Summary

• Some once-successful movie franchises have come to a halt due to a variety of reasons, including reaching a natural climax or losing interest from audiences.
• Franchises like Jurassic Park/World, Cars, and Madagascar have ended or are unlikely to continue due to negative critical reception, unfavorable reception, or studio restructuring.
• While some movie franchises have ended, there are plans for spin-offs or reboots, such as a Harry Potter television series and a rebooted Twilight Saga television series. The DC Extended Universe is also undergoing a reboot ahead of Superman: Legacy.

Many movie franchises have made over a billion dollars at the global box office, but even still, some of them are currently dead. More recently, it is not too uncommon for a single movie to make a billion dollars, so the number of franchises that do has skyrocketed compared to the early days of the MCU or Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. Many of those franchises are flourishing - the Marvel Cinematic Universe, for example, keeps motoring on as the highest-grossing franchise ever - but others have come to a halt despite including some of the highest-grossing movies of all time.

The reasons for those franchises having no future differ significantly. Some have reached a natural climax and ended on a high, while others have stopped garnering enough interest to warrant continuation. Regardless, seeing which hugely successful franchises aren't continuing is interesting, and in some cases, disappointing.

10 Jurassic Park/World (1993-2022) - $6 Billion

Most Recent Movie: Jurassic World Dominion

The Jurassic Park/World franchise began in 1993 with Jurassic Park, one of the best movies ever made. The series, which chronicles the attempts of various parties to open theme parks featuring de-extinct dinosaurs, now boasts six films, split into two trilogies: the Jurassic Park trilogy and the Jurassic World trilogy. The franchise ended with 2022's Jurassic World Dominion, which united the casts from the old and new films. Any chance of the movie continuing after this one was extinguished by Dominion's awful critical performance. It's the worst installment and a franchise killer - and even its worldwide gross of over $1 billion.

9 Cars (2006-2014) - $1.7 Billion

Most Recent Movie: Cars 3

Cars is a fun Pixar movie saga set in a world populated by anthropomorphic vehicles, with the central star being race car Lightning McQueen, brilliantly voiced by Owen Wilson. Sadly, despite the typically lovely animation and colorful characters, Cars is the poorest of Pixar's franchises, with all three installments ranking low regarding critical reception, with the last one released in 2017. Two spin-off films, Planes and Planes: Fire & Rescue, were produced by the now-defunct Disneytoon Studios and definitely won't continue. Given Cars' relatively unfavorable reception and Pixar having many superior franchises to pick from, a fourth movie seems unlikely to arrive.

8 Wizarding World (2001-2022) - $9.7 Billion

Most Recent Movie: Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

The Wizarding World franchise comprises eight movies based on J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels about the eponymous young wizard and three spin-off prequels in the Fantastic Beasts series. The Harry Potter television series is coming to Warner Bros.' streaming service Max. It will retell the books and be produced over a decade, with Rowling on board as an executive producer.

7 Madagascar (2005-2014) - $2.3 Billion

Most Recent Movie: Penguins of Madagascar

The DreamWorks animated franchise Madagascar comprises three core installments and a spin-off starring penguins. It follows four animals as they're sent back to Africa, having spent all of their lives in New York City's Central Park Zoo, and their attempts to get back to America with the help of many weird and wonderful characters. It's a fun franchise that got better with each release, but it abruptly stopped after 2014's Penguins of Madagascar. A fourth movie in the original series has been spoken of, but a restructuring at DreamWorks - and the ing of a decade - appears to have stopped it in its tracks.

6 Peter Jackson's Middle-Earth (2001-2014) - $6 Billion

Most Recent Movie: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Peter Jackson's Middle-Earth franchise began with The Lord of the Rings trilogy between 2001 and 2003 and ended with The Hobbit prequel trilogy between 2012 and 2014. The former adapts J.R.R. Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings, and the latter adapts The Hobbit by the same man. It's an epic franchise with some truly spectacular scenes, chronicling various battles between the forces of good and evil on the fictional Middle-Earth. While the hugely popular franchise has reached its natural end on the big screen, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, a series based on Tolkien's novels, is currently streaming on Prime Video and offers a great return to Middle Earth.

5 The Twilight Saga (2008-2012) - $3.3 Billion

Most Recent Movie: Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2

The Twilight Saga is a movie franchise with five installments based on Stephenie Meyer's fantasy romance novels about a teenager who falls in love with a 108-year-old vampire who still looks 18 - the age he was when he was turned into a creature of the night - and various conflicts involving vampires and werewolves. It's an entertaining fantasy with striking visuals, and it made a tonne of money, but the critical reception was mixed throughout the series. It finished when the final movie, Breaking Dawn - Part 2, completed the story of the books. Therefore, no more films will be made, but a rebooted television series is planned.

4 The Matrix (1999-2021) - $1.8 Billion

Most Recent Movie: The Matrix Resurrections

The Matrix producer James McTeigue has stated there are no plans for more to be made - and that's not a surprise, given that it made a significant loss at the worldwide box office.

3 Terminator (1984-2019) - $2.1 Billion

Most Recent Movie: Terminator: Dark Fate

The Terminator started the eponymous franchise in 1984, and it was a great movie blending sci-fi, action, and horror perfectly, pitting machines against humanity. It continued in 1991 with Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which arguably bettered it and featured spectacular special effects. Since then, a further four movies have been released, ending with 2019's Terminator: Dark Fate - a box office disappointment - and it's all become a bit of a convoluted mess in of chronology. It's now believed the existing franchise will be brought to an end, and the idea of rebooting it is being considered, which is undoubtedly the best option to breathe new life into the franchise concept.

2 Indiana Jones (1981-2023) - $2.3 Billion

Most Recent Movie: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

The Indiana Jones franchise is a series of five action-adventure films that started in 1981 with Raiders of the Lost Ark and ended in 2023 with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. It chronicles the exploits of an adventurous professor of archaeology as he seeks out historical artifacts and relics but comes into conflict with nefarious rivals. Harrison Ford stars as the titular character and was almost 40 when he played him for the first time. He's now in his 80s and has decided his time playing the character is over, so there should not be more films, which is a sensible choice.

1 The DC Extended Universe (2013-2023) - $6.8 Billion

Confirmed Final Movie: Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

The DC Extended Universe, or DCEU, started in 2013 as a rival to the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Man of Steel. It has spawned another 13 movies, ending with 2023's Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. While further DC films will be made, the DCEU is over, and a reboot is happening. It's been a massively divisive movie series, and the new James Gunn-led reboot is expected to be more colorful and fun than gritty and dark like most DCEU offerings. Which elements of the original DCEU will be kept in the new franchise, if any, is difficult to say, but Superman: Legacy will be a new beginning for the brand.