3. Five and Over
Here it starts to get a bit awkward. Very, very few film series can maintain the quality for this long. In fact, if you asked someone to name, off the top of their head, their favourite film franchise of five or more, I guarantee they will struggle. Or rather, to name a film franchise that lasts five or more, and maintains a certain quality in every entry. All of this, and within the same universe, is a tough ask. Die Hard is a major culprit of killing itself for the allure of the box office. The first three films of that series were well made and on most fronts well written. They were pure action films, with a great protagonist and included one of the great catchphrases. Then they made Live Free or Die Hard, and they shoved aside story for the opportunity to shoot a bombastic action film that makes use of modern technology, twelve years after the excellent third entry. If the fourth film killed it, then the fifth one was a very poor eulogy. And the potential of future installments threatens to dig an even deeper grave for a dead franchise. Admittedly, I quite enjoyed the Planet of the Apes, spanning from 1968-1973. Perhaps it was more fascination toward a series born more than twenty years before myself. Nevertheless, again there was a noticeable drop in quality as the series wore on, until it stumbled to the finish line. Dirty Harry is yet another that suffered from drawn out story telling. Its a little harder to argue for or against when a franchise runs longer than five. There are examples where there was no choice. If youre going to adapt Harry Potter to the screen, then youre going to have at least seven films. And then theres James Bond, which belongs in its own category, a timeless invention and reinvention. When its unavoidable, its simply necessary. And Harry Potter showed it can be done albeit with novel success pushing its box office performance. When an original creation starts pushing the boundary simply because they think it can be done, it probably cant be. Its better to go out on a high note, than to sink to the bottom, as Pirates of the Caribbean is now threatening to do.