25 Of The Best Movie Franchises Ever Made

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Disney and Luscasfilm haven't quite been able to recapture the magic of the original trilogy, but the galaxy far, far, away is seemingly endless. With new Star Wars content basically every year, there's bound to be something for everyone. The Skywalker Saga occupied three film trilogies, but with standalone movies like Rogue One, the franchise has shown it's ready to explore new characters.

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The Iron Man movies are part of the MCU, duh. But even without that additional context, the three movies centering on Tony Stark are a great trilogy on their own. Unlike Thor and Captain America, who had to share their movies with other MCU real estate, Iron Man was the main character in all of his movies. If Tony Stark's final appearance had been in Iron Man 3, that would've been a complete character arc. 

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The Dark Knight is easily the highlight of Christopher Nolan's take on Batman, but Batman Begins and The Dark Knight Rises are not to be slept on. Together, the three movies make what many consider the GOAT of comic book movie trilogies. Heath Ledger's Joker is rightfully praised as one of, if not the best version of the character, but Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne/Batman is, ironically, one of the more overlooked aspects of the series.

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Spider-Man 3 is the dud of the trilogy, but it's not a bad movie. It suffers from too much ambition and comparisons to its superior predecessors. That said, this trilogy has a great Spidey in Tobey Maguire, three awesome villains in Green Goblin, Doc Ock, and Venom, and the train scene in Spider-Man 2. That's five good reasons to watch it.

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Don't let J.K. Rowling's anti-trans bullshit stop you from enjoying Harry Potter movies if you like them. There's a lot to love about these eight movies: the magic looks amazing, the three leads give great performances across a decade of work, and Alfonso Cuarón directed the best one. But go ahead and skip the Fantastic Beasts prequel/spinoff. 

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Toy Story 3 seemed like a natural conclusion to these movies, but then Toy Story 4 turned out to be great and also seemed like the end of the franchise. But lo and behold, Toy Story 5 is on its way and the toys are taking on iPads next. Woody and Buzz seem to have a lot left to say, and the sustained quality of these movies is not just a green flag but a bit of a miracle. 

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Ethan Hunt has become a vehicle for Tom Cruise to enact his most death-defying stunts, most recently when he literally rode a motorcycle off a mountain in Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1. Stunts aside, most of the Mission Impossible movies are solid spy capers with moments of brilliance like the vault scene in MI1 and Henry Cavill cocking his arms during the bathroom fight in Fallout.

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There should be more rom-com franchises, but until Hollywood gets it together, we have Bridget Jones. Two of the three movies (Diary and Baby) are excellent, and Edge of Reason has plenty to giggle at, even though it isn't as good. Bridget and Mark Darcy's love story will be enshrined in film forever, but the upcoming fourth movie in the franchise promises another hilarious turn for Renée Zellweger's heroine despite the absence of Colin Firth.

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Seeing photorealistic dinosaurs has been the main draw of the Jurassic Park movies since the first one came out in 1993, and the thrill hasn't gotten old after three decades. The human characters and plot, on the other hand, are entirely secondary, maybe even forgettable, despite featuring big names like Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Chris Pratt, and Bryce Dallas Howard over the years. The upcoming reboot (yes, another one) will star Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey, but we know the drill by now. They're just there to run away from the dinos.

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This franchise's time travel rules are pretty solid and uncomplicated, even if people are managing to find plot holes in them to this very day. But that's always the case with time travel movies, ya know? The Back to the Future movies stand the test of time because they have a bit of everything: family drama, romantic tension, action, humor, the Wild West, and a DeLorean time machine.

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The first Bring It On movie is by far the best one in the franchise and the sequels do not come close, although All Or Nothing does its best. One thing all seven entries have in common is shameless silliness and impressive athleticism. If you're in the mood for broad parodies of high school and college life, look no further.

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There's a good chance you won't remember a single plot detail or character from any Step Up movie besides Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan from the first one. What you will remember is the endlessly rewatchable dance numbers, like the rain dance in Step Up 2: The Street or the shipping container dance from Step Up Revolution. Just think of the scenes and dialogue as a bridge to the next dance scene.

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Irrespective of which James Bond is your personal favorite, it's worth checking out at least one 007 movie. The spy franchise has gotten increasingly less campy over the years — the Daniel Craig era was gritty and angsty 90% of the time — but certain aspects of Bond carry over to every version of the character (a preference for martinis, for example). The franchise is over 50 years old, and if the constantly swirling rumors about future Bond actors tell us anything, it's that it'll easily make it to 100.

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This collection of Baz Luhrmann's first three movies isn't a trilogy in the traditional sense. There is no connection between the plot or characters of Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, or Moulin Rouge!. According to the director, what they share is a filmmaking style and consistent theater motif throughout. One is a rom-com with ballroom dancing, another is Shakespeare's most famous tragedy set in '90s USA, and the last one is a musical melodrama.

