Film Series

Film series are created when a film becomes a success. Sequels, prequels and spinoffs can turn a group of films into a real Cash Cow Franchise. Sometimes the makers choose not to make another movie based on the success of the first one. This can be due to lack of interest or the knowledge that they'll never be able to duplicate everything the original made great.

Many others simply go for the quick buck and mass produce new movies. Though a huge flop or critically panned film can halt the sequel frenzy, there have been cases when sequels continue to be made long after audiences and critics gave up. Whether good or bad, this can transform a group of films into a veritable film series. In order to qualify for that title one sequel is simply not enough. Three or more films in the franchise tend to earn that title.


 * Abbott and Costello: 35 films
 * The Adventures of Antoine Doinel, although none of them are quite as well-known as The 400 Blows.
 * Alien -- Four films, one cross-over with "Predator" and one prequel
 * American Pie -- Raunchy teen comedy, with seven installments as of now.
 * The Amityville Horror -- Film of the Based on a Great Big Lie book. Somehow got turned into a franchise with eight films and a remake of the original.
 * Andy Hardy -- 16 films between 1937 and 1958
 * Austin Powers -- Three films
 * Back to The Future -- Three films
 * Batman -- All in all the character's been to the theaters 8 times (with three continuities) and on home video (without going into the DC Universe Original Animated Movies) 4 times. One was based on the sixties TV series, and another was an animated theatrical release.
 * Betty Boop -- Many shorts throughout the 1930s
 * Bring It On -- Films centering around cheerleading.
 * Bugs Bunny -- Hundreds of shorts since 1940
 * Carry On - Hugely popular British comedy film series, with 31 films in their catalogue!!
 * Casper the Friendly Ghost -- 55 films, a TV series spin-off and a live-action film.
 * Charlie Chan -- The Chinese detective created by Earl Derr Biggers has been featured in nearly sixty films between 1926 and 1997 -- but only four times by an actual Chinese actor, starting in 1989.
 * Cheech and Chong- Six feature films.
 * Children of the Corn -- Another Stephen King short story which was turned into a movie. Spawned a sequel-ridden franchise with seven films and a remake.
 * Death Wish -- Charles Bronson plays Paul Kersey, who movie after movie loses his loved ones to criminals, which in turn leads to vigilante mayhem. Five films.
 * Daffy Duck - Hundreds of shorts since the late 1930s.
 * Dirty Harry -- Five films
 * Don Camillo -- Five movies from 1953-1965, and some non-canonical entries afterwards in the seventies and eighties.
 * Donald Duck -- Hundreds of shorts since 1934.
 * Dracula -- Despite the repeated stakings and sunlight baskings, this eponymous vampire count just keeps coming back.
 * Droopy -- Dozens of shorts since 1942
 * Emmanuelle -- 37 official films and various rip-offs by other studios.
 * Film:Ernest P. Worrell - Nine "Ernest" films have been made until the death of the main actor.
 * The Exorcist -- Religious Horror movie series about Demonic Possession. Five films, including two prequels.
 * The Falcon -- a once famous, now rather obscure detective character who was the hero of sixteen different features made between 1940 and 1949.
 * The Fast and the Furious -- Heists and fast cars that are needed to pull them off.
 * Felix the Cat -- Dozens of shorts, a 1950s TV series and a 1992 animated film.
 * Final Destination -- People evade death, only to be killed afterwards by a malignant force.
 * The Fly -- Famous tragedy where a testing of a teleporter goes horribly wrong, and the scientist doing it switches his head with a fly. Original series in the fifties and sixties and a remake series in the eighties.
 * Flodder, a Dutch comedy series consisting of three films and one TV series spin-off
 * Francis The Talking Mule -- Series about a man and his talking donkey, spawned seven films.
 * Frankenstein -- Various adaptations since 1910.
 * Free Willy
 * Friday the 13 th -- Slasher films revolving around hockey-masked Jason Voorhees. Ten films, a crossover with A Nightmare on Elm Street, and a 2010 remake.
 * Fu Manchu -- He has been played in over forty films (beginning in 1923) by over a dozen different actors, including H. Agar Lyons (an Irishman), Warner Oland (a Swede), Boris Karloff (with Myrna Loy as his daughter, here called Fah Lo), Christopher Lee, and Peter Sellers (three Englishmen) and Nicholas Cage -- but never yet by an actual Asian actor.
 * Gamera - The most successful Follow the Leader of Godzilla; a dozen films have been made between 1965 and 2006.
 * Le Gendarme De Saint Tropez- Six films between 1964 and 1983.
 * Godzilla -- The Japanese series about the rampaging mutant is one of if not THE longest running feature film series ever, at a current total of 30 films made over 50 years (1954-2004). Of these, all but the American remake were made by Toho Studios, who have made dozens of other films set in the same 'verse.
 * Godfrey Ho Ninja Movies -- There's more than eighty of them.
 * Goofy -- First a central character in the Mickey Mouse cartoons, then got his own succesful spin-off cartoon series and in the 1990s a TV series.
 * Halloween -- Film that launched thousand slasher movies (figuratively speaking). An original series of eight films and a remake series of two.
 * Hammer Horror -- Defined vampire and gothic horror cinema of the 1950s and 1960s.
