Halloween weekend saw the premier of the latest, and hopefully last, installment of the Saw franchise. Saw ended up being one of those franchises that never ends, each year saw a new Saw movie hitting the theaters. Saw is not the first movie franchise to go on and on and on. In fact, there have been many movie series that have lasted longer than Saw. When filmmakers see that people are willing to buy tickets to a movie, they will continue to churn out different versions of that movie until tickets no longer sell. At least some filmmakers put some thought into their sequels to keep the franchises running longer. Here are some of the most enduring movie franchises of all time.
Godzilla
This giant radioactive lizard has been terrorizing the people of Japan since 1954. Godzilla has starred in over 25 movies since then, but never failed to leave a trail of destruction in his wake. He has gone up against other monsters such as Mothra, King Kong, and Mechagodzilla. Basically, Godzilla has proved that Japan has a major monster infestation. While this franchise will never be accused of making high quality and thought provoking films, there is something about Godzilla that captures the imagination and is just plain entertaining. Who doesn’t enjoy watching a 60,000 ton modern day dinosaur who breathes radioactive fire go on a rampage? Even if it is just an obviously cardboard town that is being crushed. There is actually a new Godzilla movie in development for a 2012 release.
James Bond
While a giant radioactive lizard is pretty awesome, nothing can beat James Bond. He is the man that every man wants to be. Even the Old Spice guy, Isaiah Mustafa, wishes he was Agent 007. There have been some iconic actors as Bond, including Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and Pierce Brosnan. He had all the coolest gadgets in the movies, he could kick an insane amount of ass while sipping on a martini, and he got all of the girls. Who could ever forget the Bond girls throughout the franchise? When it comes down to it, James Bond is a man’s man who got to ride rocket powered snowmobiles off of cliffs and has never seen the inside of a cubicle. He has seen the inside of every woman he has met, though.
Star Trek
Star Trek is best known for being a ridiculously popular televisions series that created numerous spinoff shows. There have also been 11 Star Trek movies made, with a 12th in development. While nerds will always argue over whether Star Trek is superior to Star Wars, Star Trek definitely has the edge in the numbers department. The old movies were campy and basically centered around Captain Kirk yelling Khan and sexing up voluptuous alien women who apparently had fairly human anatomies. Alright, I admit I haven’t seen any of the first 10 Star Trek movies, but the most recent one, a franchise reboot, was outstanding and earned itself a sequel due out in 2012.
The Land Before Time
I don’t know about you, but I was dinosaur crazy when I was little. I could name more dinosaur species than my parents, and frequented the museum to look at the t-rex skeleton and make roaring sounds at adults. I also enjoyed cartoons immensely. When The Land Before Time series came out, I just about had an excitement induced aneurysm. Combining cartoons and adorable dinosaurs who have to team up to overcome diversity was a stroke of genius, and I know I made my parents go out and buy me the first 4 Land Before Time movies. Then I grew up, became less interested in dinosaurs and cartoons, sort of, and moved away from The Land Before Time. Well apparently little kids still like dinosaurs and cartoons, because there are 13 Land Before Time movies now. One of these days I will catch up on all of them.
Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th has chronicled the murderous exploits of Jason Voorhees for years. So far, Jason has been killing sexy teenagers for 12 movies, and has even gone up against another horror movie powerhouse, Freddy Krueger. Like pretty much every other horror movie character, Jason refuses to be killed. Drowning in a lake at camp while your counselors get it on really makes a guy hold a grudge. I’m not sure if it is the living embodiment of supernatural violence that is Jason Voorhees that keeps audiences coming back for new installments in the franchise, but my guess is the sexy, often decapitated, teenagers have something to do with that. Well, at least pre-decapitation they do.
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