It’s hard enough to turn an idea into a hit movie – but it’s almost like winning the lottery when the film is such a hit that it sparks an entire series of films to follow. Even amongst the lucky few that make the jump from film to franchise, there are very few that actually manage to make it to trilogy status, and only one or two franchises in a generation that make it past three films.
And yet, over the last three decades (or more), we’ve seen at least a dozen movie franchises that have lasted more than a trilogy. Of that group, the 7 film series listed below not only have four or more entries under their belt, but each installment is actually able to stand on its own as a quality (or at least enjoyable) film. Of course, that’s a high-stakes claim: every movie is subjective, and people may or may not agree with the “perfection” of these respective film series. However, each installment of every series on this list has a passionate enough following behind it to make a debatable contender.
7) James Bond
This one may be impossible for some fans to see – but then, maybe they haven’t lived through enough James Bond movie marathons over the holidays to truly appreciate them. James Bond movies, as a whole, are the perfect long-running franchise. 007 has been the most consistent and reliable movie hero icon we’ve had, with 25 films going back to 1962, and every era of Bond has produced something classic, iconic, or both. Sean Connery’s Bond films (Dr. No, Goldfinger) need no defense; Roger Moore is arguably the most famous 007 (The Man with the Golden Gun, Octopussy); while the Bond actors of the ’80s and ’90s (Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan) brought in new generations of fans and helped Bond make the jump to becoming a modern multimedia franchise. Even the odd-Bond out, George Lazenby, has become an underdog icon with his own personal documentary.
That’s all to say: you can criticize any James Bond movie all you want, but the collective body of work has been entertaining viewers on both the big screen and through TV syndication for 7 decades and counting – and all of them get love, even the “worst” ones (License to Kill, Quantum of Solace, The World is Not Enough, etc). Bond might be the greatest example of a movie franchise overcoming its deficiencies through sheer volume. You gotta watch them all, at some point.
6) Wallace & Gromit
You may not immediately think of Wallace & Gromit when making your lists of “perfect” movie series that run a trilogy or more, but it deserves to be there. Wallace & Gromit started with 3 claymation short films in the late 1980s through the 1990s, with each one achieving cult status for its dry British wit set against the zany backdrop of a colorful claymation world.
By the time Wallace & Gromit tried a feature-film run with Curse of the Were-Rabbit in 2005, the characters, IP, and brand strength of Aardman Features (which also does the Chicken Run films) were all so popular and beloved that Curse of the Were-Rabbit easily became a box office success, opening at no. 1 and earning nearly $200 million against a $30 million budget. With feature-film success behind it, the Wallace & Gromit series has exploded into sequel films (Netflix’s Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl movie), animated series, web series, and TV specials that not only follow the Wallace & Gromit characters but also spin-off characters like Shaun the Sheep. And none of these projects has been bad, as creator Nick Park and Aardman Animations have handled them with nothing but love and care, all along.
5) Evil Dead
Funny enough, Evil Dead has stumbled its way – with zombie-like pacing – into being a film series that is five installments long, and counting. Sam Raimi’s original trilogy (Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness) led to a 2013 remake, as well as a reboot, Evil Dead Rise, that was released in 2023, and blew open the conceptual doors for how an Evil Dead movie franchise could continue.
Obviously, Evil Dead has never been a box office-buster franchise – but that’s really the legacy of its charm. Raimi’s indie movie roots bought him well-deserved clout with fans, and his trilogy never lost that bare-bones charm. Fede Álvarez’s 2013 remake grossed out and freaked out an entire new generation of fans, and the reboot is still clawing its way into cult status. Each one of the Evil Dead movies has become iconic for one reason or another, and all of them offer some of best times with horror you can have. It also gave the entertainment world Bruce Campbell, and if that isn’t perfection, I don’t know what is.
4) Scream
Yes, Scream is about to reach its seventh installment with the release of Scream 7 in 2026. Unlike so many other horror movie series, Scream never abandoned its original continuity in favor of a reboot; the seventh film stars Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, Skeet Ulrich, and Matthew Lillard, who are all reprising roles that they started 30 years ago.
There simply is no installment of Scream that is bad, or has ever been unanimously hated by the fandom; at worst, certain installments haven’t reached the heights of others. After a successful trilogy in the 1990s, Scream has been one of the best franchises at navigating the choppy waters of balancing the reboot and sequel approaches in order to stay relevant today. Scream 4, 5, and 6 were all modest successes that set the franchise up to be a modern horror blockbuster series, and Scream 7 may end up celebrating 30 years by earning the highest box office yet for the series.
3) The Fast Saga
We may lose a few of you here, but The Fast Saga does, in fact, qualify for this list. It’s one of the most divisive film series out there, but for those who love it, each installment of the Fast & Furious is a “family” event, and each film has grown to earn its fair share of love, especially as the franchise has continued on.
Even 2 Fast 2 Furious, which was once joked about as being one of the cheesiest action films of the 2000s, has grown to have kitschy cult status; Tokyo Drift has its own passionate following as the odd-kid out in the bunch, and the more ridiculous the series has gotten with Furious 7, The Fate of the Furious, F9, and Fast X, the more fans seem to be embracing the “turn off your brain and enjoy” approach to these popcorn blockbusters.
In fact, the Fast and the Furious franchise (including the Hobbs & Shaw spinoff) hasn’t dropped below the range of $700 million to $1 billion at the box office since Fast Five was released in 2011 ($626.1 million). Is there any other franchise that can tout that level of consistent performance? You may not want to believe the money is any kind of indicator, but consistently making it definitely is.
And if the 11th film is a box office hit, this series may retire with the crown, maintaining the longest successful movie run ever.
2) The Avengers
Marvel’s The Avengers was a major milestone. It was the first movie to bring several different standalone film franchises together in one crossover event and set a new billion-dollar benchmark for summer blockbusters. It was also just the beginning of a generational run of Avengers movies, with every single installment becoming at least a billion-dollar earner.
By the time the two-part event films Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame were released, they set a whole new plateau for Marvel movies, earning $2 billion each and becoming indelible pop-culture phenomena all over the world. 2026 and 2027 will bring another two-part Avengers event, with Doomsday and Secret Wars looking to be the biggest things in the history of comic book movies. If they can also be thrilling Marvel movie milestones like their predecessors, The Avengers will go down as the most successful trilogy+ movie series, ever.
1) Toy Story
Toy Story isn’t just a movie series; it’s a milestone movie series that never seems to die. The first film started the era of Pixar animated films dominating the box office, can became both a generational and cultural phenomenon with its story of living toys trying to stay connected to the child (Andy) who owns them. The film series grew and matured with its audience, creating one of the best trilogies of all time when Toy Story 3 took on the harsh themes of maturation and putting away childish things.
There was a lot of cynicism when Toy Story 4 arrived in 2019, but the soft-reboot (with a new kid owning the franchise’s beloved characters) still made $1 billion at the worldwide box office, proving that there is still so much love and appreciation for Toy Story out there. Now Toy Story 5 is looking like it will be an extremely relevant chapter of the franchise, pitting the old-school toys against a new generation of kids more obsessed with screens and wifi than imagination.
Do you agree with our list or do some of these film series fail to meet your standards for “perfection?” Let us know in the comments! Or hop on over to the ComicBook Forum!