10 Best Fifth Movies In Franchises

Five films and still going strong? Surely not.

By Jacob Simmons /

When a film series reaches its fifth instalment, then you know it's time to give up.

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Few franchises make it to a full trilogy whilst retaining their quality, but five? Two more than three? Nah, no chance.

However, there are some that manage to reach this milestone and still perform.

What is the secret to making a good fifth film? Well, let's look at our list and try and work that out.

It definitely helps to shuffle things up - introduce some new characters or cast members or shift the focus to another location. Some franchises take this to the extreme and go full prequel on us, with fairly decent results.

Five also seems to be a good number with which to end a franchise. Reaching the accolade and then bowing out is a tried and tested method of securing a decent rating.

For some movies though, you have to cheat. It's a huge benefit if you're not technically the fifth film in your saga. Spin-offs and straight-to-DVD releases are definitely your friend in this scenario.

So, with all that out of the way, let's find out which series were somehow still alive at number five.

10. The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug

Point One: Whilst this is the second film in Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy, it is also his fifth overall story to take place in Middle-earth. Since there's plenty of crossover of characters and plot, we've decided to mash them together into one big Tolkein-y stew.

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Point Two: This film isn't that bad, guys!

People like to rag on the Hobbit movies for numerous reasons. They have a lot of filler in them, which is the symptom of trying to turn a children's book into an epic nine-hour long story.

Also, there's loads of stuff that isn't actually in the book, including pretty huge characters (hi Tauriel!), but there's also a lot to like.

It's always fun to be immersed in this world and we get to meet some fun characters like Luke Evans' Bard the Bowman. Benedict Cumberbatch does a really nice job as Smaug, and the presentation of the dragon is all up to scratch.

Desolation is the highest-rated out of any of the Hobbit movies on Rotten Tomatoes, so we thought it deserved a spot in our treasure trove too.

Honestly, it isn't that bad! You lot need to get over yourselves...

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