Blockbuster Report Card: Where Your Favorite Franchises Stand

Summer movie season is in full swing! Well ... sort of. As the world continues to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, theaters have gradually reopened as well. While the summer of 2020 brought moviegoing to a complete standstill, with screens barely open anywhere and every major release delayed over and over until they were all pretty much booted into 2021, this year has brought a modicum of normalcy back to the theatrical experience, with the protocols and rituals of going to the movies evolving even as we write this.

While some of pop culture's biggest franchises have been poking their heads cautiously out of the ground in 2021 — like the Monsterverse, "Fast and Furious" and the biggest of them all, the Marvel Cinematic Universe — others are regrouping, rebooting or prepping coronavirus-halted productions to go in front of cameras at last. Still others are just waiting for the right release date for completed films.

With all that in mind, we thought we'd do a temperature check on a number of your favorite movie franchises and see where they all land right now in terms of box office, critical and/or fan appreciation, and creative direction. Some are in good health, some are branching off in surprising new directions, and others may need an intensive overhaul. With more of us heading back to the movies at last, even as the way we view them is changing rapidly, let's look at where some of our biggest movie franchises stand.

With a worldwide box office take of more than $2 billion, the eight films of the "Conjuring" series have quietly comprised one of the more successful attempts to create a shared universe. Starting with "The Conjuring" in 2013, the movies have gradually built out a supernatural mythology based mainly upon the case files of alleged paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. Some of the films have done better than others, and critics have had mixed to negative views about several of them. But the brand has generally scored with audiences hungry for old-fashioned tales of hauntings, possessions and, pardon the pun, paranormal activity, while monsters like Annabelle and the Nun have become part of pop culture.

The latest entry, "The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It," didn't generate the same buzz as previous entries, with the box office stalling out in North America at around $64 million — $40 million less than 2016's "The Conjuring 2." To be fair, that's in the context of a post-pandemic world and (like all 2021 Warner Bros. releases) being available on HBO Max. "The Devil Made Me Do It" also scored far less positive reviews than the previous two "Conjurings." While all the films, including three "Annabelle" entries, "The Nun" and "The Curse of La Llorona," have been made for a reasonable price (not one has cost more than $40 million), franchise overlord James Wan and his team may need to rethink where the series goes from here. (Grade: B)

The "Transformers" franchise — not including 2018's well-liked spinoff "Bumblebee" — is probably the worst reviewed on this list, with an average rating of 40% on Rotten Tomatoes. But that hasn't stopped them from generating a Cybertron-sized $4.8 billion at the box office, with series peaks "Dark of the Moon" (2011) and "Age of Extinction" (2014) each going over the vaunted $1 billion mark.

Nevertheless, "Transformers" exhaustion may have taken down "The Last Knight" (2017) and "Bumblebee": the former — the last to be directed by Michael Bay — earned barely half what its predecessor did, while the latter didn't crack $500 million worldwide. Although there were initial reports of a "Bumblebee" sequel in the works, that has been redirected into a full-on reboot of the entire franchise: with director Steven Caple Jr. ("Creed II") at the helm, "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" is set to come out on June 24, 2022.

As for other Hasbro toy properties, Paramount Pictures returns to the "G.I. Joe" corner of the canon on July 23 with "Snake Eyes," an origin story for the masked ninja warrior so popular in the "G.I. Joe" comics, toys and animated shows. But plans hatched in 2015 to create a shared cinematic universe involving the Transformers, G.I. Joe, and other Hasbro licenses like the Micronauts, M.A.S.K., and Rom never took off (via Screenrant), despite the hiring of a writers' room and even directors for "Micronauts" and "M.A.S.K." Some universes are perhaps best left unshared. (Grade: C)

Since its June 25 release in North America, "F9," the latest in the "Fast and Furious" franchise, has earned a total gross here of nearly $142 million. Add that to the international tally, and the 9th chapter in the saga has sailed easily past half a billion at the worldwide box office after almost two months (the picture opened in late May in some territories in the Middle East).

How does that stack up to the rest of the series, especially the last three or four entries, which went full blockbuster? It's not really clear. The last four movies all made between $210-$240 million in North American ticket sales — with the exception of "Furious 7," which earned $353 million. "Furious 7" was pushed by the tragic circumstances surrounding the movie (the death of Paul Walker); the grosses of the other films are more in line with expectations.

