When Should a Movie Franchise Stop?

When I was young, Two film franchises often got ridiculed more than any others because of the amount of sequels they had, these being Friday the 13^th and Police Academy, now though every film seems to be at it but when should a Movie Franchise stop?

With Friday the 13^th, it was kind of acceptable as they made Jason an almost magical creature simply because audiences wanted more, the 4^th film was called the Final Chapter only to be brought back to life with a 5^th film, A New Beginning. In fact, Horror seems to be because of its nature, acceptable with franchises, we always want the killer to come back, whether it’s Elm Street’s Freddy or Halloween’s Michael Myers or more recent titles such as Saw and Paranormal Activity.

The Police Academy films however got less funny as cast members would leave at various points  through to their 7^th outing Mission to Moscow. This was to be the franchise version of  Jaws: The Revenge in that it would stop further sequels (although it may shock no one that a Police Academy reboot is in the works)

Excluding reboot/remakes though, is that what it takes to end a franchise, A really bad entry? I have said previously I love the Jaws films, I’d love a Jaws 5 (not the unofficial Crawl Jaws entry) but only if they could do a good story and get a great cast. Jaws 4 having Sharks swimming in hot waters on a mission of revenge was daft but I’d love to have seen the proposed version which had Ellen the subject of a Voodoo curse, as it may have made more sense but probably not. Had it been any good then maybe Back to the Future: Part II would have been right predicting Jaws 19 would have been out this year.

This is where the numerous sequels being released comes from, the audience, I want to see Jaws attack Amity bathers again in the same way Friday the 13^th fans want Jason to put a Hockey mask on again, and why just this week, Vin Diesel has announced a further trilogy in the popular Fast and Furious franchise, which will take its entries up to 10! If we keep watching, then they’ll keep making I guess.

James Bond has had numerous outings and as Skyfall showed they can still pull audiences in, the positive from this being a good script/casting can re-ignite a franchise as lets face it, there have a few not so epic outings for 007!  Star Wars will be heading for 9 films but take that into double figures if you count the proposed spin offs, starting with Rogue One, I’ve lost count of how many films now take part in the Marvel Universe franchise the other entry leading the pack!

Do you think double figure franchises are silly or do you love seeing your favourite characters keep getting repeat outings?

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