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Best Movie Franchises Of The Decade
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 Frozen in 2013, but the $1.1 billion hit has since become a franchise, with the release of Frozen 2 this year even surpassing 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 terms 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 Toy Story, 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 franchise was well underway prior to this decade, the 2010s is where the films really found their stride. The introduction of Dwayne Johnson's Luke Hobbs in Fast Five essentially serves as the launch of a new era and brought more star power to the property. The franchise has since embraced creating massive, unbelievable action sequences fans have responded positively to. The quality may have dipped a bit with certain films, but the popularity has skyrocketed, as Furious 7 is currently the ninth highest-grossing movie ever. And with the recent launch of their first spinoff in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, the success has continued — and looks to continue doing so in the next decade, with 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 Wonder Woman, a movie that shattered expectations and made Gal Gadot's superhero the new focal point of the universe. Outside of Shazam! though, every other film has been met with a mixed reception. While that means there are plenty of naysayers about some DCEU films, those same movies have also become favorites of the passionate fan base. This decade proved to be a divisive launch for the universe, but the good still outweighs the bad —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 X-Men franchise may have begun in 2000, but this decade signaled the start of a new era. They soft-rebooted core characters with X-Men: First Class in 2011 thanks to Matthew Vaughn. The younger cast was then involved in the ambitious crossover that was X-Men: Days of Future Past, which solidified the evolution of the franchise while remembering what came before. While later entries in the main series stumbled (see Dark Phoenix's box office), the overall franchise thrived experimenting with R-rated movies. Logan served as a perfect send-off to Hugh Jackman's time as Wolverine and the Deadpool franchise showed why Ryan Reynolds fought to make it for so long. It's easy to just remember 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, The Hunger Games is a defining franchise of the decade without question. The four films made nearly $3 billion at the box office and is responsible for the high interest in the Young Adult book adaptation craze that swept through Hollywood for a few years. The likes of Divergent and The Maze Runner tried to build on The Hunger Games' success, but they both fell short to varying degrees. It also is the franchise that showed Jennifer Lawrence can be a major star, resulting in her being moved more to the forefront of the X-Men movies and making her a recurring nominee at the Academy Awards. It may have ultimately hurt the franchise to split the final book into two films, but the giant fanbase built by them is one reason why there's already a discussion to turn the upcoming prequel book into another movie.
