10 Movie Franchises That Got Worse with Every Entry

10 Movie Franchises That Got Worse with Every Entry

We all love great movie franchises that have great movies after great movies. But sometimes we get franchises that start off strong but get worse with every entry. What are those franchises? Let’s talk about them!

• Jaws: I think the Jaws franchise is the ultimate example of a franchise that didn’t need to exist. Steven Spielberg’s 1975 classic is one of the greatest blockbusters of all time. It invented the concept of the blockbuster that is still going strong in 2026. It’s such a brilliant film that’s so well crafted with the tension and so many fantastic characters. John Williams’ score is one of the most iconic scores of all time. The main theme of the film has defined popular culture and remains the ultimate shark music all of these decades later. Since that film made a lot of money, the studio wanted to do a sequel. The problem is, it’s not obvious where you take a sequel after the original. Jaws 2 is a perfectly fine sequel, but it’s just a rehash of the original minus Spielberg. Tonely, the film is the closest to the original so it gets points to that. But if I’m in the mood for the traditional Jaws experience, I’m always going to watch the original. Jaws 3-D goes very goofy with taking place at Sea World. Jaws 4: The Revenge is one of the worst and weirdest sequels of all time. The studio clearly wanted to make more money but didn’t have anywhere to go. So suddenly the shark follows this woman around the world for revenge (hence the title of the film). Michael Caine is in it and he’s been very vocal about not liking the film. This is what he said about the film. “I’ve never seen the film, but by all accounts it was terrible. However, I’ve seen the house that it built, and it is terrific.” That should sum up how bad that film is. 

• Christopher Reeves’ Superman Quadrilogy: To be clear this is the Christopher Reeves era of the character going from the 1978 original to Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Of course, the original film is the film that invented the comic book movie genre. It’s one of the most important films in all of cinema because of what it did and what it stood for. Once again, you get another fantastic John Williams score. Christopher Reeves is the best Superman that we’ve gotten, he’s a great Superman and Clark Kent. Superman II is actually a pretty good sequel. I don’t think it’s on the level of the original, but it’s very good and also important. Because the themes established in Spider-Man 2, go back to this film and what this film is about. Both the third and fourth entries with Christopher Reeves are not good at all. Superman III is this all out comedy with Richard Pryor. It lacks the magic and the charm of the first two. Margot Kidder didn’t return to this film because of the behind the scenes drama. There’s a spark of magic gone with this film when you don’t have Reeves and Kidder’s chemistry present. The Quest for Peace is one of the worst comic book movies ever made. There’s some good ideas in there, but because the producers and studios didn’t know about this franchise they didn’t make a good movie. There’s so much behind the scenes drama and issues going on with those films that explain the drop in quality. But it’s a drop in quality regardless so it makes it on this list. 

• Batman Quadrilogy (1989-1997): The first entry on this list not to be composed by John Williams, this time it’s Danny Elfman. I think Danny Elfman’s score for Batman is fantastic. It defines the character and has been used across multiple Batman mediums. I know there’s a division between whether Batman (1989) or Batman Returns is the better of Tim Burton’s Batman films. I’ve always preferred Batman (1989), you have a great score, great performances by Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson, a great vibe for this gothic version of Gotham City. I think Batman Returns gets a bit too much “Tim Burton” for me. But it’s still a really solid sequel that I enjoy, you get a pair of great villains with The Penguin and Catwoman, played by the great Danny Devito and Michelle Pfeiffer. After that, you move into the Joel Schumacher era of Batman…that’s not great. I don’t think Batman Forever is a total disaster. But it’s not great and it’s not what I want from a Batman movie. Both of our villains, Two-Face and Riddler feel so over the top and dated. Despite being a great actress, I’ve never found Nicole Kidman to be a great love interest. Since Batman Forever was a hit and wasn’t viewed as terrible when it came out we got a sequel with Batman & Robin, and oh boy. Like The Quest for Peace, that is one of the worst comic book movies of all time. They got everything wrong about the film, from the costumes to the villains. They took this great villain in Bane and turned him into this monster who just says “Bane” for all of his screentime. The nipples on the bat suit are terrible ideas. I don’t know what Schumacher and Warner Brothers were thinking when they made this movie. It’s truly one of the worst concepts ever for a comic book movie. However, I think it’s the best and funniest example of an actor not liking their own movie. If you haven’t seen George Clooney talk about this movie, please go watch it! 

