5 Best Movie Trilogies Ever Made, According To IMDb

With all that can go wrong in any given production, making a movie isn't easy, and it's a miracle if you can make a good one. Now doing three of them in a row? That's downright impossible. And yet, some film trilogies make it look easy.

Many trilogies are ruined by just one bad sequel. Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" films, for instance, end on the brutal lows of "Spider-Man 3," while the original "Indiana Jones" trilogy dipped like a mine cart  between the highs of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "The Last Crusade" with "Temple of Doom." 

Those that manage to put out three consistently strong entries are worth celebrating, which many have on IMDb. On this list, we're going to break down the five film sagas that beat the odds by creating not just one, not just two, but three movies that all together average the highest rating on the site.

The Western is almost as old as cinema itself, and no single director pushed the boundaries of the genre like Sergio Leone. His first film in the trilogy was "A Fistful of Dollars" a low budget affair that transplanted Akira Kurosawa's samurai classic "Yojimbo" to the wild west, in which the Man with No Name (Clint Eastwood) resolves to fend off a villainous gang of outlaws attempting to take over an innocent town. While not universally beloved at the time, it is now acknowledged as the classic that changed Clint Eastwood's career, sporting a 7.9 rating on IMDb,

Leone and Eastwood reteamed for "For a Few Dollars More," which sees the Man with No Name on another trial of blood and gunfire as a bounty hunter searching for his prize. "For A Few Dollars More" is now regarded warmly with an 8.2 rating. 

But it's the conclusion of the trilogy in "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly" that cemented Leone as one of the most influential filmmakers of all time. Working on his biggest canvas yet, the movie is a grand tale of betrayal in the west, and with a mighty 8.8 rating on IMDb, easily ranks as the best of Clint Eastwood's long and storied career.

If you can put yourselves in the shoes of audiences back in 1977, it's easy to see how "Star Wars" captured the imaginations of an entire generation. With over 1.6 million ratings on IMDb, its 8.6 rating is even more impressive, and speaks to how universally beloved the film is nearly 50 years later.

1980's "The Empire Strikes Back" blew everything fans thought they wanted from another "Star Wars" movie out of the water, turning darker as Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) wrestles for his soul and discovers that his greatest enemy Darth Vader (James Earl Jones) is actually his father. The users on IMDb have given "Empire" a stellar 8.7 rating, making it the highest-rated of the entire "Star Wars" saga.

The story threads are picked up in the conclusion "Return of the Jedi." While some bristled against the film's more child-friendly tone, personified by the cuddly Ewoks of Endor, the "Star Wars" fandom still loves "Return of the Jedi," with it boasting an 8.3 rating on IMDb. This was for all intents and purposes the end of the Star Wars story for a time, and while some might have wished it stayed that way, we should count ourselves lucky to have gotten three excellently-crafted films.

While Joel Schumacher's "Batman & Robin" has some who defend its goofy sci-fi charm, it was none-the-less a low point for the Caped Crusader on film.

Enter: Christopher Nolan. His approach was somewhat radical at the time, swapping out the franchise's overindulgence for the grit and grim at the heart of Bruce Wayne's (Christian Bale) origin story. Simply titled "Batman Begins," this inaugural entry set the template for a new era of superhero films and has an 8.2 rating on IMDb, but it's the sequel that truly changed the game.

Echoing the crime movie aesthetics of Michael Mann's "Heat," "The Dark Knight" pits Bale's Batman against the Joker (Heath Ledger) in a battle of wills that puts the entire soul of Gotham City on the line. Ledger's captivating madman elevated "The Dark Knight" beyond what anyone would have thought possible in a superhero movie, earning it a commandin g 9.1 score on IMDb.

His presence is sorely missed in the final entry, "The Dark Knight Rises," although newcomers Bane (Tom Hardy) and Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) are more than capable of holding their own. With an 8.4 rating on IMDb, the series was one of the era's biggest blockbusters, ushering in the superhero movie as the defining film genre of the 21st century. 

"The Godfather" was wildly acclaimed in its day, turning director Francis Ford Coppola into a household name with its dramatic story of a young man (Al Pacino) finding himself inextricably linked to his mob boss father (Marlon Brando) and his vast web of corruption and power. With a 9.2 rating, "The Godfather" is ranked second on IMDb's Top 250 movies, behind only "The Shawshank Redemption," which some theorize would be even higher if it wasn't for "The Dark Knight" fans trying to get their film to the top.

Its success allowed Coppola to create an even more ambitious sequel, telling the parallel stories of Michael Corleone's continued domination of the mafia world in the 1950s alongside the story of his father Vito's (Robert De Niro) rise to power at the dawn of the 20th century. Sequels were almost universally regarded as inferior to their originals, but "The Godfather Part II" proved that wrong. With a 9.0 rating, it is fourth on IMDb's Top 250.

So why isn't "The Godfather" saga IMDb's best movie trilogy ever made? Lay the blame on "The Godfather Part III." Coppola had refused to make a sequel, but following his historic studio-bankrupting bomb "One From The Heart," he took Paramount's long-standing offer to make a third film. While it holds a respectable 7.5 on IMDb, when compared to the first two entries, it's enough of a disappointment to keep Francis out of the number one spot.

With an average rating of 8.9 across all three installments, "The Lord of the Rings" is easily the most crowned film trilogy ever made, and it's not even close, at least according to IMDb.

New Zealand director Peter Jackson decided that if he was going to direct a live action adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic tome, he was going to go all the way. Jackson's gamble paid off, and "The Fellowship of the Ring" was a massive success that introduced the world to Tolkien's vast, interconnected world.

Expertly transporting audiences from the comfy village of Hobbiton to the dangerous journey to Mordor, "Fellowship" garnered a mighty 8.9 rating on IMDb. One year later, the adventure continued with "The Two Towers" as their treacherous journey scattered the Fellowship across Middle Earth. This second entry was just as acclaimed, with an 8.8 rating on IMDb.

The climactic conclusion of the trilogy, "The Return of the King," was even more applauded than of its predecessors, winning 11 Academy Awards, including best picture. Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Aragon (Viggo Mortensen) saved all of Middle Earth from the forces of evil, and with it, cemented "The Lord of the Rings" as the best movie trilogy of all time with its commanding 9.0 rating.