How can one movie influence the future of another movie? Hollywood has proved on numerous occasions that the fate of one project can be tied to the performance of the other. Most of us have studied in Economics how two pairs of substitute or complementary goods can affect each other. However, in this case, the following movies inadvertently ate up a prospective cinema. It’s kind of cruel and chilling watching how aggressive this business can get. Imagine your hard work getting flushed out because of something that had nothing to do with you or your project. Find out the 10 Hollywood movies that led to the cancellation of other movies.
The Mummy
The massive success of MCU and DCEU prompted Universal Studios to debut their own universe. They brought a team of a-list Hollywood actors to begin the Dark Universe with The Mummy, Invisible Man, Frankenstein, Dracula, etc. Tom Cruise was supposed to inaugurate the franchise with The Mummy, followed by Johnny Depp’s The Invisible Man and Angelina Jolie’s The Bride of Frankenstein. But the abysmal performance of The Mummy shut down Universal Studio’s dream for good.
Justice League
A standalone of Flash was meant to follow the “Justice League” of 2017. But receiving negative reviews from fans and critics forced WB to rethink its decision. They took a new approach to recreate the future of the DCEU. “The Flash” was one of the many projects that were put on hold due to the revamp. It was on the verge of getting cancelled until WB broke the long wait and announced its new release date.
Avatar
The iconic James Cameron had visions for directing a remake of the classic sci-fi “Fantastic Voyage”. The story follows a team of doctors who use a size-altering technology to miniaturize themselves and operate a scientist’s brain clot. Everything was ready until “Avatar” showed up and pushed the project aside. We know how this film has caught Cameron’s attention since then.
Wolverine
It’s no brain-teaser that Wolverine and Magneto are the most popular characters emerging out of the X-Men universe. Fox Studios wanted to capitalize on this fame by pushing out separate “Origins” for both of them. But after its experiment with “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” failed miserably, the franchise cancelled plans for Magneto.
The Dark Knight
Warner Bros. had started planning to produce a Justice League film long before Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon came into the picture. “Justice League: Mortal” was about to begin with productions when it was hit by budget constraints, unconvincing casting, Writer’s Guild of America strike and Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight”. Warner Bros. was more interested in producing the latter after witnessing the success of “Batman Begins”. This led to the unfortunate cancellation of the “Justice League”.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
The second instalment of The Amazing Spider-Man franchise was directed with the idea of making a movie on The Sinister Six in the future. It ended up bringing too many villains from Spidey’s universe together on the screen and ruined the whole plot. So, in a way, this film not only killed the Spider-Man franchise but also consumed other projects.
Joker
A Joker movie starring Jared Leto was on the cards after “Suicide Squad”. But his method-acting in the movie failed to meet the audience’ expectations. Things got worse after Joaquin Phoenix took everyone by storm as Arthur Fleck in “Joker”. Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn and Phoenix’ Joker overshadowed Leto’s already unpleasing performance and nixed his standalone.
MCU Spider-Man
Rebooting Tobey Maguire’s Spidey with Andrew Garfield’s “The Amazing Spider-Man” brought positive results for Sony. Despite the success of the first instalment, the future of this franchise was put on thin ice for various reasons. The diminishing returns from the second part compelled Sony to begin talks with the MCU. While the latter wanted to cast a new face such as Tom Holland for Peter Parker, Sony dropped Andrew Garfield after he failed to show up at a gala promoting his film.
Dark Phoenix
The X-Men franchise has been on a roller coaster ride in Hollywood since its inception. Some films under its wing were immensely successful while others were absolute disasters. “Dark Phoenix” was the last ray of hope for the franchise since Disney had taken over Fox. But bombing at the box office impacted their case adversely. While the House of Mouse decided to keep Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool, it couldn’t save the decade-old franchise of the mutants.
Prometheus
Neil Blomkamp earned critical acclamation for his fabulous work in “District 9”. He went on to direct more sequels with “Elysium” and “Chappie” but couldn’t impress the audience the same way. His affinity for the alien genre further encouraged him to reboot the Alien franchise, following the events of James Cameron’s “Aliens”. But the original creator of “Alien” 1979, Ridley Scott retrieved the Alien franchise and decided to make the prequel “Prometheus”.
