Name: Top 30 Movies That BOMBED So Hard They Had To Cancel The Sequel
Uploaded: 2025-05-23T05:06:07.000Z
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Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most embarrassing box office duds that killed any hope of continuing their franchise.

Based on a beloved anime and helmed by the lauded directors of The Matrix, you'd think this wannabe franchise would go all the way past the finish line.

It's too bad then that it stalled out on its very first leg.

While Speed Racer's eclectic visuals have earned it a rabid cult following over the years, that same quirky tone made it a tough sell for casual moviegoers.

This movie couldn't even recoup its own budget at the box office, let alone deliver any profits.

Despite ideas for a follow-up already revving up, the returns were so bad it's unlikely we'll ever see this version of Speed on the big screen again.

When Disney sought to make a film series about everyone's favorite space cowboy, they made

Alden Ehrenreich sign on the dotted line for a whole trilogy.

No one wanted a Han Solo movie without Harrison Ford, and audiences said as much with their wallets.

The depressing box office ensured Solo would be Han's one and only big screen adventure.

The impact went way beyond this one film, though.

No, Solo's underperformance had repercussions all across the galaxy far, far away, with many reporting that it scared the Mouse House away from producing any more theatrical Star

So, if you're ever wondering where those big budget tentpoles went, blame Solo.

The buzzy young adult series, a steampunk aesthetic, and a cushy December release date seem like a foolproof formula for a new industry juggernaut.

I've dug up a few of these in my time, but none as good as this.

Unfortunately, both fans and reviewers disagreed.

Lambasted by toxic word of mouth, Mortal Engines failed to garner much traction during the busy holiday frame, and it has the poor profits to prove it.

Or it would, if it had any profits at all.

The movie is often cited as one of the biggest box office bombs of all time, losing its studio around $175 million.

Given the wallet-burning results, you can imagine why distributor Universal Pictures wasn't very eager to adapt the remaining three books.

Even if this disaster flick had been a smashing success, which for the record, it most definitely was not, prospects for a sequel still would have been as barren as an actual desert.

Sahara's fate as a franchise was actually decided in a courtroom, where the original book's author tried suing the film's producer.

There's a laundry list of reasons why, but most of them boil down to the movie's extremely bumpy path to theaters.

The adaptation got a total yawn from audiences.

So considering there's no money in the brand and a decade-spanning lawsuit to smooth over, it's no wonder everyone abandoned Sahara 2.

There's an old saying in Hollywood, sex sells.

While there were tons of headlines about the film's explicit content, it didn't translate to ticket sales.

You can probably blame the bad reviews for that one.

Modern critics have come back around to give Showgirls its due, but they came too late to rescue the in-development sequel.

Well, technically, we did get Showgirls 2.

However, it didn't star Elizabeth Berkley and was released primarily through film festivals,

If Showgirls had hit theaters today, we may have actually gotten the proper sequel it always deserved.

Despite its name, I Am Number Four couldn't even make it past movie number one.

Keep in mind, this was also at a time when every studio in town was looking for the next young adult craze.

Dreamworks thought they'd struck gold with this book series, so much so they fast-tracked development on a sequel before I Am Number Four even hit theaters.

But when the mediocre film delivered even more mediocre results, the franchise hopeful quietly turned into a disappointing one-off instead.

All in all, there's seven long books in the series.

However, to this day, there's still only one movie.

That alone should tell you everything you need to know.

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.

For the record, casting Jim Carrey as the maniacally inept Count Olaf was a stroke of genius.

I will raise these orphans as if they were actually wanted.

It's tragic, then, that it didn't end up moving the needle all that much.

Unlike the popular source material, A Series of Unfortunate Events suffered from soft audience turnout.

Distributor Paramount Pictures wanted to adapt the other ten books into feature films, but the lower-than-expected profits slowed down development, and by the time everyone was on board, the child actors were too old to reprise their roles anyway.

This turned out to be A Series of Unfortunate Events, indeed.

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Top 30 Movies That BOMBED So Hard They Had To Cancel The Sequel

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