You know, I think whoever said Paramount should direct their efforts towards cheap movies was right. I mean, I am looking at Rings and despite it not being a big hit it made 83m for them on a 25m budget. And that is a huge budget for a horror movie. WB made the first Annabelle for 6.5m. They should really target that horror crowd. They seem to be a gold mine for WB (The Conjuring Universe, Lights Out and IT looking to be huge). Universal had huge success this year on that front too. And let's not forget that theatrically these movies sometimes make more money than big, expensive franchises.
Of course, studios prefer big franchises because of the other revenue streams (merchandise), but Paramount for example doesn't even own Hasbro. And while they might get some revenue from them, it is not the same as WB owning HP/DC or Disney owning SW/Marvel. So the small but profitable way should be even more obvious for them. Idk, just a thought.