What Was The Best Movie Franchise With Multiple Sequels?

[TriPolar]

Laser Cats!

[Bakhesh]

@The_Other_Waldo_Pepper

It’s a popcorn-movie action flick that entertainingly plays around with expectations, sets Anthony Hopkins to deliver cut-crystal quips, and gives us IMHO the sexiest leading lady of the series to watch while building up to IMHO the best fistfight in the series, which unsurprisingly led it to gross more than quadruple its budget while racking up favorable reviews aplenty from critics who agreed that it’s “at least pretty good”. I don’t see the problem.

The bit that really sticks in my mind was the ridiculous motorcycle jousting scene in the middle. Bloody awful film if you ask me.

Also, Emmanuel Beart > Thandie Newton

(edit: Also, apologies if I sounded overly snarky)

[mbh]

@Boyo_Jim

I’m not sure how the OP wants to define franchise, but there were a bunch of Hope and Crosby “Road to…” of varying quality and levels of success. Even less related to each other are a bunch of Dean Martin Jerry Lewis flicks which did pretty well.

Some others;
Charlie Chan films were fairly enjoyable.
The Mr. Moto series.
The Saint – there were a dozen or so films in the 30s mostly with George Sanders in the lead.

Likewise, Doctor Kildare and Perry Mason were film franchises, long before anyone had ever heard of television. For the past few weeks, IMC has been showing a lot of movies with “Lone Wolf” in the title. I gather he was an ex-con turned detective. (Whether he was copying the Saint, or the Saint was copying him, I don’t know.)

Back in the days of the studio system, it was easier to keep together a group of writers, and directors, and actors. The overall quality may not have been great, but the films in a series tended to be consistent with each other.

[3_20_59_or_bust]

@gatorslap

Lupin III

Wow…I was only familiar with Miyazaki’s Lupin, which I absolutely love by the way. I had no idea there was such a Lupin empire.

Thank you gatorslap…and wikipedia.

[Gangster_Octopus]

@TriPolar

Laser Cats!

Yep, clearly the best, especially with Steven Spielberg directing the most recent installment.

[Quimby]

I would say Toy Story and Harry Potter are the only series I can think of where I find every movie great.

[Miss_Woodhouse]

Bourne has had three movies already. This summer’s film will be number four. If Toy Story counts so does Bourne.

[Uncle_Brother_Walker]

I’d like to cast my vote for the Evil Dead series.

I: Was a great horror flick. Good camera work, Sam Raimi directing, some cheesy scary effects on a cheap budget. Don’t know much about the gross dollar figures, but I liked it.

II: More cheesy, obviously milking off the success of the first one and seemed to be more camp and comedy than actually real horror, but I still liked it. (Although, honestly: an army of mini-Bruce Campbells singing “London Bridge”? Good stoner comedy).

III: Army of Darkness. Obviously played for comedy slash camp horror, but they did it very well. Everybody knew they weren’t going for another horror blockbuster, but seemed to have fun with it. I’m pretty sure this one had some success, dollar-wise.

It also seemed to keep Bruce Campbell’s career alive. Later not-so-greats include My Name Is Bruce, Man With The Screaming Brain, and Bubba Ho-Tep. Must have kept him in chin-juice for a while, as well as keeping his career alive.

Oh, yeah. Cameos in the Spider-Man series of movies, the whole *Burn Notice *thing, and whole Briscoe County, Jr. series.

[Chronos]

Army of Darkness wasn’t really a horror movie at all, though-- It was a comedic adventure movie.

[Uncle_Brother_Walker]

Didn’t I say that in the first place?

[Clarence_R]

Francois Truffaut’s Antoine Doinel films, although The 400 Blows was by far the best.

Yoji Yamada’s Tora-san series maintained high quality for a series of 48 films.

[Rocketeer]

Tremors. Three good movies and a not-too-bad DTV fourth.

[Czarcasm]

@Rocketeer

Tremors. Three good movies and a not-too-bad DTV fourth.

And the tv series.

[Justin_Bailey]

@Rocketeer

Tremors. Three good movies and a not-too-bad DTV fourth.

Ahem…

1 super-mega-awesome movie
1 good sequel
1 pretty good third
1 fourth I haven’t seen but heard good things

1 OK TV series

[FriarTed]

I don’t know about The Best but a pretty good one was Universal Studios’ Monsters, of which it could be argued, the Frankenstein Monster was central.

Frankenstein
Bride of F
Son of F
Ghost of F
F Meets the Wolfman
House of F
House of Dracula
Abbott & Costello Meet F

compare that to
Dracula
D’s Daughter
Son of D
House of F
House of D
A&C Meet F

The WolfMan
F Meets the WM
House of F
House of D
A&C Meet F

The Mummy
The M’s Hand
The M’s Tomb
The M’s Curse
A&C Meet the M

I consider The Invisible Man & Creature of the Black Lagoon & their follow-ups more side films, with Frankenstein, Dracula, WolfMan & the Mummy as the main Universal Monsters.

[BomTek]

@The_Other_Waldo_Pepper

Can we put THE AVENGERS on a list with IRON MAN, IRON MAN 2, THOR, and CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, or does that not quite count?

I personally wouldn’t, because even though *The Avengers *seems pretty solid from early reviews, I thought Iron Man 2 sucked, but that’s obviously just my opinion. I also wouldn’t count the Bond series, because Moore’s later movies were pretty bad, as were Brosnan’s.

Unfortunately I don’t have a new franchise to put up for consideration, but of the ones that have been mentioned, I like the *Toy Story *and *Harry Potter *franchises from beginning to end.

[cochrane]

@Ashley_Pomeroy

The Rocky franchise, there’s another one. You can sense Stallone actually trying to come up with a way to extend the story that makes sense organically, instead of just rehashing the same ideas over again, or doing the old cop-out of taking the original star and putting him in a different location. At least he tried. And, dammit, the first four are entertaining in their own way. The fourth is entertaining and hilarious. And entertaining. Especially if you grew up in the 1980s.

I know there’s not a lot of love for Rocky V. I thought it was the weakest Rocky film myself. But I thought Rocky Balboa was an entertaining film. It certainly took Rocky in a new direction as a widower who is trying to stay connected to his son with the son embarrassed about being in his father’s shadow. It seemed as if Paulie was the only constant thing from Rocky’s old world.

[theR]

I did a quick find in this thread, so it appears nobody has mentioned the Muppets. Although they have so many that they all weren’t good, I think The Muppet Movie, The Muppets Take Manhattan, and the recent The Muppets are all quality movies. The first and last in particular are very good. I don’t know that I’d nominate it as the best franchise, but some people might.

[Boyo_Jim]

@cochrane

I know there’s not a lot of love for Rocky V. I thought it was the weakest Rocky film myself. But I thought Rocky Balboa was an entertaining film. It certainly took Rocky in a new direction as a widower who is trying to stay connected to his son with the son embarrassed about being in his father’s shadow. It seemed as if Paulie was the only constant thing from Rocky’s old world.

I agree with this 100%. Rocky Balboa may be the finest washed up ex-boxer movie ever.