15 Massive Movie Franchises That Have More Great Entries Than Rubbish Ones

4. Marvel Cinematic Universe

Total Number of Films: 12

Great: Iron Man, Thor, Captain America: the First Avenger, The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Captain America: the Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man

Rubbish: The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor: The Dark World

The current state of cinema can hardly be discussed without this lot coming up. Many high-brow critics blame them for dumbing down cinema, making it impossible for any movies to get made that aren't FX-driven comic book adaptations.

Yet even the naysayers must concede that no other studio has achieved anything quite like that which Marvel Studios has done. Coming from independent beginnings, they've completely changed the face of blockbuster cinema in less than a decade, creating a series of movies which all interconnect, not to mention the TV shows sharing the same universe.

At their best, the films still work perfectly as standalone entities; at worst, they're more interested in setting up sequels than telling a story of their own. Happily, the good outweighs the bad by far to date, and we can only hope that Captain America: Civil War and Doctor Strange will continue this trend later in 2016.