Ever since Pitch Black was made and released in theaters, it hit the world like a storm (somewhat). It hit all kinds of dvd and home video sales, made a cult following and everyone (at least a lot of people), knows about our favorite criminal/killer badass Riddick!
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The franchise was at its peak when the video game "Butcher Bay" was made as well as a short movie called "Dark Fury." But then...... That was when everything gone to trash as a huge miss, but the franchise managed to stay alive thanks to none other than Vin Diesel and his badass performance.
I honestly have no idea why everyone is well aware of Riddick, but just keeps coming at him and causing hundreds of mercs/other villains to pile up. But I guess the money and pride is too powerful for them to resist with actual logic and BACK AWAY from the one Dude you would never want to f*ck with.
Anyway, the franchise is one of the most unique and interesting ones out there. It's already set up as a sci-fi universe with advanced civilizations and space adventures, but it's only explored through the worst of us and in the world of survival/criminals/bounty hunters. But mostly Riddick.
The franchise was also extremely hyped up ounce. In Butcher Bay, there were several cutscenes with Riddick being given visions of his past and future conflict with the Necromongers as well as "Dark Fury" being entirely made to set up a little bit of backstory before the sequel.
(I couldn't find the clips, but in Dark Fury, there was a Mercenary character who was introduced as Toombs who woke up and basically vowed to hunt him down in the end, which obviously gave out more hype for this Johns knockoff to have a more vital role in the sequel)
My point is, there was so much hype at that time, that everyone believed the movie would be the franchise's very peak. Something that was very rare like Terminator 2, Aliens, and The Empire Strikes Back when better than the first movies while common franchises only have the first movie at its peak.
