The 10 Most Consistent Movie Franchises

The consistent film franchise is a rare treasure. Oftentimes, once successful runs are ruined by one last sequel. Whether it's the fault of Vegas Vacation or the terrible AVP films, the franchise falters late in the game, tarnishing a quality legacy. Other times, a franchise will stumble straight out of the gate, only to triumph later (think of Batman Begins into The Dark Knight).

Then there are the multi-headed unicorns of cinema, franchises of consistently high quality. Even if they don't reach the highest highs, they don't hit those lowest lows. That's preferable to a franchise that breaks hearts and forces us put a horse head in their bed.

These are the 10 Most Consistent Movie Franchises.

Written by Brenden Gallagher (@muddycreekU)

RELATED: The 25 Worst Seasons of Great TV Shows
RELATED: The 10 Worst Movie Franchises That Should've Ended Earlier
RELATED: The 25 Best Horror Movie Sequels

LIKE COMPLEX POP CULTURE ON FACEBOOK

Films: Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002)

You quoted the Austin Powers films throughout your childhood and your annoying uncle still quotes them to this day. No one can deny that Mike Myers's swinging super spy left an indelible mark on pop culture. Looking back, it's easy to dismiss the series for the cheap catchphrases and sight gags. But dismissing them also means overlooking the meticulous detail with which Myers and his team spoofed 1960s spy films. By his own confession, Meyers is a bit obsessed with these movies and his passion for them shows throughout the series. As silly as the films got at their low points, they remained Myers' unique vision and detailed labor of love.

Films: Mad Max (1979), The Road Warrior (1981), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

Take a step back to a more innocent time, a time when Mel Gibson had a promising future ahead of him, and dystopian narratives felt fresh. This trilogy of post-apocalyptic films offered some of the most awesome action set-pieces in history. They got more absurd as the series progressed, reflecting the additional money and changes in story direction. The first is brooding; the second larger, more outlandish; and the third successfully incorporates elements of camp that were always present but never explicit.

Roger Ebert heralded the titular Thunderdome of the third film as "the first really original movie idea about how to stage a fight since we got the first karate movies."

One can only hope that the franchise's creative streak continues in 2014, when the reboot starring Tom Hardy drops.

Films: The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), The Bourne Legacey ( 2012)

In fairness to the James Bond franchise, the Bourne films have had a lot less time to screw things up. The series' stewards were thrown their first curve ball when Matt Damon declined to sign on for The Bourne Legacy, and though it showed, that slip-up was nowhere near the tumble that the Bond films took during the Roger Moore era. Or the Dalton administration, for that matter.

The beauty of the Bourne franchise lies in its simplicity: The films lean on realistic action rather than CGI and other high-tech bells and whistles. So far, this focus has allowed the Bourne films to age well.

Films: Back to the Future (1985), Back to the Future Part II (1989), Back to the Future Part III (1990)

Whether Marty and Doc are going back in the past, forward into the future, or going into the future only to go back into the past so that they could fix the present, the Back to the Future films work. So often, films get bogged down in the minutiae of time travel and forget to have a good time. Any complications involving time travel in the these films serve only to propel the plot and the jokes forward, which is what makes the series great.

We'd say we miss them, but they seem to be playing somewhere on cable at every second of the day.

Films: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer'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 Hollows: Part 1 (2010), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 2 (2011)

As Katt Williams famously said, "If you don't have haters, you're doing something wrong." This holds true of J.K. Rowling's massively successful series of children's novels and their largely excellent adaptations.

With the films' richly detailed world, casts filled with a who's who of British actors, and a truly compelling story, what is there is to be hated on? The series was never awarded an Oscar, it won many other accolades on the way to grossing almost $8 billion world-wide, and made us want to try Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. And some of those flavors sound gross.

Films: The Evil Dead (1981), Evil Dead II (1987), Army of Darkness (1992)

The DIY horror franchise was produced for a total of $17 million, combined. The series was born in the late '70s, when three guys in Michigan—Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Robert Tapert—decided to make a film instead of succumbing to the dull lives they saw ahead of them. Thirty-five years later and we can see exactly how special this project proved to be.

Raimi went on to helm the Spider-Man films. Tapert became a prolific TV producer; his most recent hit Spartacus is a Pop Culture channel favorite. Campbell has remained a cult icon, appearing in quirky projects of all sorts. The success that the trio found shouldn't surprise you, as the fusion of horror and self-conscious slapstick has never been done as well as it was in the Evil Dead films, despite many attempts to replicate that specific magic.

Films: The Godfather (1972), The Godfater Part II (1974), The Godfather Part III (1990)

The Godfather Part III was under rare pressure. We imagine that only the writers of the last episodes of Seinfeld and J.K. Rowling on the eve of the release of the last Harry Potter book have felt anything similar.

Just as music lovers can't help but fixate on their favorite band's one so-so album, cinephiles give Godfather Part III an unduly hard-time. Is it one of the greatest films in the history of American cinema, as the first two installments undoubtedly are? No. Were their Jar-Jar Binks-level troubles with the execution? No. And don't bring up Sophia Coppola—she was never a racist stereotype.

Taken with a grain of salt, the third Godfather film is imperfect, yes, but it isn't the atrocity it's made out to be. Instead, it's a fine ending to a phenomenal story.

Films: Toy Story (1995), Toy Story (1999), Toy Story 3 (2010)

Not only have the Toy Story films been consistently excellent, we wager that Pixar will go down in history as one of the most consistent production companies in movie history.

The marquee franchise in Pixar's empire has served the company well. No matter what situation Woody and Buzz are thrust into, these films elicits the perfect mix of childlike glee and nostalgic sadness, no matter the viewer's age. That each sequel has used sentiment carefully while continuing to push the art of the animation is an incredible accomplishment.

Films: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

The Hobbit caught some flak for the ratio of eating scenes to battle scenes, and proved that the world is not ready for 48 frames per second, the film is enjoyable enough to keep Middle-Earth in the good graces of the Franchise Gods.

Ultimately, source material matters. When you have a man as meticulous as Tolkien at the heart of a series, the challenge is what not to include, always a good problem to have.

Even if he could've been made for Tom Bombadil and maybe ditched Radagast, Peter Jackson has been a passionate, capable steward of one of the greatest stories ever told.

Films: A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For A Few Dollars More (1965), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

Flash memories of film franchises usually contain superheroes and spies, monsters and Muppets, but the most consistent series of all time had none of these things. Director Sergio Leone didn't even conceive of his epic Spaghetti Westerns as a trilogy.

The "Man with No Name" films weren't considered a trilogy until United Artists decided to distribute them that way. But when programmed together, a thematic unity emerges that's deeply satisfying and just plain feels right.

Shot on shoe-string budgets overseas, Leone's work changed the western and cinema as we know it. It's easy to see why Quentin Tarantino (who would have made this list if Kill Bill Vol. 3 had been made) calls The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly his favorite film.

Possible reasons are readily apparent in every rich scene of the trilogy: the landscape is vital to the themes; the performances are prototypically gruff and crusty; the scores astonish; and no other action series has better final standoffs. In particular, the standoff in TGTBTU is a masterclass in that particular set piece.