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They Can’t All Be Winners, Kid: Seven once-hopeful film franchises that never took off

In an era of blockbuster filmmaking that’s totally designed around the long-term success of a franchise rather than an individual installment, every single studio in the world has wanted that particular property they could call their own. But not every film can be a Star Wars (yay!) or a Twilight (boo!), and the studios have cast their nets wide, gathering up tons of properties and praying that they’ll lay golden eggs.

In honor of the release of The Dark Tower this Friday (expect our review tomorrow), we decided to take a look back and find some of the worst examples of DOA franchise filmmaking, found, after release, by their studio owners face-down in shit-infested waters.

Enjoy, but you might want to wear a protective suit when handling these bombs.

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Jumper

Unlike a lot of the films on this list, the Doug Liman-directed sci-fi flick Jumper had one huge advantage: It was released in the doldrums of February, when moviegoers are so desperate for anything new that they’ll see any shit the studios will put in front of them. So, it made a decent amount of cash — it took the number one position at the box office in the wake of the significantly more interesting Cloverfield, and made roughly $80 million at the domestic box office over the course of its theatrical release. So, naturally, talk of a sequel abounded before and after the first weeks of its release, as it was briefly seen as a Harry Potter competitor. But the brand appeal of a post-prequels Hayden Christensen and and a bunch of dumb teleporting kids being hunted by Samuel L. Jackson was next-to-nil, and all plans for a sequel were scrapped. And thank god, because Liman went on to direct Edge of Tomorrow a few years later, and we are so lucky to have that film.

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