Will The Purge become the next big horror film franchise?

Horror franchises go on massive rollercoaster rides. Usually the first film is top quality, followed by a mediocre sequel. Then after that you get even more sequels or remakes and unfortunately they tend to be utter toilet bowl material. Take the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. The original 1974 film is a classic piece of cinema. It mixes the gore and brutal terror with fantastic acting and is the creator of the "slasher" horror film. The second film released in the 80's wasn't initially well received. however it now has a cult following with horror fans. However the other sequels and the recent remakes are absolutely shocking and not in a good way. Texas Chainsaw 3D released last year was that bad, I just had to laugh at the pure idiocy at some of the characters. Everyone in the cinema was laughing, popcorn was flying and I can't fault them for that. What a terrible film. My personal favourite horror franchise of the 21st century has to be Final Destination. The absolutely insane and ludicrous ways that the characters get killed off are brilliant. I wanna know who comes up with these death ideas. Whoever you are, you're a sick but creative human being and I love you because it's hilarious! 

The Purge came out last year and I was quite exciting for it. The concept of having a 12 hour period every year to do whatever you pleased, was unique. It had plenty of potential going for it. And it turned out to be one of the most frustrating films of the year. The film plot was created by a completely stupid 7 year old kid, who's Dad ironically made his living from selling purge proof security systems, deactivated their home's systems to let a random bloke into their house, whilst there are people running around in the streets committing murder. Great idea! So without that incident, their wouldn't be a film. Annoying. The film then turned into the generic slasher horror film, it wasn't anything special. Plus the main villain looked like a wannabe Patrick Bateman from American Psycho. The film however did make huge return. With a budget of only $3 million, The Purge made just shy of $90 million. With these numbers, Universal was quick on the case to get a sequel into development, with release due for July 17th.  The sequel sees the return of the previous director/writer James DeMonaco, who has been quoted as saying that if this new film is just as big of a success, more films will be released. As I've mentioned, there's is potential for this film franchise. It's cheap to produce and people seemed to have interest in this sequel. The plot this time is set in L.A so this film is going bigger, which I think is what it needed. The original just didn't feel suited to a claustrophobic house setting. A bigger city setting = more carnage and that's what I wanna see. 

Will this be as successful as the SAW and Paranormal Activity franchises? I reckon it will be. It's got plenty of different avenues to explore. It won't be an iconic film in terms of being groundbreaking, but with the momentum and interest that The Purge has, I wouldn't be surprised if we see a new film every year. Fingers crossed it won't get any worse the longer the series goes on, but like the majority of horror sequels, I highly doubt it.

What do you think of The Purge? Do you think we'll see a conveyor belt of these films? Let me know in the comments below :D