Despite an encouraging rebound in the Hollywood cinema market in 2021, there is still huge uncertainty about the future of the industry, especially as many blockbusters suffer disastrous box office fiascos.
Over the past year, even the popular movie series have been a sure success, with many brand IPs struggling to attract more audience interest, and many fans seem to be becoming more critical of what they decide to watch on the big screen.
With the global pandemic still high and streaming windows shortened to weeks — or released on the same day as the HBO Max 2021 experiment , it's no surprise that over the past 12 months we've seen many big-budget movie series perform as much as expected.
Even with special circumstances, studios will be very cautious about giving the green light to sequels to films that aren't profitable. So, it's almost certain that the following 10 commercially failed IPs are basically dead.
Sure, these movie series will most likely be rebooted as a TV series, or eventually revived on streaming platforms, but in terms of the generous treatment of strikingly huge budget movie blockbusters, their good days are over...
10. Ace Agent
The Ace Agent series was indeed fascinating at one point. Matthew Vaughn's first film of 2015 unexpectedly sold well, grossing more than $400 million worldwide and rave reviews.
As a result, high expectations have been placed on the 2017 sequel, Ace Agent 2: The Golden Circle. Although the film's box office receipts were almost the same as the previous one, critics and fans had mixed reviews of the film.
However, Vaughn did not directly launch a third part, but instead made a prequel, "Ace Agent: Origins", which is set during World War I.
Filming was completed in the first half of 2019 and was intended to be released in November of the same year, but it was dubiously delayed several times before the outbreak of the epidemic, and finally did not release until the end of 2021.
As the film lingered during post-production, audience interest in the prequel began to cool, and many began to wonder why Vaughn had bothered to make the prequel.
Faced with fierce competition from Spider-Man: Homeless and The Matrix Reboot, and the lowest level of publicity on the eve of the film's release, it's no surprise that Ace Agent: Origins was a box office fiasco and mixed reviews.
Although Matthew Vaughn insists that filming of the sequel to "Kingsman: The Blue Blood" will begin in September, given the poor commercial performance of "Ace Agent: Origins," it's hard to believe that the third part will start as scheduled.
Although Ace Agent: Origins is a prequel, it still suggests that audiences have largely lost interest in the series. If the next "Ace Agent" really starts filming in September, it will not be released until the end of 2023, basically 6 years after the release of "The Golden Circle", which is too long.
As we've seen, the series may be out of play by now, and while it may end up selling to streamers or getting rebooted because Vaughn owns the IP rights, given the fiasco of the prequel, any potential publisher will presumably think twice before taking over.
9. Aerial dunk
At the beginning of the announcement of Slam Dunk in the Air: The New Legend, many people began to wonder if Slam Dunk in the Air really needed to be a movie series.
The original 1996 live-action and animated film Slam Dunk in the Air was undoubtedly an iconic sports comedy and a huge commercial success, but fundamentally it was a product of that era, and now it is not favored by most people for a soft reboot or an independent sequel.
Despite starring LeBron James and Black Panther director Ryan Coogler as producer, the huge $150 million budget has led many to feel that Warner Bros. greatly overestimated the appeal of "Slam Dunk in the Air" in popular culture.
Of course, there is a certain nostalgic "appeal" to older millennials, but younger audiences may not have a good feeling about the original movie, and frankly, marketing does not imply that "Slam Dunk in the Air: The New Legend" is really just a cynical remake of the original.
That's the reality of the film, except that the budget is bigger, the visuals are more polished, and some self-made clever meta-reviews have been added.
While Warner Bros. clearly wanted the film to kick off a new series of Slam Dunks in the Air, unfortunately, Slam Dunks: The New Legend grossed just $162.8 million worldwide and was mostly negative.
Even considering the impact of the pandemic and HBO Max's launch on the same day, the repercussions are quite frightening.
Although the director Malcolm D. Lee expressed interest in making a third film starring Dawn Johnson, but only wishful thinking. Because, this series is absolutely finished.
8. Resident Evil
Of course, we very much hope that the new version of the "Resident Evil" movie will be made well, but it backfired.
Although paul Anderson's older Resident Evil series of movies was almost all bad and didn't stay true to the game, its commercial longevity was so long that it produced 6 movies and grossed more than $1.2 billion at the box office, and it's still hard to believe now!
Just a few months after the release of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter in 2017, the filmmakers announced a reboot, which was eventually titled Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.
The film was advertised as a more modest, lower-cost, and more game-faithful adaptation. Writer-director Johannes Roberts (who previously directed the Shark Sea series) and his excellent cast seemed to be enough to satisfy those who felt that Anderson's version of the film did not respect the game.
Although some cool scenes from Welcome to Raccoon City and portrayals of Claire Redfield (Kaya Skodario) earned the film some good reviews, it was slammed by critics for its poor script and lack of basic suspense.
The reaction from fans didn't get much better either, with the film scoring C+ on CinemaScore and being blamed for deviating from the original and being poorly produced.
