20 Highest-Grossing Movie Franchises Ranked Worst To Best

Worldwide box office: $6.1 billion.

The X-Men franchise is a tricky beast. On the one hand, some of its thirteen instalments have been the worst mainstream superhero movies ever made, including The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and the recent Dark Phoenix disasterpiece.

But on the other hand, the franchise has been alive and kicking for just over twenty years, and for the most part has always understood the story it's trying to tell, the characters it's meant to be following, and the threats they're meant to face.

The first two in the series were perhaps the best pure X-Men films, utilising the team's expansive roster of heroes to equally compelling effect, whilst the more recent First Class, Days of Future Past, Deadpool and Logan each worked wonders to fix the franchise's biggest mistakes and keep it on the right track.

Brought to life by a endless parade of perfectly cast stars - most notably a career-defining Hugh Jackman - effective world-building and affecting drama, the X-Men saga has had its issues, but at its best is nothing short of a joy to behold.