Sequels have a strange reputation. Studios love them because they are safer bets, audiences show up out of loyalty, and yet the history of franchise filmmaking is littered with follow-ups that never should have left the pitch meeting. Every so often, though, a sequel comes along that outdoes the original, proving that a second chapter can be more than a cash grab. What follows is a ranking of nine notable sequels from the past decade or so, starting with the ones that stumbled and ending with the rare few that earned their place in film history. Box office numbers, critical reception, and audience response all played a part in where each one landed.
9. Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
James Cameron returned as producer, Linda Hamilton reprised her role as Sarah Connor, and Arnold Schwarzenegger came back too, yet none of that pedigree translated into box office success. Paramount and Skydance’s Terminator: Dark Fate reboot, which hoped to revive the franchise after three failed attempts, bombed in its domestic box office debut with $29 million from 4,086 theaters, well behind expectations. The film had reportedly cost close to two hundred million dollars to make, so a soft opening weekend was a serious problem.
Critics were more forgiving than the box office suggested, with reviews sitting around the 67 to 70 percent range depending on the source. The Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score settled around 67 percent from 76 critics, with an average rating of 6.17 out of 10. Audiences who did show up liked it more than critics did, but by then the damage at the box office was already done, and the franchise has been effectively dormant since.
8. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
Harrison Ford’s final ride as the whip-cracking archaeologist arrived with James Mangold directing instead of Steven Spielberg, and the shift showed. Directed by James Mangold, it is the fifth and final installment in the Indiana Jones film series and the sequel to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Reviews out of its Cannes premiere were mixed, and that tone carried into the wide release.
The movie dug up an estimated $60 million in its domestic debut, a troubled start for the fifth and final installment in the famed adventure-action series, with a B+ CinemaScore and tepid reviews likely hampering word of mouth. Regular audiences liked it noticeably more than critics did, with the film settling around 88 percent on the audience side. Still, a soft opening and an aging fan base meant the send-off never quite matched the nostalgia surrounding it.
7. The Matrix Resurrections (2021)
Lana Wachowski returned solo to close out, or perhaps reopen, the story of Neo and Trinity nearly two decades after the original trilogy wrapped. The film leaned heavily into meta commentary about the futility of legacy sequels, which some viewers found clever and others found exhausting. Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss brought genuine warmth to the reunion, and that emotional core is often cited as the film’s strongest asset.
Box office results were modest, especially given the film’s simultaneous release on HBO Max during the pandemic era, which cut into ticket sales significantly. Critical reception landed in the mixed-to-positive range, with plenty of praise for its ambition but frustration over its pacing and action sequences, which felt smaller in scale than the earlier films. It remains a divisive entry, respected more for its ideas than its execution.
6. Jurassic World Dominion (2022)
Billed as the epic conclusion bringing together the original Jurassic Park cast with the newer Jurassic World characters, Dominion carried enormous expectations. The premise, dinosaurs now living freely across the globe, offered a genuinely interesting hook, but the execution spread itself too thin across subplots involving locusts, black markets, and corporate villains. Critics were largely unimpressed, though the film still performed respectably at the global box office thanks to built-in franchise loyalty.
What kept it from ranking lower is the sheer spectacle on display and the goodwill generated by seeing Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum share the screen again. Fans of practical effects and old-school dinosaur thrills found moments to enjoy even amid the narrative clutter. It closed out the Jurassic saga on a serviceable, if unremarkable, note.
5. Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Arriving thirty six years after the original, Maverick had every reason to feel like a nostalgia cash-in, yet it became one of the most acclaimed legacy sequels in recent memory. Tom Cruise’s insistence on practical aerial photography gave the flight sequences a visceral quality that computer-generated effects simply cannot replicate. Critics praised its emotional storytelling as much as its technical achievement, and the film became a genuine box office phenomenon.
The film grossed well over a billion dollars worldwide, a staggering result for a mid-budget action drama built around a decades-old property. It earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, a rare honor for a summer blockbuster sequel. Maverick proved that a legacy sequel could honor its source material without simply repeating it.
4. Dune: Part Two (2024)
Denis Villeneuve’s continuation of Frank Herbert’s saga expanded on the scope and ambition of its predecessor in nearly every way. The film’s depiction of Paul Atreides’ rise among the Fremen, and his descent into a darker kind of power, gave the sequel a moral complexity that the first installment only hinted at. Visually, it pushed the boundaries of what a big-budget science fiction film can look and sound like on a theatrical screen.
Critics were overwhelmingly positive, with many calling it a rare improvement on an already strong original. The film performed strongly at the box office as well, benefiting from months of anticipation and a marketing push that treated it as an event rather than a routine sequel. It stands as one of the most confidently made science fiction films of the current decade.
3. The Godfather Part II (1974)
No list of great sequels is complete without Francis Ford Coppola’s follow-up to his own 1972 masterpiece, and its inclusion here is less about recency than about setting the standard everything else gets measured against. The film’s dual narrative structure, tracking both Michael Corleone’s cold consolidation of power and his father Vito’s early rise, remains a masterclass in how to expand a story’s scope without diluting its focus. Al Pacino and Robert De Niro both delivered performances that have shaped how generations of actors approach morally complicated characters.
It became the first sequel in history to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, a milestone that still carries weight decades later. Critics and audiences have continued to revisit and reassess the film, and it consistently appears on lists of the greatest films ever made, sequel or otherwise. Its influence on prestige filmmaking is difficult to overstate.
2. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
George Miller’s return to the Wasteland, thirty years after the previous entry, redefined what a modern action sequel could look like. The film’s practical stunt work, minimal reliance on dialogue, and relentless pacing earned near universal critical acclaim upon release. Charlize Theron’s Furiosa became an instantly iconic character, arguably overshadowing Tom Hardy’s Max in a way that only strengthened the film.
Fury Road went on to win six Academy Awards, an extraordinary haul for an action film, and it continues to be cited by filmmakers and critics as a benchmark for the genre. Its influence can be traced through countless action films that followed, none of which have quite matched its intensity. The film’s reputation has only grown in the years since its release.
1. Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
Bringing together three generations of Spider-Man actors across separate film universes was the kind of ambitious gamble that could have easily collapsed under its own weight, yet No Way Home pulled it off. Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire, and Andrew Garfield sharing the screen delivered a payoff that felt earned rather than gimmicky, built on genuine emotional stakes around loss, responsibility, and identity. The film balanced fan service with a coherent, moving story about its lead character finally growing up.
It became one of the highest grossing films in box office history, crossing well over a billion dollars worldwide during a period when theatrical attendance was still recovering from pandemic disruptions. Critical reception was strongly positive, with particular praise for its handling of nostalgia without letting it swallow the narrative. Few sequels in recent memory have managed to satisfy both casual viewers and die-hard fans in equal measure, which is exactly why it sits at the top of this list.
Ranking sequels this way makes one thing clear. Budget and marketing muscle rarely predict quality. Some of the most expensive, most heavily promoted follow-ups on this list underperformed critically and financially, while smaller, more focused efforts like Fury Road or more patient ones like Dune: Part Two earned their acclaim the hard way, through craft rather than spectacle alone.
