Best Movies The Very Best Movie Franchises  

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Originally by Ranker Community
206.6k votes 13.6k voters 278.3k views 123 items

List Rules 3 or more movies of the same characters or story.

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The best movie franchises of all time have brought us some of the best movies ever as well as some billion dollar films and many of them are still cranking out classics (Toy Story 4?? Yes, folks, Pixar has confirmed that it's happening!) This is your chance to vote for what you think is the greatest movie franchise ever and see how your favorite movie franchises rank against other movie enthusiasts' choices.

Some people will judge a franchise based on its best parts (*cough*Star Wars*cough*) while others will take all the parts of a franchise into account when ranking the top movie series, so don't get offended if you see The Lord of the Rings further down this list than you think it should be (FYI- The Hobbit counts as part of that franchise). Also try to keep in mind that movie franchises that will have three or more movies but don't yet (like The Hunger Games) do not yet qualify for this list of the best movie franchises of all time.

Vote on these top movie franchises based on the series as a whole, or just because one or two of the movies mean something special to you. If you don't see your favorite movie franchise on the list, make sure to add it so you can see where it shakes out among the greatest movie franchises ever.
list ordered by

1
4 394 2 882
Star Wars Franchise is listed (or ranked) 1 on the list The Very Best Movie Franchises

1977-present

Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)
Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)
Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)

2
4 370 2 601
The Lord of the Rings film tri... is listed (or ranked) 2 on the list The Very Best Movie Franchises

2001-2003

The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
The Two Towers (2002)
The Return of the King (2003)

3
3 385 2 573
Toy Story Franchise is listed (or ranked) 3 on the list The Very Best Movie Franchises

1995-2019

Toy Story (1995)
Toy Story 2 (1999)
Toy Story 3 (2010)
Toy Story 4 (2019)

4
3 653 2 393
Dark Knight Franchise is listed (or ranked) 4 on the list The Very Best Movie Franchises

2005-2012

Batman Begins (2005)
The Dark Knight (2008)
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

5
2 918 2 830
Back to the Future Franchise is listed (or ranked) 5 on the list The Very Best Movie Franchises

1985-1990

Back to the Future (1985)
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Back to the Future Part III (1990)

6
4 303 1 213
Harry Potter Franchise is listed (or ranked) 6 on the list The Very Best Movie Franchises
DylanMcCracken added

2001-2011

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011)

7
3 781 1 411
Avengers Franchise is listed (or ranked) 7 on the list The Very Best Movie Franchises

2008-present

The Avengers (2012)
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

8
2 324 2 528
James Bond Franchise is listed (or ranked) 8 on the list The Very Best Movie Franchises

1962-present

9
2 100 2 079
The Godfather Franchise is listed (or ranked) 9 on the list The Very Best Movie Franchises

1972-1990

The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather Part II (1974)
The Godfather Part III (1990)

10
3 323 1 068
Marvel Cinematic Universe is listed (or ranked) 10 on the list The Very Best Movie Franchises

2008-present

Iron Man series (2008-2013)
The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Thor series (2011-2017)
Captain America series (2011-2016)
Avengers Series (2012-2019)
Guardians of the Galaxy series (2014-2020)
Ant-Man series (2015-2018)
Doctor Strange (2016)
Black Panther (2018)
Captain Marvel (2019)
Spider-Man series (2017-2019)
 

11
2 977 1 685
Pirates of the Caribbean Franc... is listed (or ranked) 11 on the list The Very Best Movie Franchises

2003-present

The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Dead Man's Chest (2006)
At World's End (2007)
On Stranger Tides (2011)
Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017)

12
2 444 1 712
X-Men Franchise is listed (or ranked) 12 on the list The Very Best Movie Franchises

2000-present

X-Men (2000)
X2 (2003)
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
X-Men: First Class (2011)
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2018)

13
2 518 1 318
Jurassic Park Franchise is listed (or ranked) 13 on the list The Very Best Movie Franchises

1993-present

Jurassic Park (1993)
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Jurassic Park III (2001)
Jurassic World (2015)
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

14
1 741 1 652
Rocky Franchise is listed (or ranked) 14 on the list The Very Best Movie Franchises

1976-present

Rocky (1976)
Rocky II (1979)
Rocky III (1982)
Rocky IV (1985)
Rocky V (1990)
Rocky Balboa (2006)
Creed (2015)
Creed II (2018)

15
1 811 1 707
Spider-Man Franchise is listed (or ranked) 15 on the list The Very Best Movie Franchises

2002-2007

Spider-Man (2002)
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Spider-Man 3 (2007)

16
2 195 1 332
Iron Man Franchise is listed (or ranked) 16 on the list The Very Best Movie Franchises

2008-2013

Iron Man (2008)
Iron Man 2 (2010)
Iron Man 3 (2013)

17
1 532 1 588
Jason Bourne is listed (or ranked) 17 on the list The Very Best Movie Franchises

2002-2016

The Bourne Identity (2002)
The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
The Bourne Legacy (2012)
Jason Bourne (2016)

18
1 901 669
Indiana Jones Franchise is listed (or ranked) 18 on the list The Very Best Movie Franchises

1981-2008

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Temple of Doom (1984)
The Last Crusade (1989)
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

19
1 586 1 366
Die Hard Franchise is listed (or ranked) 19 on the list The Very Best Movie Franchises
bojanthebest added

1988-2013

Die Hard (1988)
Die Hard 2 (1990)
Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995)
Live Free or Die Hard (2007)
A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)

20
1 813 1 492
Shrek Franchise is listed (or ranked) 20 on the list The Very Best Movie Franchises

2001-present

Shrek (2001)
Shrek 2 (2004)
Shrek the Third (2007)
Shrek Forever After (2010)

21
1 279 1 504
Alien Franchise is listed (or ranked) 21 on the list The Very Best Movie Franchises

1979-present

Alien (1979)
Aliens (1986)
Alien 3 (1992)
Alien Resurrection (1997)
Prometheus (2012)
Alien: Covenant (2017)

22
1 400 1 433
The Matrix Franchise is listed (or ranked) 22 on the list The Very Best Movie Franchises

1999-2003

The Matrix (1999)
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

23
1 237 1 510
Star Trek Franchise is listed (or ranked) 23 on the list The Very Best Movie Franchises

24
1 277 974
The Hobbit trilogy is listed (or ranked) 24 on the list The Very Best Movie Franchises

2012-2014

An Unexpected Journey (2012)
​​​​​​The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

25
1 195 1 249
Mission: Impossible Franchise is listed (or ranked) 25 on the list The Very Best Movie Franchises

1996-present

Mission: Impossible (1996)
Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)
Mission: Impossible III (2006)
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)
Mission: Impossible 6 (2018)