5 Movie Franchises That Got Better Over Time (And 5 That Got A Whole Lot Worse)

While there are a lot of fans that long for the days when the Fast and Furious was a mid-budget franchise set in the world of street racing, the box office numbers don't lie, and the decision to reinvent the brand as increasingly-preposterous action blockbusters has turned the once-ailing series into one of Hollywood's most popular properties.

The return of the original cast in the fourth installment first signaled the shift in direction, but it wasn't until self-appointed 'Franchise Viagra' Dwayne Johnson joined the ensemble in Fast Five that the adventures of Dominic Toretto and his crew definitively threw all sense of logic and physics out of the window.

It paid off massively, with the fifth entry earning more at the box office than the previous two combined, and it surely isn't a coincidence that every Fast and Furious movie since The Rock first boarded the ship (including spinoff Hobbs & Shaw) are the only entries that hold a 'Fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes as the extended 'family' continue going from strength to strength.