Ranking: 10 Highest-Grossing Horror Movie Franchises

8. Jaws ($794.4 Million)

The inestimable legacy of Steven Spielberg's 1975 suspense classic is undeniable, and though the awful run of sequels quickly churned out over the next decade-plus were all financially successful, they've pretty much faded into obscurity these days. The only one most people remember, especially with any fondness, is the original.

Best Movie: The first Jaws film is popularly regarded as the original summer blockbuster, releasing on a tidal wave of hype and becoming an instant pop-culture phenomenon, incredibly grossing more than 50-times its budget.

Impressively, over four decades later it still holds up as a tripwire tense thriller that employs Hitchcockian minimalism to terrific effect.

Worst Movie: Number four strikes again with the final Jaws movie, 1987's Jaws: The Revenge, which infers that packs of sharks can hold grudges against humans and specifically target them. Michael Caine, who stars in the film, infamously said of it, "I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific!"

And that's pretty much the most entertaining thing that came out of Jaws the Fourth.