Looks like THE EXPENDABLES 2 is opening at #1 this weekend, which means Sylvester Stallone is again the top-billed star of a sequel.
I say “again” because he’s already done it repeatedly as John Rambo, and five times as Rocky Balboa; how far back do you have to go to find someone else who managed it nine times across three franchises? (The best I can do is Buster Crabbe, if we go all the way back to his 1940 heyday as Flash Gordon.)
Eddie Murphy
Had sequels for the following:
48 Hours
Beverly Hills Cop
The Nutty Professor
Dr. Dolittle
Shrek
Good one, though I don’t think the Shrek sequels count; he wasn’t top-billed in those.
If we were to go by total domestic box office (not adjusted for inflation) for all the films that the particular star appeared in, it’s not Stallone:
http://www.filmsite.org/series-boxoffice.html
Daniel Radcliffe has appeared in the eight films of the Harry Potter series which have a total domestic box office of $2.39 billion. The total of the six films of the Rocky series is $566 million. It appears that the total box office of the four Rambo films and the two The Expendables films were each less than that, so Radcliffe has made more from his eight series films than Stallone has made from his twelve series films. The other obvious actor is Harrison Ford. He co-starred in three Star Wars films and starred in four Indiana Jones films.
It’s true that Radcliffe hasn’t appeared in any other series yet, but he’s presumably got a long career ahead of him. Any other series he gets cast in could easily put him ahead of Stallone for total series films made. If sheer number is what you want, I suspect that there were people starring in film series back in the 1920’s to 1950’s that beat either of them. Also, I suspect that are people starring in films in India that have more series films than anyone mentioned so far.
Just for kicks: Mike Myers has been in four Shrek sequels*, two Austin Powers sequels and one Wayne’s World. So seven sequels vs. Stallones nine.
So he’ll have to wait till someone green-lights “The Love Guru: First Love Part III” to surpass Stallone.
*I think one is just shown at Disney parks, but I counted it anyways.
And two Jack Ryan sequels!
Now that you mention it, I guess Jackie Chan gets points for both the RUSH HOUR sequels and SHANGHAI KNIGHTS even before factoring in his assorted overseas stuff: his imdb profile is all SUPERCOP 2 and POLICE STORY 2 and PROJECT A 2 and FEARLESS HYENA 2 and so on and so on.
Are we counting a movie in the actors sequel-count if the actor wasn’t in the original film?
I figure it fits how the terms were worded: “the top-billed star of a sequel.”
If we do, then Ford also gets “credit” for Force 10 From Navarone which was a sequel to The Guns of Navarone.
As far as I can tell, Robert Shaw had top billing in Force 10.
Officially perhaps. But between the time the movie was being made and when it was released, Star Wars exploded. Ford had become a bigger star star than Shaw and the movie promotion reflected this - it was now Han Solo fights World War II instead of Quint.
Actually, while many Indian actors would no doubt have churned out many more movies than even the most prolific Hollywood B-level star, sequels and series were very rare in Bollywood. In fact, I’m positive that there had been no more than two or three sequels until a recent spate in the late 2000s.
Patrick Stewart has significant parts in six movies in the Star Trek and X-Men franchises (seven if you count a cameo in X-Men Origins: Wolverine).
Ian McKellen has six movies in the X-Men and Lord of the Rings franchises (plus he was in Richard III but don’t know if he was in the first two).
had 16 ‘Andy Hardy’ movies…
Oops, missed the three franchise minimum.
How about Ben Stiller:
3 Madagascar movies
3 Meet the Parents movies
2 Night at the Museum movies
And I believe a sequel to Zoolander is in progress.
Not headlining but Hugo Weaving has played prominent rolls in three franchises:
Agent Smith in the Matrix movies, Megatron in the Transformer movies and Elrond in the Lord of the Rings movies.
Well, when he replaces Tom Hardy in the role of James Bond for 2026’s Golden Yesterday is More Than Enough to Die, he’ll add to his sequel total.
What Stallone holds over the other mentioned in this thread, is that - for better or worse - he has been the driving force behind his sequels. Daniel Radcliffe didn’t have to go to a studio and pitch HP II et al.
And the adjusted-for-inflation values are…?
I don’t know. Perhaps you can find a website containing them or can calculate them yourself.