Ranking 10 Highest-Grossing Movie Franchises - From Worst To Best

From Star Wars to Harry Potter... which franchise has the best films?

Pop quiz. What is Hollywood's favourite word? If you said "franchise," give yourself a pat on the back. After all, a successful movie franchise pretty much ensures lots and lots of cash over a lengthly period of time. And a truly great franchise - from a monetary point of view, at least - doesn't last for five or ten years: it lasts forever. Take James Bond, or Star Wars - studios have been pumping these assets for cash for decades... and audiences are still lapping them up in their masses. In other words: franchises mean big bucks. Billions and billions of dollars. Chances are that - as an ardent movie viewer - you're partly responsible for throwing your cash at lots of the highest-grossing franchises over the years, too. You didn't really want to see that fourth Transformers flick, but you went anyway. You know, 'cause everyone else did. You had to watch the next Harry Potter, because... well, because. Highest-grossing doesn't always mean "best," though - far from it, in fact. What happens when you take the 10 highest-grossing franchises of all-time and rank them in order from worst to best? When you consider each franchise's legacy, the quality of the individual films, and their overall placement in popular culture, which one comes out on top? Well...

Contributor

Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.