 million).
However, it is possible that “Spell 3” and the sequel to the spin-off of “The Nuns”, scheduled for 2020 and 2021, respectively, will again return public interest in the previously popular horror series.
8. The Lego franchise
With the exception of the Lego Movie: Batman movie, paintings from the Lego universe never achieved the same level of success as the first Lego Movie.
The LEGO Ninjago Film, released in 2017, was a disappointment, and the LEGO Film 2, released in 2019, could not be the triumphant return of the franchise to the first places in film ratings.
Now LEGO has decided to refuse to cooperate with Warner Bros. And is negotiating a collaboration with Universal Pictures.
7. The Hellboy franchise
Instead of continuing (and possibly ending) the story of “The Hell Boy” filmed by Guillermo del Toro, it was decided to reload the Hellboy series. This reboot, staged by Neil Marshall, has become one of the most disappointing films of 2019.
The new “Hellboy” was criticized for fragmentary storylines, an absolutely uninteresting main villain, empty dialogs, a slurred presentation of history and its galloping pace.
One can argue about whether David Harbor in the role of Hellboy is the only salvation of the tape or whether the red-skinned devil in his performance is terrible, but one thing is undeniable - the Hellboy of 2019 plunged this media franchise into the abyss of hell of spectator disappointment.
6. Monster Universe
The idea of creating a history of the origin of Godzilla and King Kong to justify their possible clash led to the appearance of Godzilla in 2014 and inspired the thriller King Kong: Skull Island.
And in 2019, the movie “Godzilla 2: King of the Monsters” was released. And if all you expect from Godzilla is a fight of huge monsters, then you are unlikely to be disappointed. However, those who expected interesting plot moves, thoughtful dialogs and at least minimal sanity and logic eventually lowered the rating to 5.8 (out of 10 points) on Kinopoisk and 6.10 on IMDb.
And ahead is the crossover movie Godzilla vs. Kong, due out in November 2020.
5. Franchise "Charlie's Angels"
Here is an example of the revival of media franchise, which no one has ever asked for. Although the idea for more progressive Charlie's Angels seems good on paper, in life this is achieved only by attracting more women in the frame and behind the scenes.
And, despite all his feminist message and active advertising, the new Charlie Angels received “fu” from critics and a lack of interest from the audience, which led to low box office ($ 59 million).
4. Franchise "Terminator"
This film series after the cult "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" had a complicated and confusing story. After James Cameron left the franchise, there were several attempts to film an interesting sequel. Unfortunately, they all failed.
“Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” failed to get close in popularity to the first two films. “Terminator: May the Savior Come” demonstrated only a post-apocalyptic disorder. And “Terminator: Genesis” did fail miserably, despite the old, but not useless Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“Terminator: Dark Fates”, which James Cameron already “steered”, was supposed to be the return of that same, real Terminator, with a kind old guard, a furious action, a dynamic plot and drama of the relationship between man and machine. Instead, viewers received a borrowing of original moments from old films, a mediocre visual component, but did not receive anything new and as interesting as in the first two parts. As a result, “Terminator: Dark Fates” finally killed the faith in this franchise.
3. Franchise "Men in Black"
Here is another picture that did not really need to be continued. Nevertheless, the new part of Men in Black tried to leave on the charismatic duo of Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, because earlier it had succeeded with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.
But it turned out that in addition to well-known actors and high-class special effects, People in Black: International also needs a good story, written motivation for the characters and the ability to balance between playful and action-packed components. The end result is so disappointing that it allowed putting People in Black in the top 3 most disastrous franchises of 2019.
2. Franchise "X-Men"
This is truly a heartbreaking sight when you see a once glorious franchise that has turned into a boring mediocrity. This is what happened to The X-Men after the release of The Dark Phoenix, the film adaptation of the comic book series The Dark Phoenix Saga.
The main complaints about this film were related to the absence of the love triangle “Gray Gray-Cyclops-Wolverine”, too much pathos, which was everywhere - from dialogue to the actions of the characters, and the presence of plot “black holes” that arise due to that this film is not a reboot, and should be seen as part of a holistic mosaic along with other X-Men films.
The declared production budget of the painting amounted to $ 200 million, and fees were only 52 million more than this amount. And what was planned as a worthy conclusion to the popular series was included in the number of the largest film shows of the year.
1. The Star Wars franchise
After Disney released Star Wars: The Force Awakens, much was expected from the new Star Wars. Even the subsequent controversial Rogue One: Star Wars. Stories ”and“ The Last Jedi ”still earned the studio billions of dollars.
But they were followed by Han Solo: Star Wars. Stories ”, which was the first movie from the Star Wars universe to fail at the box office.
And in 2019, Disney released Star Wars: Skywalker. Sunrise ”, which received mixed reviews and raised serious doubts about the continued viability of films from the Star Wars franchise.
However, if you are disappointed in the Disney Star Wars, check out the Mandalore. Perhaps he will restore your faith in a distant, distant galaxy.
