Top 10 Movie Franchises of the 2010s

Every decade has movie franchises that define the decade in the minds of young as well as old viewers. We are focusing on films whose first part makes its debut after January 1st, 2010. Now that we are in 2012 and assuming there will be a 2013, why wait around to figure out what franchises are going to captivate you for the next decade? Plans may change, movies may seriously bomb, but here is the prospective list of film franchises that will dominate your consciousness till about say, 2019.

10. Lone Ranger Movies

The groans have already started but here us out on this one. The film is backed by Disney. The movie is directed by Gore Verbinski. The stars are Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp. The last time that Disney, Depp, Verbinski as well as an up and coming easy on the eyes star joined forces… the result was Pirates of the Caribbean. While Captain Jack Sparrow might have not had a domestic hit domestically, Pirates 4 was still a billion dollar hit with overseas grosses combined. In addition, Pirates movies were not exactly all the rage before Curse of the Black Pearl either. Debuting next year, the Lone Ranger may ride and ride again.

9. Jupiter Ascending Trilogy

The Wachowski Siblings (no longer brothers) are the same team who brought us the Matrix Trilogy. OK, Speed Racer did not exactly go as planned. However, they are back in their element with a post apocalyptic sci fi movie set to debut in 2014. Starring the hot Channing Tatum and the hotter Mila Kunis, the Wachowskis may be primed to regain the cache they had coming off of Matrix Reloaded. With a world ready to see more Avatar movies (which are also coming), Jupiter may Ascend into Saturn, Neptune and beyond.

8. Planet of the Apes Movies

World wide, Rise of the Planet of the Apes made roughly five times in gross profits what it cost to make. That makes next years Dawn of the Planet of The Apes a virtual no-brainer. Tim Burton never really wanted to make a franchise out of it. However, this time around the Apes will rise and rise until the no longer become commercially viable. The first real run, by the way, was five films. There is a strong possibility we have not evolved that much since then.

7. New Spider-Man Movies

Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone so far have not been the cash machine that Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst were. However, a quarter of a billion dollar domestically is nothing to sneeze at. As such, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (somewhat working title) is already slated for a May 2nd, 2014 release. There are 40 years worth of brightly costumed villains to explore. Of course, if the follow the Batman Begins mode, the trigger on the Green Goblin is not far behind for our new web slinger.

6. World War Z Movies

Three things are hot right now. They are Zombie Movies, The Apocalypse, and Brad Pitt. Next years summer blockbuster is nice enough to give you all three at the same time. With the amount of money this will generate, there will probably be a World War Z 2 whether Pitt signs up for the role again or not. That is the reason why there is Matt Damon and to a lesser extent Jeremy Renner. All you need is an army, a ton of zombies, and a couple hundred million to throw at the whole situation.

5. Man of Steel Trilogy

Lets just assume that the Robin trilogy is just an internet rumor, the next great Batman franchise is still a couple visionaries off, and the Justice League of America movies will go through a development hell worthy of their potential attachment with Ben Affleck. Warner Brothers is not exactly rushing to make Green Lantern 2, so the fall back position is the hero that started this whole shebang. Zach Snyder’s Man of Steel needs to be a home run to compete with Marvel’s cash machine. The preliminaries look great and there is one ace in the hole that a second Man of Steel cannot begin to resist… in the name of Doomsday.

4. Pacific Rim Movies

There is a reason why Peter Jackson was willing to hand over the reigns of Middle Earth to Guillermo Del Toro. Del Toro knows monsters. Del Toro knows action. Del Toro was also willing to give Hellboy another go. The description of Pacific Rim involves humans piloting giant robots to meet an alien invasion. Basically, this is Voltron meets Independence Day. We may be dealing with these particular aliens for a while. Besides, someone may decide not to make Cloverfield 2 out of fear. There is always hope.

3. Hunger Games Movies

We live in an age when the Twilight movies are still ongoing and already have a successor making nearly 400 million at the box office. The Hunger Games already have the formula down. Catching Fire is in production. There is talk that Mockingjay will be divided into two parts ala the Harry Potter finale and Breaking Dawn. With J. K. Rowling, Stephanie Meyer and Suzanne Collins down, the world must already be searching for the next female author to come up with a world capable of entrancing tween to teen girls. When all is said and done, a world wide gross of nearly 3 Billion or above for all four movies is not out of the question at all.

2. The Hobbit Trilogy

A little trivia: they originally expanded the Lord of the Rings from a planned two movies to the three movies that you saw. Now that the Hobbit has taken one book and expanded from two movies to a trilogy before the first one was even released, the die is cast for another trilogy to define yet another generation. Peter Jackson is the George Lucas of Middle Earth, but the difference is that Rings fans have learned to trust Peter Jackson’s vision implicitly.

1. Avengers, Avengers, Avengers….

We think that Yogurt put it best. It is all in the mer-chan-dising. There is not only a planned Avengers sequels. There is a healthy appetite for each individual member to have spawned their own personal trilogies. When done, Avengers related movies may add up to be the most successful film franchise of all time. We are already bracing for Iron Man 3, Captain America: Winter Soldier, Thor: The Dark World, a possible new third re-boot of The Incredible Hulk, as well as Avengers 2. You will see Avengers straight through this whole decade. Only Mayan Prophesy can begin to stop any part of it.