Trilogies are a tricky thing to get right and to make a truly brilliant one, each component of the series must simultaneously give the people what they want while also offering something new with each instalment. Sometimes it works - the Toy Story and Dark Knight series both maintained momentum throughout and are rightfully hailed as some of the best trilogies ever made but sometimes it really doesnt and thats made all the more embarrassing or inexplicable when theres an especially big budget behind the films. Thats not to say that all of the big money films on this list are truly awful. Some of the trilogies here start off strongly only to be marred by their second and/or third instalments to the point where they destroy the goodwill created by the good bits. Some raked in unbelievably huge box office profits, but then as we all know commercial success isnt necessarily an indication of a good film. And some just had a premise that couldnt be imaginatively stretched out over the course of three films... As these films prove, the formula for a successful film series is elusive and even when backed by big Hollywood bucks a trilogy can easily flounder whether its down to rehashed plotlines, spectacularly losing steam or introducing extremely annoying characters in the interest of "freshness". That means you, Jar Jar Binks.
10. The Matrix
Total Box Office: $1.632 billion Dont get this wrong, the first Matrix film was sheer brilliance and its intriguing plotline, visually arresting cinematography and blistering action sequences combined to make it one of the best films of 1999. But then maybe that was exactly the trilogys problem: how could the next two instalments ever live up to such an amazing first outing? Well, they couldnt and though The Matrix Reloaded almost doubled the box office sales of its predecessor in 2003, viewers felt it failed to live up to the hype The Matrix crafted and by the time The Matrix Reloaded came out later that year accompanied by a wave of bad reviews, the trilogy (or at least its latter two efforts) felt more like a series of fight scenes and showy CGI that betrayed the plot-driven excellence of the first film without offering any real conclusion. Never mind though: the original film is still amazing and with (as yet unconfirmed) rumours surfacing last year about a whole new Matrix trilogy, maybe the franchise can save itself yet. Probably not though, if the Wachowskis are allowed to make them.
