The 27 greatest movie franchises of all time, according to critics

lord of the rings

Over the past decade, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has built an expansive set of films while raising the critical and commercial expectations for ongoing movie series.

But extensive film franchises have been around for awhile, and several older series, like the film adaptations from J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth books, have received more positive critical acclaim on average than Marvel's. And some are only getting better as time goes on, like "Mission: Impossible," which reached its critical zenith with "Fallout."

Stretching from the first James Bond film, 1962's "Dr. No;" to the latest MCU and "Star Wars" entries; this list we compiled from Metacritic data ranks prominent film franchises by their average critical reception (derived from the critical scores for each movie in a franchise).

Note: Metacritic only included franchises that had more than four films with scores on its site, and it excluded horror films and animated series.

Here are the 27 greatest movie franchises of all time, according to critics:

27. "Die Hard" — 58.4%

"Die Hard" (1988) — 70%
"Die Hard 2: Die Harder" (1990) — 67%
"Die Hard: With a Vengeance" (1995) — 58%
"Live Free or Die Hard" (2007) — 69%
"A Good Day to Die Hard" (2013) — 28%

26. "Alien" — 59.5%

"Alien" (1979) — 83%
"Aliens" (1986) — 84%
"Alien 3" (1992) — 59%
"Alien Resurrection" (1997) — 63%
"Alien vs. Predator" (2004) — 29%
"Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem" (2007) — 29%
"Prometheus" (2012) — 64%
"Alien: Covenant" (2017) — 65%

25. "Jack Ryan" — 59.6%

"The Hunt for Red October" (1990) — 58%
"Patriot Games" (1992) — 64%
"Clear and Present Danger" (1994) — 74%
"The Sum of All Fears" (2002) — 45%
"Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit" (2014) — 57%