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What is the best movie franchise of all time?

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I love movies, and I love data. So you can imagine that I love movie data a whole whole bunch. Not likeĀ love my wife love… But close. šŸ™‚

For years I’ve been curious about movie franchises and how the individual movies are rated. I did some heavy lifting, with copious assistance from AI, and came up with the following results. (Note: I manually verified the ratings for every movie.)

First, what counts as aĀ movie franchise? In my book, it’s any series of four or more related movies. Sorry, trilogies don’t make the cut. But there are surprisingly few of them because Hollywood loves to keep a good thing going. Honestly, Hollywood loves to keep a bad thing going, just so long as it makes even a little money.

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Rating Services

I’m using data from IMDb, RottenTomatoes Critics, and RottenTomatoes Audience. I would love to include the RunPeeĀ Peeple’s Poll,Ā but we only started collecting data in 2019.

See the Interactive Franchise Graphing App

All of the tables and charts below are pulled from the data used in the Franchise Graphing App I created. Honestly, I didn’t writeĀ any of the code—I don’t write JavaScript (for the tables/charts) or Python (for the data analysis). However, I did tell AI what to write, so I claim it as my own now. šŸ™‚

fga_bond-all
All James Bond movies.
fga_bond-individual_RTa
James Bond movie ratings from RottenTomatoes Audience, displayed by actor.
fga_star-trek_vs_star-wars_RTa
Star Trek vs Star Wars, RottenTomatoes Audience ratings comparison.

Open the Franchise Graphing App here.

Franchise Average

If we want to answer the questionĀ What is the best movie franchise ever, then is there a simpler metric than the average of its films? Probably not, but there are many other interesting analyses to consider.

Franchise name IMDb RT-Critics RT-Audience
James Bond 6.86 71.2 66
Marvel Cinematic Universe 7.22 80.91 83.76
Harry Potter 7.4 75.55 80
Mission Impossible 7.19 81.86 75.29
The Matrix 7.1 68.2 71.6
Riddick 6.62 53 63
Star Wars 7.33 72.83 72.5
Star Trek 6.95 69.38 68.54
Spider-Man 7.21 75 75.25
X-Men 7.05 67.23 75.69
Jurassic Park 6.55 56.83 63.83
Fast & Furious 6.43 58.18 75.91
Batman 6.96 60.42 70.92
Superman 6.28 53.89 62
Transformers 6.4 48.67 71.22
Pirates of the Caribbean 7.14 47.4 68.8
Lord of the Rings 8.28 79.67 86.33
Toy Story 7.64 93.8 89.4
Planet of the Apes 6.81 70 64.56
Alien 6.7 59.67 61.11
Predator 6.17 47.57 51.14
Terminator 7 65 69.5
Rocky / Creed 7 71.56 75
Mad Max 7.24 90 75.8
Lethal Weapon 7.05 68.5 72.25
Psycho 6.45 55.5 47.83
Evil Dead 7.32 81.33 82.5
Ice Age 6.28 44.17 57.67
Halloween 5.56 39.77 52.31
Scream 6.38 69 67.5
Indiana Jones 7.36 80.4 82.4
Bourne 7.34 73.8 77.4

IMDb Average Analysis

The first thing that jumps out at me is the IMDb ratings jump from #1 (Lord of the Rings) to #2 (Toy Story). There’s a 0.64 point difference between them. You have to go down another 14 movies to match that difference.

franchise-imdb-chart

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And then all the way at the bottom isĀ Halloween. In fact,Ā HalloweenĀ is at the bottom of the barrel for both IMDb and RT-Critics, and is third from the bottom according to RT-Audience. That’s some pretty consistent suckage there. šŸ™‚

RottenTomatoes Critics Average Analysis

According to RT-Critics there isĀ Toy Story, Mad Max,Ā and everything else. And lordy me, but look atĀ Evil Dead topping out above the likes of the MCU, LOTR, Spider-Man, etc. I’m not sayingĀ Evil Dead is bad. I’ve really enjoyed many of the movies in the franchise. But puuuu-lease. Better than LOTR? Really? I callĀ bullshit. šŸ™‚

franchise-rt-critics-chart

RottenTomatoes Audience Average Analysis

Now this is a little more like it: Toy Story, LOTR, MCU, Evil Dead.Ā With Psycho showing up at the bottom of the trash pile.

franchise-rt-audience-chart

Franchise Trendlines

Another interesting angle to analyse is the trendline for each franchise. There are 32 franchises in my dataset. Of those, only 7 (IMDb), 11 (RT-Critics), and 12 (RT-Audience) have a positive trendline. Basically, about 2/3s of all franchises get worse over time. But is that really surprising? Consider that many franchises became such because the first movie was a hit—I’m looking at you, The Matrix. There’s often no place but down after that. And if we want to get really picky, there are only 5 franchises that have a positive trendline in all three ratings systems: Mission Impossible, Star Trek, Spider-Man, Planet of the Apes, and Mad-Max.

