These days, it feels like every sci-fi film ever made has been followed up by another.
For some reason or another, though, there are some sci-fi movies that either never got
a sequel or ended up stopping a whole franchise in its tracks.
Here are a few of those movies.
In E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, a lonely suburban boy named Elliott discovers a friendly alien
in the woods, with whom he soon forms an indelible, psychokinetic bond.
It became the highest-grossing movie of its time, received nine Academy Award nominations,
and solidified director Steven Spielberg as the premier filmmaker of his generation.
In fact, pretty much the whole world fell in love with the little alien man with the
glowing heart, meaning Spielberg and screenwriter Melissa Mathison had to at least entertain
the notion of an E.T. sequel.
Together, they wrote a nine-page outline for E.T. II: Nocturnal Fears, a movie very unlike
the original E.T. - in that it was a sci-fi horror movie that barely featured E.T. at all.
The plot revolved around some other aliens who receive E.T.'s distress call from the first movie.
Elliott and Gertie quickly track them down, thinking E.T. has returned.
But these aliens are actually Gremlin-like monsters with red eyes and sharp teeth who
end up torturing the kids.
Using his bond with E.T., Elliott calls for help, and his alien pal shows up just in time to save them.
Apparently, Spielberg quickly realized that this was all a really, really bad idea.
As he once said at an American Film Institute event:
"Sequels can be very dangerous because they compromise your truth as an artist.
I think a sequel to E.T. would do nothing but rob the original of its virginity."
First published in 1982, Battlefield Earth is an incredibly long and complex sci-fi epic
by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
Set in the year 3000, it tells the story of Earth's 1000-year occupation by monstrous
humanoid aliens called Psychlos [SY-klohs], who've reduced humanity to a population of
around 30,000... that is, until noble hero Jonnie Goodboy Tyler sparks a revolution and
gains himself an enemy in Terl, the wicked chief of Psychlo security.
John Travolta tried to get a film adaptation of Battlefield Earth going for more than 15
years, only finally amassing the Hollywood capital needed to make it happen in the late 1990s.
Unfortunately, this was too for Travolta to play the role of Tyler as he'd hoped, and
he was instead cast as Terl.
He was also a producer on the project, and had intended to tell the Battlefield story
over the course of two films.
Despite some fancy special effects and Travolta's star power, however, Battlefield Earth crashed.
Made with a budget of $73 million, it took in an Earth-wide total of $29 million.
And the few who did see the movie hated it.
It's got a 3% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and it "won" in every category in which it was
nominated at the Razzies.
As a result, the sequel simply never got off the ground.
Opening over the Fourth of July weekend in 1996, the original Independence Day packed
in all the elements of a perfect popcorn movie, with special effects, an all-star cast, and
a crowd-pleasing plot in which humans pull together to expel and eliminate an extraterrestrial menace.
The film earned a then-record $104.3 million in its opening week, and took in a total of
$306 million in North America alone.
A sequel, then, was inevitable, but it still took 20 years to get going.
Independence Day: Resurgence hit theaters in the summer of 2016 and eked out an American
grand total of $103 million — less than what the original film had pulled in during
its first week, and that's before you adjust for inflation.
There are several reasons why Resurgence underperformed.
It's likely that Will Smith passing on the sequel turned off audiences, and the 20 year
wait between films can't have helped, either.
Regardless, before the release of Resurgence, director Roland Emmerich discussed his plans
for a third Independence Day movie, one that would take Jeff Goldblum's character into
space to lead an attack on hostile aliens.
"Take the fight to them."
"When do we leave?"
"We are going to kick some serious alien ass."
But the lackluster numbers for Resurgence seem to have killed any possibility of that happening.
Resurgence producer Dean Devlin told LMR Online in 2018:
"Currently, I personally have no plans on doing another one."
Disney already controlled a number of major movie brands and franchises when it finalized
its acquisition of 21st Century Fox in March 2019.
That said, the Fox buyout was still a huge deal in the industry.
Included in the $71 billion price tag were the film rights to the X-Men, 30 percent of
Hulu, ownership of The Simpsons, and the difficult decision on what to do with nearly 300 films
that had been in development at Fox.
One of those films was a sequel to Chronicle, the innovative found-footage sci-fi about
three teenagers who find themselves wielding incredible telekinetic abilities.
The 2012 original earned $126 million at the worldwide box office, but when Disney acquired
the property, they clearly didn't think the franchise had much of a future.
Still, seven years had passed between the release of Chronicle and the Disney acquisition.
Why didn't Fox make a sequel in the interim?
Well, it probably has a lot to do with the creative minds behind the first film.
For one, screenwriter Max Landis was accused of sexual assault in 2017, and since then,
his career has pretty much disintegrated.
Meanwhile, director Josh Trank admitted to Collider that he intentionally made things
hard when Fox asked about a sequel.
He said:
"I made it difficult for them to set up meetings.
I was dodgy about stuff.
[...] Because I really didn't ever want to see Chronicle 2 happen.
That was my worst nightmare."
Once upon a time, Disney thought that the whole world was ready for a sci-fi epic based
on a forgotten, century-old book.
Andrew Stanton of Pixar convinced Disney to buy the rights to Edgar Rice Burroughs' 1912
novel A Princess of Mars and then let him direct the adaptation, even though he'd never
made a live action movie.