Previously, Paul Anderson's Resident Evil movie could have made a fortune even with bad reviews, but this time — perhaps coupled with the pandemic, poor marketing, and boredom with the series — audiences just didn't go to see the movie.
With a $25 million budget, Welcome to Raccoon City has so far only recovered $33 million worldwide, a no-nonsense box-office fiasco, and almost certainly, the planned sequel — which will reportedly be based on Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil: Codename Veronica — has since failed.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City dies before it can be done. Next, the only chance for the live-action version of Resident Evil to continue to be staged is the live-action series of Netflix.
7. Special Forces
Paramount did try to make Special Forces into a movie, but over the past 12 years, three less popular films seem to confirm that audiences are less interested in Special Forces.
The series began with 2009's "Special Forces: The Rise of the Cobra," which grossed just $300 million with a budget of $175 million, with mixed reviews.
After that, the series was silent for a few years, until 2013, when there was a "soft reboot" of "Special Forces: Total Strike Back", which shifted the focus to The Roadblock played by Dawn Johnson.
Although the film had a more reasonable budget and was more commercially successful — the film only grossed $375.7 million compared to the $130-150 million budget — that was a far cry from the box office results that Paramount wanted Johnson to star in.
In 2018, they released a rebooted version of the origin movie "Special Forces: Snake's Eye Origins". After an extremely tepid marketing campaign, the film was released last summer.
Despite the outstanding performance of lead actor Henry Golding, Snakeeye Origins was largely considered by critics to be a common and sloppy action movie, and audiences voted with their wallets.
The film's budget was estimated at $110 million, but it grossed only $40.1 million worldwide, making the planned follow-up film quietly canceled.
Although amazon prime spin-offs are reportedly in development, given the failure of previous plans to intersect with Michael Bay's Transformers series, it's hard to believe they can make anything meaningful with this IP in a short period of time.
At least in terms of movies, there is a dead end.
6. Harley Quinn/Suicide Squad
This is really regrettable. Harley Quinn, played by Margot Robbie, is of course part of DC's Extended Universe, but she already has her own series, both Suicide Squad movies are inseparable from her, and she even carries more weight than the Joker played by Jared Leto.
Harley Quinn was an undeniable groundbreaking role in 2016's David Ayer's Suicide Squad, and Robbie's appearance largely guaranteed the film's huge commercial success, so much so that the spin-off film Birds of Prey, featuring Harley Quinn, was quickly approved.
However, despite receiving good reviews and budgeting at a measly $100 million budget, the superhero film's commercial performance was disappointing, barely breaking $200 million at the global box office.
Analysts struggle to pinpoint exactly why Birds of Prey failed miserably, pointing out that it was either because of the clumsy original title and restrictive R ratings, or because Warner Bros. overestimated audiences' desire for a Harley Quinn solo movie.
Still, Warner Bros. decided to give Harley Quinn another chance to return her to the squad for James Gunn's R-rated standalone sequel, Task Force X: Assembled.
While this grotesque entertainment blockbuster received the strongest acclaim of any DC movie to date, it didn't even get its $185 million budget back for a number of reasons, including R ratings, simultaneous releases of HBO Max, pandemic pandemic, uninterested DCEU audiences, lack of stardom, and it's not even clear whether the film is a sequel or reboot.
With two consecutive box office failures and rumors that Robbie may no longer play Harley Quinn, it seems unlikely that a DC movie featuring Harley Quinn or Suicide Squad will ever be made again.
With the Messenger of Peace spin-off, starring John Senna, airing on HBO Max, there's a good chance Warner Bros. will move some of the more popular characters from Suicide Squad to less risky TV shows and away from high-cost movies.
5. The little devil is in charge
We must accept the fact that the Little Devil Is Home series is gone.
With the exception of the first two films starring Macaulay Kalkin, many people hardly know that there are other sequel films, in fact, the surviving series has six films so far.
The protagonist of "Little Devil 3", which was released in theaters in 1997, was replaced by a new child, which was a certain commercial success, but not enough for Fox or John Hughes to push for a sequel.
After that, the tv-produced sequel, Little Devil's House 4, aired in 2002 and was almost universally despised by critics and fans, so much so that few people paid attention to the next TV movie sequel, Little Devil's Home 5: The Holiday Robbery, which was also heavily criticized.
But Disney tried to reuse each IP with its brand appeal in order to support Disney+, so "Little Devils" quickly got a reboot, and at the end of last year, a new version of "Devils" was released on streaming platforms.
While not as bad as the fourth and fifth, it was still a film that lacked sincerity and was unoriginal, with little reason to exist except for overall brand awareness, so it was heavily attacked by critics.
For streaming exclusive films, though, the criteria for success are different, and if a movie gets enough attention, reviews really don't matter at all.
However, given that Disney didn't publicly release the movie's viewership data — compared to their aggressive release of viewership data for hit movies like Black Widow and Jungle Quest — we can safely infer that the film didn't have much of an impact on them.
