10 Movie Franchises That Surprisingly Got Better

7. The Marvel Cinematic Universe

Now to be clear, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has never been bad, but it's also fair to say that its origins were, at least by contemporary standards, rather quaint and straight-forward.

Back in 2008, it was impossible to imagine how impressively the franchise would grow, not only in terms of scale, budget and sheer ensemble power, but also the ambition and daring of the stories and characters given the blockbuster treatment.

If the early days of the series hedged their bets on Iron Man, The Hulk, Thor and Captain America, Marvel Studios' growing confidence eventually allowed them to tackle more out-there projects like Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther and a glut of increasingly stacked tentpole team-ups.

The finale of Avengers: Endgame represents the culmination of more than a decade of cinematic evolution, and it's a testament to a patient, well thought-out approach on the part of producer Kevin Feige.

If the series peaked with the terrifically entertaining original Iron Man and the team-up movies all ended up being a bit messy, would anyone have been that surprised?

But instead, the MCU has gone from strength to boundary-pushing strength, and that uptick in quality is visible even within many of the series' own sub-franchises itself, namely Captain America, Thor and The Avengers.