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The Terminator series gave us two action icons: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton. As the titular character, Arnold relied on his considerable screen presence to portray a killer robot who develops some humanity. On the more underrated side, you have the incomparable badass Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, whose entire life blows up when the aforementioned murderous robot starts trying to kill her. The first three movies are great (T2 is excellent), with diminishing returns for subsequent installments that get bogged down by their own lore. Still, three solid movies is nothing to scoff at.

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Harrison Ford has continued playing Indiana Jones after 40 years, so it may be worth investigating why he likes this character so much — especially considering his feelings about that other famous character he played in a major franchise. Even the not-quite-as-good fourth and fifth movies in the Indy series are a good time. The first three are classics.

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The Black Panther movies are only two films within a larger franchise, but you can still watch them alone. Both tell a complete story about heroism, grief, and family legacy and are the only MCU movies that have won major awards. The second movie was retooled as a continuation of Wakanda's story and a tribute to Chadwick Boseman after his death, with the heroic mantle passing to Letitia Wright's Shuri. Wakanda Forever was a fitting, moving conclusion that stood out in an increasingly bloated MCU, but if Ryan Coogler wants to make a third one we won't complain. 

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High School Musical and High School Musical 2 were so successful on the Disney Channel that High School Musical 3: Senior Year was released in movie theaters and made more than 20 times its budget. You may think that your enduring love for them is the product of nostalgia goggles, but they really hold up. With hits like "Breaking Free," "I Don't Dance," and "Can I Have This Dance" it's hardly a surprise.

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The MCU is experiencing some growing pains these days, but the Infinity Saga really stuck the landing with Avengers: Endgame. To get the full picture, you'll need to see all the previous Avengers and Captain America: Civil War, which is basically Avengers 2.5, and Thor: Ragnarok, which checked in with Thor and Hulk. 

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Sony and Marvel semi-amicably share custody of Spider-Man. While that means that the future of Tom Holland's MCU Peter Parker is uncertain at the moment, the future of the animated Spider-Verse is bright, colorful, and promising. The animated multi-verse looks like a comic book come to life, supported by a stellar voice cast (Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Jake Johnson, and Oscar Isaac). Miles Morales's story ended on a cliffhanger in Across the Spider-Verse, and thankfully the third installment is on its way, even if it'll take a while for us to see it.

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If ever there was a franchise that specialized in big, dumb, loud fun, it's the Fast and Furious movies. Dominic Toretto and his family operate outside of the laws of physics, with each movie featuring bigger explosions and wilder scenarios. IN one movie, Dwayne Johnson kicks a missile like its a soccer ball while driving a tank across a frozen lake, and he's not even the main character. The most recent, Fast X, added Rita Moreno, Brie Larson, and Jason Momoa to the cast and ended on a cliffhanger so ridiculous it makes the submarine from Fate of the Furious look downright pedestrian.

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Two Avatar movies have been released, and at least three more are in the pipeline to continue the story of Jake Sully, Neytiri, and their family. James Cameron's rendering of Pandora takes many, many years, but that time is well worth it if the end product is something like Avatar II: The Way of Water. Even in the unlikely event that you hated the plot and every single character, you'd have to admit that the sight of a Na'vi floating alongside a Tulkun (whale-like Pandora creature), looking as real as anything you've seen in person, is mesmerizing.

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Action, sci-fi, and horror have been melding in the Alien movies since the '70s, and they've only gotten gorier as the decades have passed. The most recent release, Alien: Romulus, takes place between the events of Alien and Aliens, widely considered to be the two best movies in the franchise. They haven't all been hits, but horror fans will find redeeming qualities in all of them. But when they're good, they're great.

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The live-action X-Men movies are famous for their impossible-to-follow timeline and inconsistent quality, but they have enough moments of brilliance to make them a worthy watch. Another thing they have is an excellent, perfectly cast ensemble (both generations). Hugh Jackman is such a good Wolverine that they won't let him retire. The franchise highlight has to be X-Men: Days of Future Past, but the very first X-Men in 2000 is probably the movie that started this whole superhero cinema craze, for better or worse.

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The Lord of the Rings trilogy isn't simply excellent; it's been the bar for epic fantasy adventure films for over two decades. Each movie improves on the previous one (a rarity with sequels), with characters like Frodo, Samwise, and Aragorn, whose arcs are simple enough for kids to understand yet so complex adults are still talking about them on the internet years later. Throw in groundbreaking CGI, two of the best battle sequences committed to film, and Orlando Bloom's blonde wig, and you have something that has yet to be topped.