Top Ten Movie Franchises

Included is my top ten list of the greatest modern movie franchises. Ratings are based on longevity of the franchise, amount and quality of sequels and starpower within the franchise. Stand-along trilogies were not included in this compilation. All franchises were a series of films that remained and performed admirable at the box office spanning more than one decade, in most cases several decades. In general most of the movies listed included several big-name Hollywood actors.

10) Friday the 13th

How many of these movies have their been now? Personally, I have yet to buy tickets to see any of them and have not watch a single one all the way though, but I have to give props to the "highest grossing horror franchise in the United States." Can't name any big celebrities who have starred in any of the films, nor did they launch any unknowns to stardom like the first Halloween did, but for whatever reason, they keep coming and they keep making money. In total the 12 slasher films have grossed $614 million.

9) Alien

Including the "vs. Predator," series, there have been a total of six Alien films. The first four of these films had their share of star power helmed by Sigourney Weaver and also featured Michael Bein, Lance Henriksen, Wyonna Rider, Ron Perlman and Tom Skerritt. The first two were directed by current legends in the industry: Ridley Scott and James Cameron.

8) X-Men

The film that made Hugh Jackman a household name and made Patrick Stewart famous for something besides "boldly going where no one has gone before." Four films encompass this series and allegedly more X-spinoffs are on the way. Thus far the films have ranked high on starpower, including actors Ian McKellen, Halle Berry and Ryan Reynolds.

7) Halloween

Like Michael Myers, this franchise just seems to keep popping back up after you think it's dead and gone. It seems to relaunch and reinvent itself time and time again. The first two films in the series, written by John Carpenter, were roughly the first and second parts of one story featuring Laurie Strode, Dr. Loomis in their quest to overcome the first masked mass-murder: Michael Myers. Myers and Loomis were brought back for the fourth, fifth and sixth movies in the film series while the seventh brought back now famous Jamie Lee Curtis and slightly revamped the series. Rob Zombie brought his own take on the last two films, which enjoyed substantial success at the box office.

It's unknown who will star in the next or what changes are in store for the franchise, however, like Laurie Strode and Dr. Loomis, I remain pessimistic that Myers is really gone for good and have a feeling he may turn up and surprise us at any time, any year, possibly when we least expect it.

6) Terminator

A then original now-much mimicked (and spoofed) story of a cybernetic killing machine sent back in time to destroy the future leader of humanity, this was one of the franchises whose initial sequel was arguably better than the original. Two additional sequels were spawned: "Rise of the Machines" and "Salvation" as well as a short-lived TV series on "Fox." As far as starpower is concerned, the first film practically made the Hollywood careers of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton. Worldwide, the films have made $1.4 million.

5) Rocky

The film that made Sylvester Stallone a household name and spawned five sequels. Outside or Rocky V, most of the rest did incredibly well and all six were written by Stallone himself. Great motivational story about coming from no where, doing better than you thought you could ever do and achieving your biggest dreams. Ironically, while the band Survivor never became as household name, you can still hear "Eye of the Tiger," the theme from the third Rocky movie, in various arenas and sporting events across the nation. In total, the six films grossed over $1 billion worldwide.

4) Batman

Few franchises (if any) are packed with more starpower than this one: Jack Nicholson, Jack Palance, Kim Basinger, Michael Keaton, Billy De Williams, this was just the cast of the first movie. The following films featured Danny DeVito, Michelle Phfieffer, Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey, Drew Barrymore and Chris O'Donnell. While the fourth film lost the Dark Knight's dark edge in exchange for campiness, the revamped Christopher Nolan series brought the legend back to greatness. Additionally, it is also jam-packed with stars including Christian Bale, Michael Cain, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Heath Ledger, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Katie Holmes and Liam Neeson. Together, the six Warner Bros. live-action films have generated $2.6 billion worldwide and helped spawn several animated series based on the darker edgier Batman of the original comics.

3) Star Trek

Other then the Enterprise crew itself, the films have rarely featured what one would consider megastars, but the franchise has a great legion of dedicated followers who will watch virtually anything reputable Paramount releases with the name "Star Trek" in it. After dwindling in revenue around the turn of the 21st Century, the latest film rebooted and reignited interest in the series by bringing back some of the action and core characters that were a part of "Star Trek" when it was first introduced to audiences in the late-1960s. Domestically, the films earned over $1 billion.

2) Star Wars

Seriously, there is no way this franchise cannot exist outside of the top three: it's "Star Wars." How many people in the U.S. do not recognize the main title fanfare or Darth Vader's Imperial March theme. Everyone over 25 has seen the movies at least five times over the course of their lives, some cam remember being in theatres for either the original release or the 1997 Special Edition re-release. This franchise has touched not just one generation, but several.

Star Power? One name: Harrison Ford. Although the careers of Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamil did not have the same type of success, whenever you do see or here of them in other movies, something warm always tugs at your heart because you remember how enamoured with their characters you were when you first saw them blasting Stormtroopers in days of yore. Darth Vader is rated among the greatest super-villians of all time, so great three movies were produced and sold largely on giving us the opportunity for us to see his incremental ascension to the dark side of the force.

Because of this franchise, we all know the names "Han Solo, Yoda, Skywalker, Vader, R2, C3PO" as well as the phrases "use the force" and "the dark side." In total, the movie franchise earned over $2 billion and launched several droids, Ewoks and Clone Wars TV and straight-to-video spin-offs over the years.

1) James Bond

Over 40 years. Over 20 films. This franchise is clearly the stand-out in both longevity and starpower: Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan, Daniel Craig, Halle Berry, Teri Hatcher, Jane Seymour, Famke Janssen, Donald Pleaseance and Judi Dench are among the biggest heavy-hitters to appear in the franchise. In total, the 22 EON films have garnered over $5 billion.

Unlike some other franchises, based on its initial 40 years, it is fair to predict that regardless of how old you get, chances are there will be a new Bond film either in initial stages of production or being released within two or three years of your death. I wonder if they will have Q or Moneypenny characters in the 40th Bond film. One thing is for certain: the Bond girls will be hott.