15 Movie Franchises Where The First Film Isn’t The Best In The Series

Summary

• Franchises often see sequels surpass the original film in quality due to changes in directors or styles.
• Terminator, Captain America, Toy Story show how sequels can outshine the initial film in improving the franchise.
• Spider-Man, Wolverine Trilogy, Mad Max, Evil Dead also demonstrate a pattern of sequels improving over the originals.

Movie trilogies used to rely on a strong first entry before progressing the series, but with the rise of franchises based on popular IPs, more and more first movies end up being less impressive than the sequels. Franchises rely on creating a series of movies that audiences will enjoy. However, there are plenty of franchises that only found their footing after the first film was released.

This isn’t to say that they are inherently bad, but the later entries do surpass the original film in quality. This can also occur when a sequel has a change in director or style that drastically improves the franchise. However it happens, there are plenty of movie franchises where sequels outshine the first film, setting a new benchmark for the rest of the franchise.

15 Terminator

James Cameron’s futuristic sci-fi action series, Terminator, launched his career to new heights in 1984, as well as further cementing Arnold Schwarzenegger’s status as one of the biggest action stars of the 1980s and 1990s. However, Cameron’s ambition for the film outgrew the budget and technology of the time. The iconic T-1000 robot from Terminator 2: Judgment Day was intended to appear in the original movie, but due to constraints, Cameron could not make it work in time for the movie. However, this led to the sequel becoming one of the most iconic movies of all time.

14 Captain America

The 2011 Captain America movie was a great introduction to the character, and it did a great job bringing the character into the present day MCU. However, when the director was changed from Joe Johnston to Joe and Anthony Russo between the first movie and the sequels, the tone and quality of the movies drastically changed. 2014s The Winter Soldier, and the incredible ensemble film Captain America: Civil War delivered excitement and heroics on a scale that far exceeded the original, and landed the Russo’s the gig as directors on the movies that would close out the Infinity Saga.

13 Toy Story

Toy Story first hit theaters in 1995, and the movie launched Pixar as a major player in the animated family movie space. However, the original movie also had a lot of groundwork to cover in introducing the characters and having Buzz and Woody become friends, rather than jealous rivals. The subsequent movies were able to dig deeper emotionally and explore what happens when kids grow out of playing with their toys. This evolution of the themes, alongside the audience growing up themselves, made the sequels exponentially better than the original.

12 James Bond

When examining either the earliest James Bond movie from 1962, Dr. Nostarring Sean Connery, or Daniel Craig’s debut as the character in 2006s Casino Royale, the franchise continued to improve after these projects. Both of these early entries were good, but as the franchise became more established, and the actors grew to understand the character of 007 even more, the quality continued to improve. In every way, from the action, to the drama, the romance, to the espionage, these films became more exciting and engaging with time and subsequent entries.

11 John Wick

John Wick is inarguably one of the best action film franchises Keanu Reeves has ever starred in, and compared to other franchises in general, but the quality did improve after the first movie. The first film is a solid introduction, but the stakes around this deadly assassin hunting down dangerous criminals because they killed his dog feel somewhat underwhelming. The later films see Wick becoming ever more deadly, facing bigger challenges, and ultimately overshadowing the first entry.

10 Shrek

Shrek is one of the best properties to ever come from Dreamworks, with a world built around numerous fairytales that all crossover into the popular series of films. However, the first movie is a pretty standard retelling of the unwilling hero rescuing a trapped princess. The sequels, especially Shrek 2, become far more ambitious and creative. Exploring the Kingdom of Far Far Away, introducing a duplicitous fairy godmother, and subverting expectations makes the second entry noticeably better than the first.

9 Harry Potter

Harry Potter quickly became one of the biggest and highest grossing franchises of all time when it first hit theaters in 2001. The novels upon which the films were based were outrageously popular, and the films gained the same degree of critical acclaim. However, the series did undergo changes from the first movie through to the eighth and final entry. One of the biggest changes throughout the series that led to a jump in quality came with a change in directors from the third film onward. While the first movie is still a classic, there are better films later in the series.

8 Spider-Man

In 2002, Spider-Man swung onto the big screen in a way that had never been done before, and it launched a new era for superhero movies. While this first entry did make a big splash, and cemented Sam Raimi’s position as an incredible director in multiple genres, the sequel Spider-Man 2 was even better. With Alfred Molina playing Otto Octavius, the film took the franchise to new heights and promised a bright future ahead for the series. However, Spider-Man 3 did not continue this meteoric rise.

7 Wolverine Trilogy

The Fox X-Men movies started strong with a compelling superhero story, and an incredibly strong cast. However, when the franchise tried to break off and highlight their most popular hero, Wolverine played by Hugh Jackman, it failed to hit the right notes with 2009s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. However, the subsequent entries, The Wolverine and Logan, garnered far more favorable reviews and critical acclaim. Which made the Wolverine trilogy worthwhile, despite the false start of X-MenOrigins: Wolverine.

6 Mad Max

In 1979, Mad Max hit theaters and sparked the beginning of an incredible post-apocalyptic franchise. While that first movie proved successful, it was only the beginning for director and writer George Miller’s vision. The first film opened the door to sequels and popularized the character and world created by Miller, but it wasn’t until later that the full extent of this vision was realized. From the immediate sequel, which further exposes the wasteland, to the 2015 revisiting of the original story, the franchise continues to improve after the original.

5 Evil Dead

Another Sam Raimi project that greatly improved over time is TheEvil Dead. The 1981 original was one of Raimi’s first ever feature films, and much of the project had a homemade feel to it. In 1987, he released Evil Dead II. This sequel revisited the original’s events, while also incorporating humor and a unique style that would come to define the series and Raimi’s work as a whole. This was a drastic improvement on the original, and helped to move the franchise forward into a new era where it would remain a classic horror franchise for years to come.

4 Planet Of The Apes

The classic Planet of the Apes franchise was a remarkable piece of cinematic history, with the first film raising the bar for sci-fi movies as a whole. However, when the franchise was rebooted in 2011 with Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the series took a moment to find its footing. The 2011 film gave an interesting origin for how the events of earlier movies may have come about, but it didn’t have the same epic scale as the originals. Then, in the subsequent entries, Dawn and War, the films began to take shape and drastically improved from the 2011 entry.

3 Star Wars

Regardless of which trilogy is chosen, the first entry in every Star Wars trilogy serves as a platform for the sequels to build on. These stories were interesting, and helped to build the lore of the world, but the following films introduced epic action, intriguing politics, and shocking twists that drastically improved on the first entries. However, the first films also provided an important foundation for the sequels to build on, and each is by no means a terrible film.

2 Suicide Squad

In 2016, David Ayers’ Suicide Squad earned a respectable three quarters of a billion dollars at the box office (via The Numbers), but the movie was critically panned. Despite plans to build on the film, and its central characters, the movie and most of the characters were retired after that entry. Then, in 2021, James Gunn took the wheel and released a sort of rebooted The Suicide Squad movie. Interestingly, despite the film receiving glowing reviews and widespread praise, The Suicide Squad only managed to earn $167 million at the box office, but regardless, it was much better than the earlier entry (via The Numbers).

1 The Purge

The Purge was a novel horror concept about a near future world that had one significant difference from the present: a special Purge day when all crime was legal for one day. The first movie did a great job introducing this concept and exploring one set of horrific events, but it wasn’t until the sequels that the extent and scale of this Purge really took shape. Later entries were more creative, more horrifying, and overall, a more satisfying film, that proved sequels often overtake the originals in franchises.