Obviously, Disney wants audiences who grew up with The Little Devil who starred in Calkin to watch the new movie with their kids, but given the snarky comments from fans, they're more likely to just show the kids the first two.
On the positive side, the new version of "Little Devil Is Home" has finally nailed the last coffin nail to this film series that has not performed well in nearly three decades. Of course, Disney may also decide to remake a TV series to try it out, I'm afraid they won't need us to ask for it, they will do the same.
4. Ace Bodyguard
When "Ace Bodyguard" was released in the summer of 2017, people did not expect much from it, although it was not a sensational film, but it achieved some commercial success, although audiences praised it mixed.
Due to Ryan Reynolds' unprecedented popularity, Lionsgate decided to take the plunge into a sequel, which eventually released Ace Bodyguard 2 last summer.
Despite the interesting chemistry between Reynolds and Jackson and the popularity of Salma Hayek's character, critics and audiences alike were rather lukewarm about the sequel, barely recouping a $70 million budget.
Given that Lionsgate clearly wanted Ace Bodyguard to be a franchise that they could profit from as long as the box office revenue was good, the second film's box office fiasco basically meant the end of the series.
Although director Patrick Hughes expressed enthusiasm for the third film, Ace Bodyguard 2 undoubtedly kicked off the third film, the box office figures were unsatisfactory. The sequel plan is stillborn.
3. Ghost shadow recording
Like it or not, Ghost in the Shell is one of the most impressive, unexpected, and successful series in the horror genre over the past 20 years.
From 2009 to 2015, the first six films in the series grossed $805.0 million at the box office, with a total budget of $28 million, arguably a staggering return on investment.
Although the series has ended with the much-maligned 3D finale Ghost In The Shadow: Ghost Dimension, in 2019, Paramount Pictures decided that the series should be rebooted.
Although the seventh film, Ghost in The Shell: Blood Relatives, was originally intended to be released in theaters, Paramount eventually decided to release it directly on the Paramount + streaming platform.
To be honest, this is obviously a relatively wise move: after all, pseudo-documentary genre films have long since ceased to be popular with the mainstream, and given the impact of the epidemic, such low-definition horror movies feel more suitable for streaming.
But like Ghost in the Shell, the sheer volume of negative reviews and the lack of public ratings seem to suggest that Ghost in The Shell: Blood Relatives didn't reboot the series as quickly as Paramount had hoped.
Since no one has revealed that a sequel will be made or hinted that there will be a sequel, we can assume that this IP has been sacrificed on the altar of streaming and has once again entered a "dormant" state.
2. The Matrix
Nearly 20 years after the disparate and less-than-expected Matrix Revolution, the Matrix Revolution seemed to end the series, The Matrix Reboot is finally here. And of the major series of films released last year, none is more confusing or polarizing than "Matrix Reboot."
In this exciting but unsatisfactory sequel, Lana Wachowski's confused thoughts are almost everywhere.
It's a profound meta-sequel that satirizes the belated idea of a sequel, and in the film it can also be seen that Wachowski was harshly critical of Warner Bros.'s attempt to continue the series without their sisters.
Despite the hype, The Matrix Reboot was met with mixed reviews, with a "B-" rating on Cinemscore, the series' lowest audience rating to date.
With the rapid spread of tepid word of mouth, it is not surprising that the blockbuster, which was released on HBO Max on the same day and budgeted for $190 million, fell far short of expectations and became one of the biggest box office duds in recent years.
However, given Wachowski's insistence that this will be her last "The Matrix" movie, perhaps she intends to completely destroy the IP to ensure that Warner Bros. will not make a desperate bet on "The Matrix" in the near future.
Maybe the series will eventually be adapted into HBO Max series, or fully rebooted in 15-20 years, but there's not much prospect for a series of movies with these characters at the moment — and to be honest, that's probably the best outcome.
1. Unlimited
Last year's action movie Infinity, starring Mark Wahlberg, was a particularly interesting case, because unlike the ones mentioned earlier, Infinity was clearly the first of the next big IP series paramount hopes to build.
This big-budget sci-fi blockbuster blends modern superhero movies, The Matrix, and Spy Movies-style thrillers, but there's no doubt far less entertaining than any of them.
However, Paramount cast a very clear vote of no confidence in the film, canceling the initial theatrical release – allegedly due to the pandemic – and dumping it to the Paramount+ platform just a month later.
To make matters worse, the film was released less than two weeks after the first trailer was released, and there was basically no invitation to critics to watch the film in advance, so when they had to watch it at their own expense on Paramount+, it was naturally unsurprisingly useless.
Obviously, when you watch it, you get the sense that the film was originally intended to be the first of a new series of popular sci-fi action films, but given Paramount's indulgence in fending for itself and the subsequent lack of ratings-related coverage, it ended up being reduced to another film series that had stalled before it could gain a foothold.