The term best is highly subjective. Ask ten different people, and they may give you ten different answers for Top 5 Movie Franchises. The list can be determined by highest-grossing franchises. It can be determined by most awarded franchises. It can even be determined simply by gut feel and personal taste. What makes filmmaking such an enjoyable art is that everyone who watches it may feel something different. Every genre and every movie has its fans and its detractors.
Ultimately, though, what makes a top 5 movie franchise truly great is its ability to captivate, draw in, and impact a wide range of viewers. Film directors want to make an impact on the audience and make a lasting impression in their memory banks when they create a movie. The impact does not have to be emotional; audiences may feel any range of emotions when viewing the movie, from happiness to anger to sadness to frightened to fear to outright horror, and anything in between. Emotion means a feeling was evoked, and that is the goal of any great art.
A franchise’s success hinges not only on one movie doing this but on nearly all of them doing so. The top 5 movie franchises contain a collection of movies so powerful that the audience can remember each entry individually and how they build off of each other. The franchise should feel cohesive, not just a collection of individual titles.
Top 5 Movie Franchises – The Best of the Best
When piling all the indicators together, these top 5 movie franchises grade out as the best. They combine impactful storylines, pop culture influence and legacy, successful box office sales, and multiple critically acclaimed entries. For movie enthusiasts looking to enjoy a franchise again from the top, these five series should be at the front of the list.
5. Pirates of the Caribbean
Pirates of the Caribbean is a franchise starring Johnny Depp. The first entry, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, came out in 2003 to critical acclaim. Johnny Depp, starring as Captain Jack Sparrow, manages to bring humor and action to place it as a classic entry in the top 5 movie franchises. In total, the series has only 5 entries, yet it is one of the top 10 best-grossing franchises of all time (when combining the Marvel Cinematic Universe). Only Avatar grossed a higher amount with fewer movie entries. Each movie in the franchise feels deliberate, and despite multiple director changes, the films still flowed between each other and made their mark on pop culture.
4. Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park is a decades-old science fiction classic about dinosaurs coming to life. The first film was released in 1993 and was an adaptation of a novel by the same name, written by Michael Crichton. Both the film and novel were wildly successful and spawned a franchise that included multiple additional novels, seven mainline films (the newest of which, Jurassic World Rebirth, releases in 2025), and a slew of additional spin-offs, television shows, board games, and video games. The gruesome sci-fi is immersive and captivating, and its influence on pop culture nearly 35 years later reflects its impact on culture and the film industry at large, making it a shoe-in for the top 5 movie franchises.
3. James Bond
James Bond is the longest-standing and largest collection of all the top 5 movie franchises on the list. With 27 entries, James Bond has been a household staple since 1962, originally derived from a novel series. Any franchise that can carry that longevity and still be popular today deserves a spot at the top. Despite six different James Bond lead actors and over a dozen different film directors, the franchise as a whole has stayed strong, grossing a combined $8 billion. The spy series defined the genre and set the gold standard for others to follow. With heart-pounding action, every entry feels like an entire experience.
2. Harry Potter/ The Wizarding World
Yet another movie franchise based on a highly successful novel series, the Harry Potter franchise brings the joy of magic to the television screens. The famous fantasy franchise breaks the top 5 movie franchises list by its massive impact on pop culture. The franchise has spawned video games, board games, spin-offs, TV series, and even theme parks. Kids want to dress up as their favorite characters, and adults can find their inner child again and their love of imagination. Eleven film entries later, each movie feels like an escape from reality, and there is a reason it is a Top 3 grossing franchise ever.
1. Star Wars
No top 5 movie franchises list would be complete without referencing the most influential piece of science fiction pop culture of all time. Star Wars has had 12 movie entries, but the franchise as a whole has spawned so many different forms of media it cannot even all be listed here: video games, tabletop games, Lego sets, books, television shows, costumes, Broadway shows, the list goes on. Fans of the franchise will attend conferences, movie premieres, and more with fully committed costumes and roles. From 1977 to now, Star Wars has grossed over $10 billion in film revenue alone and has been a constant presence in homes across the world.
Final Thoughts
It should be noted that the Marvel Cinematic Universe did not place in the top 5 movie franchises, despite blowing away the competition in highest-grossing box office hits and by far the most series entries. Simply put, each entry has a sub-franchise, and it did not feel right to lump them into one. If fans are looking for a successful and exciting superhero franchise, though, Marvel Cinematic Universe, especially Spider-Man and the Avengers, is highly recommended.
Every reader likely has their variation of a top 5 movie franchises list; perhaps they lean more toward the action genre and add Fast and the Furious, or the Fantasy genre and add Lord of the Rings. No animated franchise made the list, though Despicable Me, Toy Story, or Shrek could all make their case. In the end, all rankings are subjective, and the key is finding movies that draw you in, provide enjoyment, and keep you coming back again and again. If a film franchise can do that, then it is deserving of being considered among the best of all time.
