Continuing a franchise beyond the first film is really tough, and a lot of ongoing series have fallen apart with the third movie. Franchises have become common in modern Hollywood, with sequels and remakes slowly becoming the only thing that actually makes money at the box office, but they’ve been around since cinema began.

Once a film succeeds, the opportunity to make more money often inspires studios to craft follow-ups. What makes the best sequels is tough to say, and some succeed by copying their predecessor, while others are great because they are so different. Either way, they have to capture the spirit of the first movie in some way.

There are plenty of franchises with amazing first and second movies, but the third films present unique challenges. Threequels are under unique pressure to be different, especially if the first two films were so unique. Even if a franchise gets back on track later, third films are frequently a stumbling block.

Home Alone

John Hughes penned 1990’s Home Alone, and it has become one of his most beloved movies. Anchored by a stellar performance from Macaulay Culkin, the movie blends comedy, action, and heart to craft a perfect family film. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York followed a few years later, and captured the fun of the original.

The first sequel arguably stretched the concept to its limit, so Home Alone 3 was required to make some changes. Unfortunately, it opted for a needlessly dark and mean-spirited plot, and it got lost between copying Home Alone and trying to do its own thing. It would also set a precedent for all the abysmal sequels that followed.

Beverly Hills Cop

Beverly Hills Cop continued Eddie Murphy’s H๏τ streak in the mid 1980s, and it’s arguably the film that helped make him a bona fide movie star. The action comedy was practically begging for a sequel, and Axel Foley’s return seemed quite easy to contrive. Though Beverly Hills Cop II wasn’t as good, it was still quite fun.

The dip in quality between the second and third movie was startling, and even a talented director like John Landis couldn’t save the unfunny mess. The movie plods along with none of the energy of its predecessors, and even Murphy seems bored. Fortunately, 2024’s Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F got things back on track with a nostalgic return.

The Godfather

The Godfather is without a doubt one of the most important films ever, but it didn’t naturally lend itself to sequels. However, The Godfather Part II arrived a few years later and came quite close to beating its predecessor in terms of quality. The epic tale of the Corleone family seemed over at that point, but a threequel arrived decades later.

The Godfather Part III was highly anticipated, but it dropped like a stone when it finally arrived. Though it holds a modest 66% on Rotten Tomatoes, its poor quality is made doubly obvious by comparison to the preceding films. Questionable casting, lackluster storytelling, and a purposelessness make The Godfather Part III the most unnecessary sequel ever.

Shrek

DreamWorks is one of the only animation studios to truly take it to Disney, and they were riding high in the Aughts thanks to movies like Shrek. The endlessly open world of the first film rolled perfectly into Shrek 2, and the sequel surpᴀssed the first by having even more of what made the original film so good.

Making another movie was a no-brainer, and Shrek the Third offered a natural progression to the story that served the characters well. Unfortunately, it lacked the same narrative clarity, and the humor was noticeably poor. Shrek Forever After was a bit better, but the franchise couldn’t recover from back-to-back stinkers. Shrek 5 is currently in the works.

X-Men

Though comic book movies are old news today, films like X-Men were still fresh and interesting in the early 2000s. After the first movie introduced the larger mutant universe with a brilliant script, X2 was able to keep things going with an even bigger adventure that developed the characters like the comics.

Sadly, X-Men: The Last Stand fell into a common superhero movie sequel trap. Borrowing several notable storylines from the comics, it was unable to balance all of its disparate plots. Each larger arc would have been perfect for the movie, but it jammed them all together. The franchise got a soft reboot with First Class, and got back on track.

The Mummy

Universal has been trying to reboot their classic monsters for decades, but 1999’s The Mummy is the only one that has worked thus far. By making it an action/adventure story with horror elements, the Brendan Fraser vehicle brought the monster into the modern day and gave it obvious franchise potential. The Mummy Returns was a worthy successor in 2001.

Coming nearly a decade later, 2008’s The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor was a noble failure. Leaving Egypt behind was an interesting choice, and the film’s cast was stuffed with new stars. However, the action was boring and the script was practically incomprehensible. The third movie ostensibly killed that era of the Mummy franchise for good.

Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man

It’s impossible to overstate how groundbreaking Spider-Man was when it premiered in 2002, and it is one of the best superhero movies ever made. Sam Raimi’s playful style was perfect for a comic book movie, and Spider-Man 2 was somehow even better. The duology truly felt like comic book adaptations, and Spider-Man 3 was highly anticipated.

The larger-than-life style continued, but the movie tipped too far into goofy territory. A lot of the drama was traded for laughs, and Spider-Man 3 had far too many villains to juggle. The inclusion of Venom was an exciting prospect for comic fans, but the movie wasted the iconic villain. There’s a reason Sony scrapped the Raimi-verse and rebooted Spider-Man.

Alien

No franchise has reinvented itself as many times as Alien, and it’s one of the keys to its longevity as a series. 1979’s Alien blended sci-fi and horror like never before, and James Cameron’s Aliens focused on action with horror elements. Alien 3 was put in an awkward position, and the threequel had to add something new like its predecessors.

What arrived was a depressing film, though it definitely deserves points for originality. The biggest problem with Alien 3 is that it was a project that was cut together from too many different ideas. It lacked a clear artistic vision which made the movie feel incomplete. Alien Resurrection was even worse, and put the franchise on ice for years.

Terminator

James Cameron’s The Terminator was a gritty tech-noir horror film that helped make Arnold Schwarzenegger a household name. Terminator 2: Judgment Day eschewed horror in favor of straight action, and is still one of the all-time greats of the genre. Years pᴀssed without another sequel, but Terminator 3 arrived in the early Aughts.

Besides T2, the third movie is arguably the best sequel in the franchise, but it marks the beginning of the end. It lacked the excitement and originality of its predecessors, and everything felt very tired and played out. Across three more sequels, things only got worse, and the Terminator franchise limps on despite only batting .333.