Disney sunk $263.7 million on the production of John Carter - plus another $100 million
on marketing - making it one of the most expensive movies ever made.
That's a lot of cash to invest in a film based on an obscure property... and starring a cast
of relative unknowns, to boot.
Released in March 2012, critical reviews for John Carter were middling at best, and they
did nothing to entice audiences to what was already a hard sell.
After a moderately robust $30 million opening the weekend, the film sank fast and wound
up bringing in just $73 million in the U.S.
It didn't do much better overseas, either, with a final global take of $284 million.
Disney's massive financial losses made John Carter into one of the biggest bombs of all
time, thus putting the brakes on the development of any of the ten additional books in Burroughs' "Barsoom" saga.
In 2014, the rights to the series reverted back to the author's estate, putting any last
chance of a John Carter sequel firmly in the ground.
Based on a cancelled 1960s TV series that ran for only three years, Star Trek: The Motion
Picture hit the big screen in 1979, a testament to the property's devoted and enduring fan base.
Through the '80s and '90s, Star Trek became one of the most successful and long-lasting
film franchises of all time.
"Khaaaaan!"
Then, in 1994, the cast of the original six movies passed the torch to a new generation
of heroes with the aptly-named 1994 film Star Trek: Generations.
The first three films in the rebooted series performed well at the box office, bringing
in an average return of $129 million.
Interest dropped off precipitously, however, with the release of Star Trek: Nemesis in December 2002.
The fourth Next Generation movie took in $67 million at the U.S. box office - a respectable
number, but not all that great in comparison to its predecessors.
As such, the movie killed Star Trek at the multiplex for the time being, with part of
the blame falling to competition from several other franchises.
At the time of its release, Nemesis faced competition from The Lord of the Rings: The
Two Towers, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and The Santa Clause 2.
As a result, the Star Trek franchise faded into the ether - and didn't make a resurgence
until J.J. Abrams rebooted the series seven years later.
Hellboy was a major hit character for indie comic publisher Dark Horse.
The character is a red-skinned, super-powered half-demon who works for the Bureau for Paranormal
Research and Defense, and in doing so, protects Earth from creatures and forces of pure evil.
Fantasy icon Guillermo del Toro wrote and directed 2004's Hellboy and Hellboy II: The
Golden Army, but he wasn't hired for a third film.
Star Ron Perlman didn't want to make the movie without del Toro either, so producers opted
to reboot the series instead, bringing on a new creative team and replacing Perlman
with David Harbour, the likable breakout star of the Netflix mega-hit Stranger Things.
Critics don't often praise sci-fi monster movies, but they loved del Toro's two Hellboy
movies, which earned Rotten Tomatoes scores of 81% and 86%, respectively.
Audiences also enjoyed the first Hellboys to the tune of a combined $260.2 million at the box office.
The 2019 Hellboy, however, failed to capture the hearts of either critics or filmgoers.
Reviewers savaged the movie, which brought in just $44.6 million at the worldwide box
office in its first theatrical run.
This attempt at a fresh, rebooted franchise simply crashed and burned — sending any
possibility of a sequel straight to hell.
It really does feel like the Terminator franchise is impossible to kill.
"I'll be back."
It all started with 1984's sci-fi noir flick The Terminator, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger
as a cyborg sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor and her unborn son, John, who will
one day lead the human resistance against the machines.
Terminator 2: Judgement Day found Schwarzenegger playing a different time-hopping Terminator
entrusted with protecting teenage John Connor from another, deadlier Terminator.
And so it went, with more Terminator installments digging up more and more holes in the mind-boggling
timeline - all leading up to 2019's Terminator: Dark Fate.
Despite the brand recognition, and despite being the first Terminator in decades to feature
both Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton, Dark Fate was a flop.
It was the first in the series since the 1984 original to not clear $350 million at the
box office, grossing just $261 million worldwide - a number even more disappointing considering
it cost $185 million to produce.
Although you should never say never with a franchise this big, those measly returns could
mean that the Terminator franchise has finally met its fate.
The Hollywood icon Mel Brooks' best films tended to parody entire genres of movies - Westerns
with Blazing Saddles, for example, or classic horror with Young Frankenstein.
Naturally, then, in the 1980s, he turned his hand to Star Wars.
Spaceballs lovingly sent-up the George Lucas saga, but also pointed out just how silly
it all was, with Rick Moranis as the unsure, Darth Vader-esque Dark Helmet, Bill Pullman
as the on-the-nose Han Solo parody Lone Starr, and John Candy as the Chewbacca-like Barf.
Brooks himself even shows up for an extended cameo as Yogurt, an old and wise Yoda rip-off
who's literally just there to sell merch.
"Spaceballs the coloring book, Spaceballs the lunch box, Spaceballs the breakfast cereal,
Spaceballs the flamethrower!"
"Ooooh!"
Naturally, considering the franchise it's spoofing, Spaceballs also promises a sequel
in Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money.
Sadly, this will probably never happen, since many members of the original cast have passed
away since the first film's 1987 release.
Most importantly of all, however, Moranis has almost entirely retired from acting.
And as the 94-year-old Brooks once told Parade magazine:
"Without Rick, I wouldn't do it."
And though Moranis has recently returned to the screen for a few select projects, that's
most likely the end of that.
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