• Jurassic Park Trilogy: Like most people I think the 1993 original is one of the greatest movies ever made. Recently, I was lucky enough to see this movie on the big screen for the third time. Despite having seen this movie 10+ times, this movie still holds up and is still fantastic. What works so well about this movie is that it’s so well crafted by Steven Spielberg. This franchise is of course known for the dinosaur carnage and deaths, but it’s easy to forget that it’s over half way through the film because the dinosaurs break loose. The first hour is just people talking and you don’t care one bit. The reason for that is you have a great ensemble of characters from Alan Grant to Ian Malcolm that all provide a different world view about Jurassic Park. It’s truly one of my favorite movies of all time that I can watch at any point and love it. Then we got two more sequels in this trilogy plus an additional trilogy and Rebirth just last year. I’ll say this, I don’t dislike any of the Jurassic sequels, whether they have park or world in the title. Even though The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III are big step downs I still find those movies entirely watchable. But this is an example of a trilogy that gets worse with every entry. The Lost World: Jurassic Park is another Steven Spielberg production so it’s well made and certain sequences are still super exciting. But it lacks the magic and charm of the original. Jurassic Park III had a very troubled production where they couldn’t come up with a story that they were happy with. That’s actually my least favorite film in the Jurassic franchise. But like I said, it’s still entirely watchable to me. The gap in quality between the 1993 original and Jurassic Park III is a pretty big gap so it qualifies for this list. 

• The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: Now this is going to get me in trouble with Lord of the Rings fans. To be perfectly clear, I think all three of these movies are all really good. Even though Return of the King is my least favorite, I still think that movie is great. But when I watched these movies back in 2022 for the first time, I absolutely thought that Fellowship of the Ring was the best and Return of the King was the worst. I love the world building in Fellowship of the Ring. From the opening sequence, it’s a big epic sequence in the past with this massive battle going on establishing this world and the ring. You get introduced to all of these characters that you like spending time with. It’s one of the best examples of world building in a film. Two Towers continues everything that’s great about The Fellowship of the Ring. You get a great “here comes the calvary” moment in there with Gandalf that’s awesome. We spend more time with Gollum, who is my favorite Middle Earth character. All leading up to the closing chapter in Return of the King where it’s this big epic payoff with emotional payoff to everything that’s come before. I don’t really have a good reason as to why Return of the King is the weakest for me. It’s always been the film that’s connected with me the least and I feel like I get the least out of it. But to be perfectly clear, I still think it’s a great movie. Return of the King is the weakest, but it’s better than most of the best films in other franchises. And far better than The Desolation of Smaug, the best of the Hobbit trilogy. 

• Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man Trilogy: This might be another one that’s a bit of a hot take to say Spider-Man (2002) is better than Spider-Man 2. But I’ve always preferred Spider-Man (2002) as a movie. I think it’s better constructed and you get a better villain with Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin. It does the best job of telling Spider-Man’s origin story so I’ve preferred that film all around. Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man is one of the most iconic pieces of comic book movie casting. One of my movie hot takes is that I think Spider-Man 2 is one of the most overrated comic book movies of all time. I still like the movie but I don’t think it’s as good as people say it is. There’s some great sequences and moments in there but the film as a whole has never connected with me. Like everybody else, I think Spider-Man 3 is EASILY the worst of the trilogy. It’s not a bad movie by any means but it’s overstuffed and doesn’t deliver the magic of the first two. They took a great Spider-Man villain in Venom and completely wasted him. Topher Grace was the wrong actor to play him. It’s well documented that Sam Raimi didn’t want to include Venom but Sony forced him to. There’s just a lot of issues with that film and it is easily the weakest. If you’ve seen my Spider-Man rankings, I’ve never viewed this trilogy or Tobey Maguire as the holy grail of comic book movies. They aren’t the films that I grew up watching the way many other people did. But the first two Spider-Man movies are good and get a lot of things right. But this trilogy absolutely does count for being on this list because every entry does get worse. 

• Taken Trilogy: The original film redefined Liam Neeson’s career. He did action movies before with The Phantom Menace and Batman Begins, but he’s been known as the action guy ever since Taken came out over 15 years ago. The original film is a pretty solid action movie. They put the classic Taken speech in the trailer and the movie delivered on that premise. It’s awesome to see Liam Neeson beat guys up. With that film being so simplistic with the plot. The plot of the movie is Liam Neeson’s daughter goes to Paris, gets kidnapped so he flies to Paris to rescue her. When you make a sequel, it’s not obvious what the plot of that film would be. It’s stupid to have her daughter taken again and just rehash the original. With the second film they reverse the formula where the daughter has to rescue the dad. It’s a bit of a lazy and weak excuse for a movie. But reversing the formula, ok fine. The actress who plays the daughter is supposed to be 18 but she looks and acts younger. She’s not Liam Neeson, she’s not an action star. The movie isn’t terrible or boring but it doesn’t have what makes the original so much fun. Taken 3 is a borderline bad movie. That movie turns into The Fugitive, but the big plot twist is so obvious and predictable. The movie’s editing is so choppy and all over the place that you can’t see any of the action taking place. Easily, each installments get worse. Taken 3 completely abandoned everything that made the 2009 original so much fun and a great Liam Neeson vehicle. 

