The Best Film Franchises, Ranked
Photo: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Paramount Pictures / Warner Bros.

The Best Film Franchises, Ranked

Ranker Community
Updated April 17, 2024 553.6K views

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417.6K votes
34.4K voters
71 reranks
Voting Rules

Vote up your favorite franchises with the best story arcs.

Latest additions: Deadpool, RoboCop Franchise, Spider-Man Trilogy (Sam Raimi)
Most divisive: Star Trek
Over 34.4K Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of History's Very Best Film Franchises

The best movie franchises of all time have brought us some of the best movies ever, as well as some billion dollar films - and many of them are still cranking out classics. This is your chance to vote for what you think is the greatest movie franchise ever and see how your favorite movie franchises rank against other movie enthusiasts' choices.

Some people will judge a franchise based on its best parts (*cough* Star Wars *cough*) while others will take all the parts of a franchise into account when ranking the top movie series, so don't get offended if you see The Lord of the Rings further down this list than you think it should be. 

You can vote on these top movie franchises based on the series as a whole or just because one or two of the movies mean something special to you. When you're done, check out the best television franchises for more expanded universe goodness.

  • Harry Potter 
    1

    Harry Potter 

    14,021 votes
    • Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)
    • Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
    • Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
    • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
    • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
    • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
    • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010)
    • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011)
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe
    2
    • The Iron Man Series (2008-2013)
    • The Incredible Hulk (2008)
    • The Thor Series (2011-2022)
    • The Captain America Series (2011-2016)
    • The Avengers Series (2012-2019)
    • The Guardians of the Galaxy Series (2014-2023)
    • The Ant-Man Series (2015-2023)
    • The Doctor Strange Series (2016-2022)
    • The Black Panther Series (2018-2022)
    • The Captain Marvel Series (2019-2023)
    • The Spider-Man Series (2017-2021)
  • The Lord of the Rings
    3
    • The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
    • The Two Towers (2002)
    • The Return of the King (2003)
  • Indiana Jones
    4

    Indiana Jones

    7,051 votes
    • Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
    • Temple of Doom (1984)
    • The Last Crusade (1989)
    • Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
    • Dial of Destiny (2023)
  • The Avengers 
    5

    The Avengers 

    11,158 votes
    • The Avengers (2012)
    • Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
    • Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
    • Avengers: Endgame (2019)
  • Pirates of the Caribbean 
    6
    • The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
    • Dead Man's Chest (2006)
    • At World's End (2007)
    • On Stranger Tides (2011)
    • Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017)
  • The Dark Knight
    7

    The Dark Knight

    11,696 votes
    • Batman Begins (2005)
    • The Dark Knight (2008)
    • The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
  • John Wick 
    8

    John Wick 

    3,075 votes
    • John Wick (2014)
    • John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)
    • John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)
    • John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)
  • Star Wars 
    9

    Star Wars 

    14,568 votes
    • Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
    • Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
    • Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
    • Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
    • Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)
    • Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
    • Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)
    • Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
    • Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)
    • Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
    • Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
  • Jurassic Park 
    10

    Jurassic Park 

    8,083 votes
    • Jurassic Park (1993)
    • The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
    • Jurassic Park III (2001)
    • Jurassic World (2015)
    • Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
    • Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)
  • Iron Man
    11

    Iron Man

    6,903 votes
    • Iron Man (2008)
    • Iron Man 2 (2010)
    • Iron Man 3 (2013)
  • The Terminator 
    12

    The Terminator 

    3,994 votes
    • The Terminator (1984)
    • Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
    • Rise of the Machines (2003)
    • Salvation (2009)
    • Genisys (2015)
    • Dark Fate (2019)
  • Monsters, Inc. 
    13

    Monsters, Inc. 

    1,618 votes
    • Monsters, Inc. (2001)
    • Monsters University (2013)
  • Shrek 
    14

    Shrek 

    6,239 votes
    • Shrek (2001)
    • Shrek 2 (2004)
    • Shrek the Third (2007)
    • Shrek Forever After (2010)
  • X-Men 
    15

    X-Men 

    7,692 votes
    • X-Men (2000)
    • X2 (2003)
    • X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
    • X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
    • X-Men: First Class (2011)
    • The Wolverine (2013)
    • X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
    • X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
    • Logan (2017)
    • X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019)
    • The New Mutants (2020)
  • The Incredibles 
    16
    • The Incredibles (2004)
    • Incredibles 2 (2018)
  • Men in Black 
    17

    Men in Black 

    4,785 votes
    • Men in Black (1997)
    • Men in Black II (2002)
    • Men in Black 3 (2012)
    • Men in Black: International (2019)
  • Sam Raimi's Spider-Man
    18
    • Spider-Man (2002)
    • Spider-Man 2 (2004)
    • Spider-Man 3 (2007)
  • The Hunger Games 
    19

    The Hunger Games 

    5,536 votes
    • The Hunger Games (2012)
    • The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)
    • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014)
    • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015)
    • The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)
  • Thor 
    20

    Thor 

    2,974 votes
    • Thor (2011)
    • Thor: The Dark World (2013)
    • Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
    • Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
  • The Hobbit
    21

    The Hobbit

    5,811 votes
    • An Unexpected Journey (2012)
    • ​​​​​​The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
    • The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
  • Back to the Future
    22
    • Back to the Future (1985)
    • Back to the Future Part II (1989)
    • Back to the Future Part III (1990)
  • The Mummy
    23

    The Mummy

    1,727 votes
    • The Mummy (1999)
    • The Mummy Returns (2001)
    • The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008)
  • Toy Story 
    24

    Toy Story 

    10,148 votes
    • Toy Story (1995)
    • Toy Story 2 (1999)
    • Toy Story 3 (2010)
    • Toy Story 4 (2019)
  • Mission: Impossible 
    25
    • Mission: Impossible (1996)
    • Mission: Impossible II (2000)
    • Mission: Impossible III (2006)
    • Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)
    • Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)
    • Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)
    • Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
  • Rocky 
    26

    Rocky 

    6,175 votes
    • Rocky (1976)
    • Rocky II (1979)
    • Rocky III (1982)
    • Rocky IV (1985)
    • Rocky V (1990)
    • Rocky Balboa (2006)
    • Creed (2015)
    • Creed II (2018)
    • Creed III (2023)
  • Captain America
    27

    Captain America

    1,508 votes
    • Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
    • Captain America: Winter Soldier (2014)
    • Captain America: Civil War (2016)
  • The Matrix
    28

    The Matrix

    4,917 votes
    • The Matrix (1999)
    • The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
    • The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
    • The Matrix Resurrections (2021)
  • James Bond 
    29

    James Bond 

    7,315 votes
    • Sean Connery Series (1962-1983)
    • David Niven (1967)
    • George Lazenby Series (1969)
    • Roger Moore Series (1972-1985)
    • Timothy Dalton Series (1987-1989)
    • Pierce Brosnan Series (1995-2002)
    • Daniel Craig Series (2006-2021)
  • Die Hard 
    30

    Die Hard 

    4,917 votes
    • Die Hard (1988)
    • Die Hard 2 (1990)
    • Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995)
    • Live Free or Die Hard (2007)
    • A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)