20 movies that kicked off surprise film franchises

"Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure" is a delightful time-traveling romp starring a young Keanu Reeves alongside Alex Winter. It’s fun but didn’t seem likely to go anywhere. However, in addition to getting an animated spinoff, the movie got a sequel, "Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey." There, the titular slackers die, go to hell and come back to fight robots. Many years later, we got "Bill and Ted Face the Music," which features the titular duo as fathers. Also, it gave us a rare chance to see Reeves clean shaven.

"Planet of the Apes" has a definitive ending. Charlton Heston finds out that it was Earth all along. It could have ended there. Instead, they made three sequels, followed by a recent prequel trilogy. We’ve come a long way from the Statue of Liberty in the sand.

Ridley Scott’s "Alien" was a huge success. The film made a ton of money on a minuscule budget and helping to turn Sigourney Weaver into a star. However, it’s also a gross, self-contained horror flick that doesn’t scream “franchise.” It was followed by "Aliens," which some people (including this writer), consider better than the original, but then it blossomed into a legitimate franchise. There have been a whopping six movies set in the "Alien" universe, and it might not end there.

"Die Hard" is awesome, but nobody saw it coming. Bruce Willis wasn’t a movie star yet, and despite it being an iconic Christmas movie now, it was released in the summer. Also, it’s about a cop who randomly finds himself in a building overtaken by terrorists. Can you really have that happen again? Well, four sequels later, they’ve managed to figure it out — even if none of the later films can hold a candle to the original.

These days, it seems like every successful movie is a remake, reboot or sequel. Usually, it’s based off a pre-existing property as well. That wasn’t the case with "John Wick," which stars Keanu Reeves as a hitman. It’s hyper violent and pretty crazy, with the lore building over three films with the fourth eminent. There's even an upcoming TV spinoff about the Continental hotel.

John Carpenter made "Halloween" for about $300,000, which was still next to nothing even in 1978. The film turned into a massive success, but there were no plans for a franchise. Carpenter did have an idea for a sequel, but he also wanted things to end with "Halloween II." Instead, seven sequels were made — including one, "Season of the Witch," that had nothing to do with Michael Myers. Rob Zombie rebooted the franchise with two movies of his own. This was followed by a new trilogy that retconned out everything but the first film, and saw Jamie Lee Curtis return as Laurie Strode.

Godzilla dies in the original. That should have killed any talk of a franchise, right? Instead, Toho has made dozens of films about the king of the monsters, and that doesn’t include the "Godzilla" movies that have been made in the United States. For somebody that was axed in the ‘50s, Godzilla has proven quite resilient.

You can argue that two films barely qualifies as a franchise, but Deadpool would probably have a snarky comeback to that assertion. Besides, with the success of the first two movies, a third would be completely unsurprising. What was a surprise, though, was the fact Ryan Reynolds ever got his hard-R "Deadpool" made, especially after the character was used so poorly in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine." Truly, Deadpool is impossible to kill.

"The Pink Panther" is only partially about Inspector Clouseau. The main character is actually David Niven’s Sir Charles Lytton. Clouseau is just a comedic foil. Then, he became the focal point of a series of sequels that continued even after Peter Sellers, who played Clouseau, died. Not only did "The Pink Panther" spawn a surprise franchise, it did so with a secondary character.

Given how successful "Dumb and Dumber" was in 1994, it would have been surprising for it to not become a franchise after that. Then another movie wasn’t made until 2003, and that was a prequel featuring neither Jim Carrey nor Jeff Daniels. The surprises continued when a true sequel to "Dumb and Dumber" was released in 2011. Alas, it wasn’t much of a shock when "Dumb and Dumber To" turned out to be pretty bad.

Here’s the thing. The McAllisters left Kevin home alone once. That was bad, but it gave us a movie about a small child sadistically brutalizing Daniel Stern. Then, in order to have a sequel, they had to have Kevin be lost by his parents again. Like they would let that kid out of their sight for a second. Following that, a different kid is left home alone in the third film before a new Kevin joined us in the fourth. Be better parents, guys. Disney+ rebooted the franchise with another kid, but with a tie to the original series in the return of Buzz, now a cop.

Before Tim Allen was busy reviving "Last Man Standing" for Fox after ABC cancelled the show in 2017, he starred in the high-concept family film "The Santa Clause." How many films can you get out of the premise of a man killing Santa and becoming him? The answer is three, apparently, plus a Disney+ TV continuation.

"Sharknado" is probably the most improbable movie franchise in recent memory. It began with a movie about sharks in a tornado — starring Ian Ziering and Tara Reid. However, it’s “so bad, it’s good” aesthetic garnered a cult audience. They ended up cranking out five sequels. That said: given how cheap those films are clearly made for, perhaps it isn’t as surprising as it seems on the surface.

Though Sam Raimi would go on to direct the not-at-all-surprising "Spider-Man" franchise, he began his career with the cheap, sensationalist horror movie "The Evil Dead." That put him, and Bruce Campbell, on the map and led to a film franchise. That being said, "Evil Dead II" and "Army of Darkness" have a different feel than the original. They have a decidedly more comedic feel, which has carried over to the TV show "Ash vs. Evil Dead."

How many Best Picture winners spawn a film franchise? There was no reason to think we’d be revisiting the characters from "Silence of the Lambs," even though Thomas Harris had written multiple books about Hannibal Lecter. Instead, Anthony Hopkins returned to the role that won him an Oscar two more times followed by a prequel nobody had any interest in.

Here’s another one where the death of the main character would seemingly have put the kibosh on a film franchise. Carrie White died back in 1976, along with most of her classmates. Then, some bold filmmakers decided to resurrect the franchise in 1999 with "The Rage: Carrie 2," which is technically about Carrie’s previously unknown half-sister. It felt cheap, and the movie flopped. The 2013 remake of the original was slightly more successful.

The only reason the "Pitch Black" franchise exists is because Vin Diesel willed it into existence. "Pitch Black" wasn’t that big of a success, critically or commercially, but they still made a Diesel-starring sequel called "The Chronicles of Riddick." That one lost money, but Diesel was determined to make another one. In fact, he cameoed in "Tokyo Drift" in exchange for the rights to the Riddick character. That allowed him to make "Riddick," much to Diesel’s glee.

The premise behind the "Taken" franchise has been joked about ad nauseam. How many people in one family can find themselves taken? It made sense the first time, even if "Taken" was kind of gross and ethnocentric. Then they didn’t even bother trying to really justify making more films in the franchise. Not that moviegoers cared too much.

Who would have ever imagined there being a film franchise all about a dog playing different sports? The very idea is insane. A dog played basketball, and everybody could accept it. Then that same dog plays soccer, football and volleyball? You can probably count the "Air Buddies" movies, too — even if they are about puppies going on adventures. It all defies logic.

“There can only be one.” That’s the tagline to "Highlander." That didn’t turn out to be true for the franchise, though. Even though the original lost money, they made a sequel, with the humorous title "Highlander II: The Quickening," in 1991. The film didn’t make any sense, but they still made two more theatrical sequels followed by an anime and a made-for-TV film that finally, some would say mercifully, ended the series.