Conversely, 17 franchises have a negative trendline in all three rating systems:Ā James Bond, Harry Potter, The Matrix, Star Wars, X-Men, Jurassic Park, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Rings, Toy Story, Alien, Terminator, Lethal Weapon, Psycho, Ice Age, Halloween, Indiana Jones, and Bourne.

Notice thatĀ Toy Story is one of the highest-rated franchises, yet it has a negative trendline.

Franchise IMDb RT-Critics RT-Audience
James Bond -0.02 -0.60 -0.28
Marvel Cinematic Universe -0.20 -0.32 0.22
Harry Potter -1.12 -3.55 -1.00
Mission Impossible 1.75 7.25 6.39
The Matrix -6.80 -9.50 -6.20
Riddick -1.70 -4.20 -5.20
Star Wars -1.45 -1.61 -2.06
Star Trek 0.46 1.12 1.40
Spider-Man 0.96 3.48 5.48
X-Men -0.67 -2.06 -0.55
Jurassic Park -3.86 -8.71 -1.17
Fast & Furious -0.65 2.41 2.22
Batman 0.68 -0.39 1.94
Superman 1.00 -2.88 2.27
Transformers -0.22 3.58 1.30
Pirates of the Caribbean -4.00 -11.90 -7.00
Lord of the Rings -3.34 -7.37 -3.94
Toy Story -4.70 -5.50 -0.90
Planet of the Apes 0.65 3.48 3.25
Alien -3.03 -5.57 -3.77
Predator -1.21 3.29 -1.79
Terminator -4.63 -10.91 -4.49
Rocky / Creed -0.73 2.03 2.08
Mad Max 1.90 0.60 3.60
Lethal Weapon -3.60 -10.60 -8.30
Psycho -2.31 -9.97 -11.51
Evil Dead -0.94 0.51 -1.29
Ice Age -5.63 -12.83 -9.54
Halloween -0.97 -1.14 -0.03
Scream -1.29 0.11 3.80
Indiana Jones -5.10 -4.80 -4.70
Bourne -3.50 -8.40 -10.80

Franchise Standard Deviation

Another way to judge franchises against each other is by the standard deviation of the ratings from one instalment to the next.

Franchise Name IMDb Std Dev RT Critic Std Dev RT Audience Std Dev
James Bond 0.48 17.76 15.15
Marvel Cinematic Universe 0.69 12.79 10.26
Harry Potter 0.55 17.52 9.08
Mission Impossible 0.51 16.30 16.10
The Matrix 1.00 19.55 9.26
Riddick 0.23 14.85 9.08
Star Wars 0.89 21.93 19.81
Star Trek 0.67 22.16 21.57
Spider-Man 0.56 17.69 15.47
X-Men 0.84 23.45 13.25
Jurassic Park 0.85 19.77 19.25
Fast & Furious 0.61 16.51 10.53
Batman 1.42 28.03 24.16
Superman 1.21 26.81 24.74
Transformers 0.75 27.38 19.01
Pirates of the Caribbean 0.58 17.83 11.07
Lord of the Rings 0.63 14.70 7.25
Toy Story 0.81 9.97 3.56
Planet of the Apes 0.85 21.92 21.51
Alien 1.17 27.78 23.55
Predator 1.00 29.45 20.07
Terminator 0.97 27.37 19.65
Rocky / Creed 0.70 21.49 17.19
Mad Max 0.67 5.29 14.89
Lethal Weapon 0.42 12.84 10.21
Psycho 1.44 23.61 23.79
Evil Dead 0.67 12.24 10.05
Ice Age 1.04 22.43 16.81
Halloween 0.95 25.23 17.56
Scream 0.51 13.47 17.99
Indiana Jones 0.88 8.11 15.53
Bourne 0.61 15.32 17.12

That’s a lot to break down, so let’s normalize the IMDb data and then average all of the standard deviations together to see which franchises are the most consistent and inconsistent.