 * Harry Potter -- Film adaptation of J. K. Rowling's children's/young adults' fantasy novels. Seven films.
 * Hellraiser -- Surreal and gory horror film about extreme S/M enthusiasts from an another dimension. Eight films.
 * The Howling -- Series of seven werewolf films.
 * Ice Age -- Four films
 * Indiana Jones -- Four films
 * Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS -- Four exploitation films
 * Iron Eagle
 * James Bond -- 20 films in the original continuity and a reboot of two films with Daniel Craig as Bond, and two "unofficial" films not produced by Eon/United Artists.
 * Jay and Silent Bob -- Appear in five films
 * The Keystone Cops - Made hundreds of films in the 1910s and 1920s
 * Laurel and Hardy -- Made more than 105 comedy films around themselves, both shorts and full length films.
 * Lethal Weapon - Four films
 * The Little Rascals -- 220 short films between 1922 and 1944
 * Looney Tunes -- Hundreds of shorts
 * Maciste -- Probably the oldest film franchise in existence: dozens of films since 1914.
 * Marvel Cinematic Universe -- A joint movie adaptation of the Marvel comic book setting, with multiple movies/movie series occurring in the same world.
 * The Marx Brothers -- Starred in 13 films as a group.
 * Mickey Mouse -- Starred in dozens of cartoons since 1927.
 * Mondo -- Numerous films, sometimes from different companies.
 * The Naked Gun -- Three films, derived from the TV series Police Squad!.
 * Night of the Demons
 * Night of the Living Dead -- George A. Romero's famous zombie film. The franchise has become rather complex, giving birth to three different in-progress franchises.
 * A Nightmare on Elm Street -- 7 films, a crossover with Friday the 13 th, a remake, plus a loosely connected TV show.
 * Olsen-Banden -- 14 movies, the first from 1968 and the last from 1998.
 * The Omen
 * The Phantom of the Opera -- Over dozen adaptations ranging from the early silent films to modern Hollywood movies.
 * The Pink Panther -- Seven films featuring Peter Sellers, three more without, and a two-film reboot with Steve Martin.
 * Pirates of the Caribbean -- Four films
 * Pluto -- Dozens of shorts
 * Pokémon -- 13 movies and two TV specials.
 * Police Academy -- 7 official films and two TV spin-off series
 * Poltergeist -- 3 films
 * Popeye -- Based on the already popular comic strip, spawned dozens of cartoon shorts, TV series and one live action film in 1980.
 * The Prisoner of Zenda -- Six separate versions: 1913, 1915, 1922, 1937, 1952, 1979, and two sequels: 1916 and 1923
 * Prom Night -- Series of Slasher Movies which takes their place on the titular celebration.
 * Psycho -- Classic psychological proto-slasher horror film by Alfred Hitchcock. Slasher craze of the 80's turned it into a franchise. Also had an almost shot for shot remake in the 90s.
 * Rambo -- 4 films and an animated film series spinoff
 * Return of the Living Dead -- Second zombie franchise spawned from Romero's Night of the Living Dead.
 * Rin Tin Tin: 15 films with the original dog. Several more after that.
 * The Ritz Brothers
 * Road To -- Seven films sarring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope
 * Rocky -- 6 films
 * Saw -- 7 films and two video games.
 * Shrek -- 4 films and one spinoff film (Puss in Boots)
 * Silent Night Deadly Night -- Horror films that started out as christmas-themed Slasher Movies.
 * Sleepaway Camp -- Series of Slasher Movies. First film was a serious offering, the rest are more comedic on their subject matter.
 * St Trinian's: An original continuity of five movies, followed a reboot series of two more.
 * Star Trek -- Eleven films, including a semi-sequel-Alternate Universe-Continuity Reboot-Prequel-restart-whatever, recasting the cast of the first six films.
 * Star Wars -- Six live action films divided into two trilogies, one computer animated film.
 * Subspecies
 * Superman -- Serials starring George Reeves, four films with Christopher Reeve, an alternative "third" movie with Brandon Routh and an upcoming reboot.
 * Tales for All
 * Tarzans -- FAR too many to list, although the most famous were those with Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan in the 1930s and 1940s. Also: Greystoke in 1984.
 * Taxi -- Four French movies from 1998 to 2007 and one 2004 Hollywood remake so far, all by Luc Besson.
 * The Terminator -- Five films, four with Arnold Schwarzenegger
 * The Texas Chainsaw Massacre -- Film that cemented Chainsaw Good into horror iconography. Five films and a remake series of two more.
 * The Three Stooges -- Probably the longest comedy film franchise in existence, continued from the end of the 1930s until the early 1960s.
 * "Thumbs" -- A series of short films using the Thumbation process, created by Steve Oedekirk.
 * Tom and Jerry -- Made hundreds of shorts since 1940 and one full length animated movie.
 * Violent Shit -- No Budget German gorefest featuring the misadventures of rotting serial killer Karl Berger, aka K. the Butcher Shitter. Followed by three sequels, with the character of K. appearing in two other films (Angel of Death 2: The Prison Island Massacre and Unrated: The Movie).
 * Die Wilden Kerle -- German series about a kids' team of soccer players.
 * Woody Woodpecker -- Appeared in dozens of films since 1940.
 * Zatoichi -- Blind swordsman fights people. There are currently over 20 films to date.
 * Zombi -- A really confusingly-titled series. The original Zombi is technically the same film as Dawn of the Dead.
 * Zorro -- also far too many to list here, with numerous film, TV and literary appearances.