The Top 10 Biggest Film Franchises

5. Star Wars (12 Films)

When it comes to fandoms, few are as devout as the Star Wars one. The franchise has seen it’s ups and downs over the years, but recently under the watchful eye of Disney, it’s experienced a resurgence in theaters. Of course, the core of the series follows one of the universes most dysfunctional families, the Skywalkers (Anakin, Luke, Leia, and Kylo). However, Disney has recently expanded into a shared cinematic universe with the likes of Rogue One and Solo. The end of an era is coming our way in 2019 with the long-awaited Episode IX, but the cinematic future after that hasn’t been addressed yet with Disney claiming that it will be taking a break from movies in order to branch out into a number of new series for its upcoming streaming service, Disney+.

4. X-Men (13 Films)

Before Spider-Man or even Iron Man appeared on the big screen, Fox brought these Marvel mutants to theaters. I would argue that these films gave birth to the modern incarnation of the superhero movie. No disrespect to the films that came before them, but the first X-Men movies created the momentum that allowed the genre to grow so quickly in recent years. The majority of the films has followed the core team throughout the years but inevitably gave birth to spin-off movies that included fan-favorite characters, Wolverine and Deadpool (the latter of whom actually made the most money of all the films in the franchise). With Disney now in control of the property, the future of the franchise is uncertain, but I doubt we’ve seen the last of them.

3. Star Trek (13 Films)

Star Wars and Star Trek have had a friendly rivalry for years. So it’s oddly satisfying that they continue it when it comes to film franchises. Sure, Star Trek has had movie films over the years, but Star Wars has made a ton more at the box office (making nearly $3 Billion more overall). Star Trek first appeared on the small screen before making the jump to theaters in 1979. Since then both Kirk and Picard have appeared in films, but it experienced a big revival when J.J. Abrams rebooted the series (at least the cinematic one) in 2009. A few rumors have popped up every once in a while about more movies to come, including a potential from Quentin Tarantino. While nothing might be in production currently, I doubt we’ve seen the last of the Enterprise and her crew on the silver screen.

2. The Marvel Cinematic Universe AKA The MCU (23 Films)

There have been a lot of pretty prolific film franchises on this list so far, but they’re adorable compared to the MCU. Since it’s debut in 2008 with Iron Man the franchise has proven to be an ustoppable juggernaut with more and more movies coming out every year. Not only is it the biggest film franchise out there, but it’s easily the most impressively crafted shared universe ever created. All the films are interlinked and have been leading to Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. Even with so many working parts, Marvel has yet to sacrifice quality for quantity with the films continuing to outdo each other when it comes to critical reception. With Disney continuing to get the rights for more and more characters it’s only a matter of time before the MCU is the biggest film franchise of all time.

1. James Bond (25 Films)

The greatest movie spy of all time is also the star of the biggest film franchise of all time. A ton of actors have taken on the role of 007 since he appeared on the big screen in 1963, and we could argue over who the best has been all day long (though I am partial to Daniel Craig and Sean Connery), but that’s a debate for another time. No matter who your favorite Bond has been though, there’s no arguing how incredible it is that the spy has appeared in 25 films over 50 years. While they might not be churning out movies at quite the same rate as some of the other film franchises on this list, it doesn’t look like MGM is going to be stopping anytime soon. If they don’t pick up the pace though, James Bond’s reign as King might not last for much longer. For now, the British super spy is the biggest and baddest when it comes to film franchises.  

Of course, there are tons of other film franchises out there, but not many can stack up to the ones that made it on this list. However, a lot of them are growing bigger every year. That being said, which of these film franchises are your favorite? To that end, what are your favorite film franchises of all time? Be sure to leave a comment below and I’ll read through them all when I inevitably tackle which are the best film franchises of all time.