Franchise Name Average Standard Deviation
James Bond 12.56
Marvel Cinematic Universe 9.99
Harry Potter 10.69
Mission Impossible 12.49
The Matrix 12.94
Riddick 8.74
Star Wars 16.90
Star Trek 16.82
Spider-Man 12.90
X-Men 15.04
Jurassic Park 15.85
Fast & Furious 11.06
Batman 22.15
Superman 21.23
Transformers 17.97
Pirates of the Caribbean 11.57
Lord of the Rings 9.43
Toy Story 7.22
Planet of the Apes 17.29
Alien 20.99
Predator 19.85
Terminator 18.91
Rocky / Creed 15.22
Mad Max 8.94
Lethal Weapon 9.07
Psycho 20.59
Evil Dead 9.65
Ice Age 16.54
Halloween 17.41
Scream 12.18
Indiana Jones 10.82
Bourne 12.85

RottenTomatoes Critic and Audience agreement/disagreement

It may take a moment to get your head around this table. What we’re looking at here is the average difference between the RottenTomatoes Critics rating vs the Audience rating. A positive value means that the critics rated the movies in a franchise higher than the audience. That gives usĀ Mad Max, Pyscho, and Mission Impossible with large positive values because the critics generally rated the movies higher than the audience.

If you want to see the franchises that were in agreement then you would look toward the middle of the table where the numbers are the smallest, franchises likeĀ Star WarsĀ andĀ Spider-Man.

A large negative value means that the audience rated the movies higher than the critics. So it’s no shocker to see franchises likeĀ Fast & Furious, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Transformers with large negative values.

Franchise Trend Value
James Bond 5.20
Marvel Cinematic Universe -2.85
Harry Potter -4.45
Mission Impossible 6.57
The Matrix -3.40
Riddick -10.00
Star Wars 0.33
Star Trek 0.85
Spider-Man -0.25
X-Men -8.46
Jurassic Park -7.00
Fast & Furious -17.73
Batman -10.50
Superman -8.11
Transformers -22.56
Pirates of the Caribbean -21.40
Lord of the Rings -6.67
Toy Story 4.40
Planet of the Apes 5.44
Alien -1.44
Predator -3.57
Terminator -4.50
Rocky / Creed -3.44
Mad Max 14.20
Lethal Weapon -3.75
Psycho 7.67
Evil Dead -1.17
Ice Age -13.50
Halloween -12.54
Scream 1.50
Indiana Jones -2.00
Bourne -3.60

Franchise Runtime

You know, something that really matters in a franchise is just how much of it there is. It’s amazing that both the total runtime (MCU) and average runtime (LOTR) views have such outliers at the top.

Here’s the same data in a table.

Franchise Name total runtime avg. runtime
James Bond 3215 128.6
Marvel Cinematic Universe 4351 131.85
Harry Potter 1586 144.18
Mission Impossible 933 133.29
The Matrix 642 128.4
Riddick 382 95.5
Star Wars 1588 132.33
Star Trek 1515 116.54
Spider-Man 1075 134.38
X-Men 1553 119.46
Jurassic Park 746 124.33
Fast & Furious 1378 125.27
Batman 1766 147.17
Superman 1295 143.89
Transformers 1196 132.89
Pirates of the Caribbean 728 145.6
Lord of the Rings 1032 172.0
Toy Story 476 95.2
Planet of the Apes 999 111.0
Alien 1037 115.22
Predator 724 103.43
Terminator 715 119.17
Rocky / Creed 1012 112.44
Mad Max 563 112.6
Lethal Weapon 468 117.0
Psycho 609 101.5
Evil Dead 529 88.17
Ice Age 530 88.33
Halloween 1268 97.54
Scream 695 115.83
Indiana Jones 636 127.2
Bourne 600 120.0

Conclusion

I realize, we’ve gotten to the end and I haven’t answered the question:Ā What is the best movie franchise of all time? I hope there’s enough data here for you to make your own decision about what you think it is. And please share your thoughts in the comments below.

For myself, I would probably trend toward theĀ MCU as the greatest franchise, with Mission Impossible coming in close on its heels. But that could change tomorrow.

Download Data/Code To play with

If you’re interested, you can download all of the data and Python code here to play around with yourself. If you come up with something interesting then please share. I’ll try to keep the data updated as new movies are added to these franchises. Already, I know that I’ll need to add theĀ Wick franchise afterĀ BallerinaĀ comes out, plus there’s a newĀ Mission ImpossibleĀ andĀ Superman movie later this summer that will need to be added. In general, I’ll add movies about a month or so after release so that their rating numbers canĀ settle down to a constant.

Don’t miss your favorite movie moments because you have to pee or need a snack. Use the RunPee app (Android or iPhone) when you go to the movies. We have Peetimes for all wide release films every week, including Thunderbolts*, Sinners, The Accountant 2 and coming soon Friendship, Mission: Impossible-The Final Reckoning, Karate Kid: Legends, The Life of Chuck, Ballerina, 28 Years LaterĀ and many others. We have literally thousands of Peetimes—from classic movies through today’s blockbusters. You can also keep up with movie news and reviews on our blog, or by following us on Twitter @RunPee, or Discord, BlueSky. If there’s a new film out there, we’ve got your bladder covered.
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