Every Major Cinematic Universe Ranked From Worst To Best
4. Universal Monsters
Bela Lugosi's Dracula, Boris Karloff's Frankenstein, Lon Chaney Jr.'s Wolfman; over seven decades later and these are still regarded as the definitive portrayals of these characters, which is a testament to the enduring popularity of Universal's classic stable of monsters.
The true Golden Age of the creature feature, Universal's spectacular run of genre movies between the 1920s and 1950s also includes The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Phantom of the Opera, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, Bride of Frankenstein, Creature From the Black Lagoon and countless sequels, spin-offs and crossovers, including several featuring legendary comedy duo Abbott and Costello.
In the decades since this purple patch ended, Universal have mounted countless unsuccessful attempts to update their rich back catalogue for modern audiences but have yet to come remotely close to recapturing the magic that made the characters so enduringly popular in the first place. The Dark Universe may be dead in the water, but its only a matter of time before Dracula, Frankenstein and company are rebooted yet again.