Though the Fast X is going through some major production issues, including losing its original director, John Cena recently took time to praise the franchise's evolution over nine movies. Though there were times in the series' life when it looked like it was on its last legs, it somehow returned bigger than ever. But the Fast & Furious franchise isn't the only one that still managed to survive the box office's wrath and the critics' nasty words.
Redditors have debated terrible movies in franchises that impressively didn't cut their franchises' lifespan short. Between the multi-billion-dollar street racing series, a series that has its sixth installment in theatres now, and the continuation of the Wizarding World, these franchises have come back from the very worst.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald (2018)
Warner Bros. has struggled with Fantastic Beasts, and though it's tied to Harry Potter and is a part of the Wizarding World, that surprisingly doesn't guarantee success. The first movie in the franchise had a lukewarm reception, but there was potential there. But Linguotgr notes that though the second movie, The Crimes of Grindelwald was a terrible disappointment, it didn't stop the studio from throwing down another $200 million for another sequel.
However, the Redditor also notes, "It's possible 3 killed the franchise, though." While The Crimes of Grindelwald didn't kill the franchise, The Secrets of Dumbledore massively underperformed at the worldwide box office, the studio is having talks over whether or not the Fantastic Beasts five-movie plan should be canceled.
2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
Hirasmas notes, "In 2006, after 2 Fast 2 Furious and Tokyo Drift, it was pretty much impossible to envision this franchise being the behemoth it became." But the series did reach dire dire straits, even if general audiences didn't know. That was clear from Tokyo Drift's troubled and mismanaged development, such as the studio not wanting to bring back Paul Walker because he was "too old."
Luckily, Justin Lin revitalized the franchise by turning it into a high-octane action series, and if the franchise trudged along pumping out one street racing movie after the next, there's no way it would have reached nine installments. However, it has been long enough now that the nostalgia has struck longtime fans, and viewers want the series to go back to its roots.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Maracle6 thinks that even though The Lost World was way inferior to the original Jurassic Park. The Redditor adds, "It seems no matter how many bad sequels they make they can’t kill this series off." It's a testament to how much the world loves dinosaurs that, despite every Jurassic Park sequel getting mediocre to negative responses, they still manage to be smash hits.
However, while the franchise has narratively hit rock bottom in the past, The Lost World is only bad compared to its predecessor. The 1997 film is full of those meticulous Steven Spielberg-directed action sequences, and it tells the story of dinosaurs escaping Isla Nubar and infiltrating western civilization better than Jurassic World: Dominion.
Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Because there are so many cogs working at the same time at Marvel Studios, no amount of bad reviews or even an underwhelming box office performance for an MCU movie will stop a sequel's production. Boogernose92 notes, "Thor: The Dark World is probably the MCU's worst movie," but the Thor series continued and a fourquel is even due for release later this year.
And, thankfully, after The Dark World's negative response and criticisms about the series being dull and gray, the follow-up, Thor: Ragnarok, totally subverted expectations. The 2017 film is a colorful sci-fi odyssey that's as much of a comedy as it is a superhero popcorn flick. The vivid color palette and typical Taika Waititi humor completely resuscitated the Thor series, and it's exactly what the character needed after The Dark World.
Ghostbusters II (1989)
Nowhereman136 notes that Ghostbusters II was terrible, but then explains, "the franchise continued with 2 cartoon series, endless pop culture callbacks, and eventually two additional movies." Just like with Jurassic Park, Ghostbusters has survived despite having a couple of hugely negatively received sequels. Along with the 1989 movie, 2016's soft reboot was despised so much that the studio didn't even include it in the blu-ray collection.
However, last year's Ghostbusters: Afterlife brought the series back into the fold in a big way, as it was both full of fan service and told a new, original, and heartfelt story. And it looks like the studio and director Jason Reitman will be taking a victory lap, as they're working on a Ghostbusters animated movie, which will be developed alongside a proper sequel to Afterlife.
Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)
Mission: Impossible 2 is far from the best entry in the franchise, and PentUpPentatomix tears the movie apart, criticizing every element of the 2000 release, with Tom Cruise's hair being the only exception. The Redditor argues, "Nothing happens. It's painfully slow, there are no characters, there's no story, Tom Cruise doesn't get to even a 3 on the 'full-Tom Cruise' scale."
Mission: Impossible 2 is the lowest-rated M: I movie on IMDb, Letterboxd, and every other movie database, but, somehow, it made over $550 million worldwide. But while Mission: Impossible III's box office performance may have been affected by the negative reception of the second movie, the franchise has since gone from one success to the next.
Cars 2 (2011)
19xxSimp argues that Cars 2 is a terrible movie, but the best of the series was yet to come. The Redditor notes, "If it had a second title like Cars 2: Mater takes Tokyo or something like that, it would be more accepted." The user makes a good point, as the sequel completely switches protagonists.
Where Lightning McQueen led the first movie, comic relief character Mater led the second movie. However, the Redditor follows up with a hot take, claiming, "Glad they did 3 tho. 3 is damn near perfect." While Cars 3 is in no way the negatively-received sequel that Cars 2 is, it also isn't exactly considered a classic Pixar release, and far from it.
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
Following 2009's Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness doubled down on director J.J. Abrams' epic set pieces. And while general audiences enjoyed it, longtime Trekkies took issue with the science fiction being secondary to that high-octane action, not to mention using "Trek" as a verb in the title, which led to a polarizing response. This Reddit user seemingly fits into the latter, "Star Trek Into Darkness squandered all the goodwill from the first one. It didn't kill the franchise, but Beyond, which was pretty good, underperformed as a result."
When it comes to the Star Trek franchise as a whole, not just the reboot series, it has sprung back from a badly received release countless times. 2009's Star Trek came seven years after the badly received box office bomb Star Trek: Nemesis and the franchise bounced back with The Undiscovered Country after The Final Frontier too.
Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)
The Exorcist is often considered the most terrifying movie of all time, and it's one of only six horror films nominated for Best Picture at The Academy Awards too. That's tough to follow up, but nobody was prepared for the complete difference in quality with Exorcist II: The Heretic.
Kasetti thinks the sequel is terrible but that the series still managed to remain successful, and they admit, "I like it for its weirdness, but Exorcist 2 is quite hated." Between prequels, sequels, and spin-offs, several more Exorcist movies were released after The Heretic, and an Exorcist reboot is currently in development.
Highlander II: The Quickening (1991)
Ofabulous points to Highlander II: The Quickening, explaining, "Highlander 2 was god awful, and they made like 3 more after that." However, while there were three follow-ups after the second movie, they were all box office bombs and the final movie was direct-to-DVD. So it could be argued that Highlander II did kill the franchise.
The Highlander franchise is an interesting case, as even the original movie only made back half its budget at the box office in the first place, so it's hard to understand why one sequel was greenlit, let alone four of them. However, a Henry Cavill-starring remake is in the works, which could revitalize the franchise in a way that the sequels never could.