• Ant-Man Trilogy: If you don’t remember, the original Ant-Man movie actually had quite an interesting production. Edgar Wright was attached for many years, he even appeared on a panel back in 2007 when the MCU was first announced. The film went through multiple rewrites and reworking before we got the film in July 2015. Despite all of that, the film turned out to be so much fun. It was one of the funniest films in the MCU that does something different. This movie doesn’t have world ending stakes or anything like that. It’s a smaller scale film that’s a heist movie, and to this day it’s the only heist film in the MCU so it feels fresh and different. Paul Rudd as Scott Lang is a casting I never knew I needed. He’s so effortlessly charming and funny, where he’s the most likable MCU hero. I know a lot of people don’t like Ant-Man and the Wasp and they think it’s too inconsequential to mean anything. I’ve always really dug that film and had a lot of fun with it. I like the fact that it’s continuing from the original and not trying to be the biggest or the best MCU movie. It’s telling a simple Ant-Man and after the big event that was Infinity War, this movie was refreshing. Over time, I’ve thought that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was a big gigantic dud. They marketed that film as this super important film in the MCU by introducing Kang into the MCU. Kang was meant to be the next big bad for the MCU. I thought the trailers for the movie were awesome, the film comes out and is a big disappointment. It doesn’t make Kang an interesting enough villain to make you care about him being the next big bad for the MCU. It’s well documented that the film reshot the ending about a month before the film came out. Some of the CGI wasn’t finished until after the premiere happened, the Monday before the film came out. It’s a movie that loses everything that made the first two movies so much fun and worked in the first place. This feels like a mix of Guardians of the Galaxy with Ant-Man. I like both of those franchises but they don’t mix well together. Quantumania should’ve been this big hit event film for the MCU but turned out to be one of the MCU’s most bland, generic, and most disappointing. 

• Star Wars Sequel Trilogy: I actually just finished rewatching this trilogy and I think this is one of the best examples of a trilogy falling off the cliff from the first to third film. I still defend The Force Awakens as a movie. I’ve always thought that movie was great and rewatching it only solidified that. It’s a great legacy sequel that mixes the old and new cast really well. I really like JJ Abrams as a director and he can make really fun blockbusters that keep you moving and entertaining from beginning to end. While I totally understand the hate for The Last Jedi, I like that movie a lot. There’s very obvious flaws with the film, it makes some very stupid decisions that polarize the fandom. It polarized the fandom so much that it’s never recovered since then despite having gotten multiple Star Wars tv shows. It’s also a beautifully shot film, say what you will about The Last Jedi but it looks gorgeous. This is the best looking Star Wars movie in my mind. The imagery of the third act with the salt planet is super memorable. I think Rise of Skywalker is a big gigantic misfire. Especially with this movie coming out several months after Avengers: Endgame, it’s the obvious point of comparison. Endgame does everything better from the emotional payoff to everything. It closes out the saga so much better. You can feel it being a course correction movie after the polarization of The Last Jedi. It means that they have to rush through everything and none of it lands. It’s a film that should’ve been a top tier Star Wars movie because it’s the end of the trilogy and the Skywalker Saga. But because Kathleen Kennedy and Disney didn’t have a plan it means that the concluding chapter couldn’t have as great of payoff as it should’ve. 

• Halloween Sequel Trilogy: I’m not the biggest Halloween fan. I’ve only seen a handful of Halloween movies. I think the 1978 original is the greatest horror movie of all time. John Carpenter crafted a fantastic movie that’s so important to the genre. I think Halloween (2018) is another great legacy sequel. It captures the vibe and energy so well. There’s great moments and thrills that keep you engaged and invested from beginning to end. It does a great job of exploring how Laurie Strode would be changed as a person 40 years later because of what happened in the 1978 film. Jamie Lee Curtis gives one of the best performances of her career, where she’s a much darker and more tortured version of the character and she’s able to portray that so well. Halloween Kills is a step down but it’s not bad. It strains credibility and stretches this trilogy out for three films when it needed to be two movies. They make Michael Meyers way too overpowered and unkillable and it lacks tension. It’s fun to see Michael Meyers do his things and kill a bunch of people but it’s in a movie that doesn’t make much sense. Halloween Ends, I don’t think it is a total disaster. Maybe some of that is because I’m not a Halloween fan like so many others. But I can still acknowledge that it’s a bizarre end to the trilogy. It goes off in this totally random direction with this Cory Cunningham character that wasn’t at all established in the previous films. And then the last 15 minutes of the film is what it was marketed as, as the final showdown between Laurie and Michael. It’s interesting to have this trilogy and the Star Wars sequels close together because you see how both of them were so mismanaged and didn’t have a plan to make a great trilogy.