When all is said and done, "F9" will probably sit comfortably alongside the others. But what happens next? "Fast 10" and "Furious 11" will shoot back to back next year as a two-part grand finale. How many supposedly dead characters can you bring back? How much more can you strain audience belief after you've sent a Pontiac Fiero into space? Will anyone see a spinoff starring Tyrese Gibson? Despite these questions, the "Fast" family has done pretty well for a franchise that started with a little movie about street racing. (Grade: B)

This is a problematic franchise, and not just because of (let's be honest here) that awful, clunky name. The SPUMC, as it is, consisted until 2018 purely of movies starring Spider-Man and whoever was playing him at the time. But in October of that year, Sony achieved the long-held dream of producer (and former Marvel CEO) Avi Arad to make a Spider-Man movie that didn't actually feature Spider-Man. That movie was "Venom," and despite terrible reviews, Tom Hardy's over-the-top performance and the mysterious hold that the title symbiote has on a certain segment of pop culture pushed the film to nearly $854 million in global ticket sales.

This released the Kraken: Sony now has the pandemic-delayed "Venom: Let There Be Carnage" arriving on September 24, 2021, while "Morbius" comes out in early 2022 and a film starring legendary Spidey nemesis Kraven the Hunter is on tap for the following year. The one true bright spot is that a sequel to the genuinely brilliant animated flick "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" is on the way as well.

As for the current live-action Spidey played by Tom Holland, his third Marvel-produced film, "Spider-Man: No Way Home," comes out this December. We don't look forward to the day when Sony and Marvel end their Spidey partnership, although it's inevitable (unless, you know, Disney buys Sony). But since "No Way Home" is all but certain to introduce the multiverse to the MCU, anything could happen. (Grade: C+)

What a difference a masked bounty hunter and a baby Yoda make. "The Mandalorian" was barely out of the chute at Disney+ when "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" opened in December 2019 to perhaps the worst reception of any "Star Wars" product since the infamous "Holiday Special." It still (barely) made more than $1 billion worldwide, but the movie's awkward attempt to wrap up 40 years of storytelling while super-serving distraught fanboys pleased no one.

Meanwhile, "The Mandalorian" chugged along under the supervision of Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, becoming the standard bearer for what "Star Wars" could be when made by people with true passion and a coherent vision. With a third season on the way, new animated series "The Bad Batch" getting a warm reception, and future live-action shows like "The Book of Boba Fett," "Andor," and "Rangers of the New Republic" all in the pipeline, "Star Wars" may — like its rival "Star Trek" — find that its best way forward is through TV and streaming.

But "Star Wars" started on the big screen, and despite the sequel trilogy ultimately disappointing on many levels, the saga will make a comeback in theaters eventually. Whether it's via director Patty Jenkins' "Rogue Squadron" film, Marvel head Kevin Feige's mystery project, or that new trilogy that filmmaker Rian Johnson claims is still in the works remains to be seen. But we're hopeful that the words "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." will flash across your local multiplex screen again someday. (Grade: B)

Pixar is the only entry here that's an actual company and not a film series per se. That's because the Pixar brand is, in its own way, a great, unified canon of films — you can tell when you're watching a Pixar film, and while many of the movies are different from each other, most of them share a visual aesthetic and tonal mood that binds them all together as special pieces of art.

There are also mini-franchises underneath the Pixar umbrella — the "Toy Story" four-pack is the most successful and best known, although "Monsters Inc." and even "Cars" fit the bill. Speaking of the latter, Pixar is certainly not perfect; the "Cars" trilogy are probably not anyone's favorites, and less endearing efforts like "The Good Dinosaur" and "Onward" occasionally slip out the door.

But for all the hand-wringing articles that ask what Pixar's problem is, don't forget that the studio produced masterpieces like "Inside Out" as recently as six years ago, and turned out another one last year in "Soul" to go along with all the classics — "Toy Story," "Finding Nemo," "WALL-E," "The Incredibles" — that have brought in more than $14.6 billion over 26 years. Yes, the pandemic has seemingly devalued Pixar somewhat, with "Soul" and "Luca" being shoved onto Disney+ without even the requirement of premium access, but this is still the home of some of the greatest animated films ever made — and we're confident there's more to come. (Grade: B+)