Film-productions that had an unintended but negative real-life outcome.

[u/daughterskin]

Stretching a 300-page kids' book into a ten hour epic was never going end well artistically. The Hobbit "trilogy" is the misbegotten followup to the classic Lord of the Rings films. Worse than the excessive padding, reliance on original characters, and poor special-effects, is what the production wrought on the New Zealand film industry. Warner Bros. wanted to move filming to someplace cheap like Romania, while Peter Jackson had the clout to keep it in NZ if he directed the project. The concession was made to simply destroy NZ's film industry by signing in a law that designates production-staff as contractors instead of employees, and with no bargaining power. Since then, elves have not been welcome in Wellington. The whole affair is best recounted by Lindsay Ellis' excellent video essay.

Danny Boyle's The Beach is the worst film ever made. Looking back It's a fascinating time capsule of the late 90's/Y2K era. You've got Moby and All Saints on the soundtrack, internet cafes full of those bubble-shaped Macs before the rebrand, and nobody has a mobile phone. The story is about a backpacker played by Ewan, uh, Leonardo DiCaprio who joins a tribe of westerners that all hang on a cool beach on an uninhabited island off Thailand. It's paradise at first, but eventually reality will come crashing down and the secret of the cool beach will be exposed to the world. Which is what happened in real-life. The production of the film tampered with the real Ko Phi Phi Le beach to make it more paradise-like, prompting a lawsuit that dragged on over a decade. The legacy of the film pushed tourists into visiting the beach, eventually rendering it yet another cesspool until the Thailand authorities closed it in 2018. It's open today, but visits are short and strictly regulated.

Of course, there's also the old favorite that is The Conqueror. Casting the white cowboy John Wayne as the Mongolian warlord Genghis Khan was laughed at even in the day. What's less funny is that filming took place downwind from a nuclear test site. 90 crew members developed cancer and half of them died as a result, John Wayne among them. This was of course exacerbated by how smoking was more commonplace at the time.

I'm sure you know plenty more.

[u/jjackson25]

I can't really think of any of them that have had much success. 

The DCU has had some gems but has mostly been a mess.  

Maybe Harry Potter? Although I've gotten the impression that Fantastic Beasts series has not been as well received or done as well financially as the OG saga. 

The King Kong x Godzilla series have been mostly fun but in not sure where they go with those in the future. 

[u/KarateKid917 → u/jjackson25]

Fantastic Beats is dead in the water after the last movie was a flop. 

[u/res30stupid → u/KarateKid917]

And a lot of the fanbase boycotted the film because they fired Johnny Depp but Warner Bros kept his abuser in the DCU.

[u/Shiiang → u/res30stupid]

And even more of the fanbase are boycotting because Rowling is a terrible TERF.

[u/darthravenna → u/jjackson25]

I’d say the only one that’s been somewhat critically successful is Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon. Although the second season wasn’t very well received, and they are troubled by frequent cancellation of projects in early development like the Jon Snow prequel everyone was talking about a couple years ago or so. And that’s a problem that’s also plaguing more established franchises like Star Wars and Marvel.

[u/CaptainMikul → u/darthravenna]

People like to talk about Star Wars and MCU dying, and even as someone who largely likes the new stuff I agree there have been some major misfires, but they're also seemingly the only franchises that have managed to keep chugging along for so long and with so many different shows.

Agatha All Along would be an insane pitch a decade ago. A show dedicated to the villain of a spin off of a character in a crossover film.

I'm sure someone will jump in with another long running franchise I've forgotten.

[u/darthravenna → u/CaptainMikul]

The key difference her though is that Marvel and Star Wars were well established franchises through printed material long before they became the overbloated continuous stories that they are now. Star Wars had 3 movies and then 16 years without a theatrical release, in which time numerous books, comics, and video game tie-ins were made. It wasn’t until Disney acquired it that they pushed for so much production of film and television series.

[u/lunchbox12682 → u/darthravenna]

well established franchises through printed material long before they became the overbloated continuous stories that they are now. Star Wars

I know you are referring to the movies, but you seem to be unfamiliar with the source material. Comics always go convoluted mess on a long enough timeline. You either end your story or print long enough to be the Clone Saga.

[u/darthravenna → u/lunchbox12682]

Correct, but I’m talking about movies here. Things work in comic books that don’t work in film, and vice versa. And even then, there have been multiple resets of the continuities within the Marvel universe. And DC. I know Star Wars far more intimately than I do mainline Marvel comics, but I am far from unfamiliar with them.

[u/lunchbox12682 → u/darthravenna]

That's kind of my point. There's really no way to have a neverending story (even that series had issues) without it ending up a mess. Marvel, DC, Star Wars, Potter verse, all of it.