Even though franchises have long been a key to sustained success in Hollywood, one of the biggest stories of the 2010s is how many franchise movies are the cornerstones of yearly box office charts. Reboots and long-awaited sequels have revived some major properties in recent years, while plenty of other original ideas have launched incredibly successful movie series. And in many cases, the desire has been to grow from just having one franchise to an entire cinematic universe.
The proof of the popularity of these franchises can be seen in the box office alone, as all but one year this decade ended with a sequel in a franchise taking the top spot at the worldwide box office. The only exception to this pattern was suring the original's box office tally. A quick look ahead to the start of a new decade will show that the reliance on franchises is going to continue in 2020.
With every major studio trying to find their key franchise and build off of it, there have been plenty of misses both in of quality and profits. But, there were also many franchises that delivered and became significant properties in the process. Now that the decade is coming to a close, audiences can look back at the best franchises from 2010 – 2019. The following list is the best movie franchises of the decade; in order to qualify, a property needed to have at least three films released since 2010 (which is why the likes of Creed, Jump Street, The Raid, and many others are not featured below).
10. Fast & Furious
Movies: Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6, Furious 7, The Fate of the Furious, Hobbs & Shaw
Although the Fast & Furious 9 on the horizon.
9. DCEU
Movies: Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, Justice League, Aquaman, Shazam!
The DC Extended Universe — as it has unofficially been named — began in 2013 and went through several iterations during this span. The pinnacle of the franchise was Aquaman made over $1 billion worldwide — and the future looks incredibly bright with DC's promising slate of in-development projects.
8. X-Men
Movies: X-Men: First Class, The Wolverine, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Deadpool, X-Men: Apocalypse, Logan, Deadpool 2, Dark Phoenix
Fox's Deadpool franchise showed why Ryan Reynolds fought to make it for so long. It's easy to just more recent stumblings, but the X-Men franchise as a whole had a terrific decade.
7. The Hunger Games
Movies: The Hunger Games, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2
One of the quickest franchises to make this list, turn the prequel book into another movie.
6. Star Wars
Movies: Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
The return of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story made another $1 billion.
However, the goodwill started to fade after this point, as and counting).
5. How To Train Your Dragon
Movies: How to Train Your Dragon, How to Train Your Dragon 2, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
As the only animated franchise to make this list, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World such a moving finale. Grossing over $1.6 billion worldwide with just three films, audiences clearly came to appreciate the trilogy as it continued. And with the stunning visuals featured throughout, everything about the franchise clicks and earned How to Train Your Dragon a place on this list.
4. John Wick
Movies: John Wick, John Wick: Chapter 2, John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum
It's impossible to discuss the best and decade-defining franchises without mentioning fourth installment.
3. Mission: Impossible
Movies: Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, Mission: Impossible - Fallout
The two more Mission: Impossible films from director Christopher McQuarrie are in the works.
2. Planet of the Apes
Movies: Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, War for the Planet of the Apes
The return of the Disney has a difficult task ahead of them with their plans to reboot the franchise.
1. Marvel Cinematic Universe
Movies: Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far From Home
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is the franchise of the 2010s. Marvel Studios released 21 movies over the course of the decade and grossed a whopping $21.7 billion worldwide. Breaking box office records has become common practice for them, with Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, the journey to get to those films proved to be worth it all. Whether or not the MCU can maintain this quality and dominance in the next decade remains to be seen, but they're the clear winners of the last ten years.
