Movie Franchises That Consistently Put Out Great Sequels

In the movie industry, the Law of Diminishing Returns reigns supreme. Sequels as crowd-pleasing as their predecessors have always been few and far between — for every Empire Strikes Back, there are three Jaws: The Revenges. Even in the current landscape of massive franchise domination, consistency in long-running series remains rare. The self-perpetuating nature of fandom means some blockbuster follow-ups keep getting churned out, even if no one seems to really like them.

That's why it's particularly impressive when a series manages to achieve a hot streak of multiple solid entries. We scoured cinema history for the most consistent franchises we could find, looking for series that had at least three successful sequels in a row. Some received critical acclaim, others maintained audience approval, and a few became cult favorites years after release. Finding worthy choices was no easy task, but we've rounded up ten movie franchises that consistently put out great sequels.

With 24 movies over the course of six decades (and no end in sight), there may be no single character looming larger over pop culture history than James Bond. 007 first stormed from the pages of Ian Fleming's novels to the silver screen in 1962's Dr. No. The now-iconic Bond elements may not quite have been all in place right away, but it wasn't long before the sequels perfected the formula.

The tenure of original big-screen Bond Sean Connery is still held up by many fans as the peak of the series. Despite some social politics that are a pretty big strike against them today, the trio of From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, and Thunderball sparked a global phenomenon and remain classics of the action genre. Over the following decades, the movies evolved along with tastes and trends in an ongoing effort to give audiences what they want.

Roger Moore's time as 007 was less consistent, as the splashy spectacle of the 1970s brought some crowd-pleasers and some outright duds. But another hot streak came during the transition from Timothy Dalton to Pierce Brosnan, as The Living Daylights, License to Kill, and GoldenEye found the franchise rebuilding Bond for a post-Cold War era with shifting morals. Daniel Craig's run has also been pretty successful, proving that Bond, like diamonds, might be forever.

If there's one thing that's pretty much always been consistent about Star Wars fans, it's that they rarely agree about Star Wars. Whatever your favorite or least favorite entry in the franchise, you're likely to encounter someone who will argue passionately for the opposite take. Even the prequels, after years as critical punching bags, are starting to see a reappraisal from a generation who grew up with them.

There was no shortage of skepticism when Disney, after purchasing Lucasfilm from its founder and namesake, set out to relaunch Star Wars with an armada of new movies. But The Force Awakens was a smash, satisfying fan nostalgia while introducing a diverse young cast of new characters immediately embraced by audiences. Rogue One introduced the concept of Star Wars "spinoff" films with a fresh, gritty take on the galaxy. And The Last Jedi received massive critical acclaim (whether or not every "fan" agreed) for its stylish and sometimes metatextual dissection of the Skywalker legacy. Even Solo: A Star Wars Story, for all its behind-the-scenes issues and its underwhelming box office performance, managed a solid hit with critics and audiences.

There are few movies that seem less likely to have spawned a decades-long series with worldwide acclaim than Mad Max. Writer/director George Miller's first feature (starring a young and unknown Mel Gibson) is a weird, micro-budget punk-pulp romp that initially did very little business outside of its native Australia upon its release in 1979. Little did anyone realize at the time the storm that Miller had conjured.

What jumpstarted Max as an iconic series was Mad Max 2, released in the United States as simply The Road Warrior to avoid relying on the mostly unknown original. Ramping up the style of its post-apocalyptic setting and channeling the spirit of classic spaghetti westerns, Road Warrior inspired a generation of filmmakers. In the aftermath of its success, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome followed with a bigger budget, a grander scale, and a delightfully over-the-top performance from Tina Turner. It took a full 30 years for Miller to return to Max's wasteland again, but when he did, Mad Max: Fury Road was hailed as an action masterpiece as technically flawless as it was thematically relevant. 

The horror genre is rife with franchises that creep on and on, refusing to die. Every slasher flick or monster mash that does decent business seems to be followed by a line of brainless follow-ups shambling on like lifeless corpses of the original. It's shocking, then, that one of the sillier premises ever to carve out a spot in the Halloween pantheon unleashed a series that not only lives up to first film, it keeps on growing increasingly clever and fun. Calling it "consistently great" may be somewhat controversial, but its devotion to staying fresh against all odds makes it worthy of mention.

After the third Child's Play movie landed with a thud, Chucky the killer doll went into hibernation for a few years before being reborn in Bride of Chucky. Bride became a box office hit by embracing its own bizarre existence and going full black comedy. The outlandish follow-up, Seed of Chucky, was less well received, but has gathered a cult following in the years since. Another reinvention followed with Curse of Chucky and Cult of Chucky, two stylish and smart direct-to-video thrillers that are actually the best-reviewed entries in the series' 30-year history.

Zombies are big business, not only on the big screen but television, comic books, video games, and pretty much anywhere else you can squeeze a shambling, ravenous corpse. There is no question, though, that the subgenre's prevalence can be traced back to the works of filmmaker George A. Romero. It's also hard to disagree that anyone has done it better.

Romero's 1968 masterpiece Night of the Living Dead is a monolithic influence on zombie fiction for good reason. It's remarkable for its inventiveness, its effectiveness, and its ongoing cultural relevance. But Romero continued to explore his visions of a necrotic apocalypse throughout the decades to come, always using his zombies to comment on social issues of the day. The first three follow-ups to Night were especially successful. 1979's Dawn of the Dead satirized consumerism, Day of the Dead took a hard look at militarism in 1985, and Land of the Dead skewered economic inequality 20 years later. They all remain classics because they wrap their hard-hitting political themes in thrilling, nightmarish entertainment.