Study reveals the most loved (& hated) movie sequels of all time, from Lord of the Rings to Batman

The study by Uswitch analysed combined scores from IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, and Metacritic, along with box office revenue and profitability, to reveal the most loved (& hated) movie sequels.

You can view the full research here: https://www.uswitch.com/broadband/studies/successful-sequels/

The top 10 most loved movie sequels

Rank	Film	Franchise	Average Rating	Worldwide Box Office $	Sequel Score
1	The Return of the King	Lord of the Rings	92.33	$1,120,214,046	9.08
2	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2	Harry Potter	87.67	$1,328,766,590	8.92
3	The Two Towers	Lord of the Rings	90.00	$919,148,764	8.59
4	Episode IV – A New Hope	Star Wars	89.33	$775,398,007	8.48
5	Avengers: Endgame	Avengers	85.33	$2,797,800,564	8.45
6	Spider-Man: No Way Home	Spider-Man	83.00	$1,888,588,139	8.37
7	The Fellowship of the Ring	Lord of the Rings	90.67	$891,216,824	8.32
8	Toy Story 3	Toy Story	91.00	$1,068,879,522	8.28
9	Jurassic Park	Jurassic Park	80.67	$1,045,573,035	8.06
10	Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back	Star Wars	87.67	$549,001,242	8.05

The highest-rated movie, The Return of the King, is the third film in the Lord of the Rings franchise and the highest-rated movie on our list at 9.08. This sequel is also the highest-grossing of the series, earning over £780 million. The first three Lord of the Rings films all received movie scores of over 8.
The Harry Potter franchise has enjoyed consistently good ratings across all its sequels. Every entry in the Harry Potter series has earned over £500 million, and the final and highest-rated film, the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, earned over £900 million.

The research also revealed the most hated movie sequels:

Rank	Franchise	Film	Average Rating	Worldwide Box Office $	Sequel Score
1	Batman	Batman & Robin	25.67	$238,317,814	0.35
2	X-Men	Dark Phoenix	40.67	$246,356,895	0.59
3	Fast and the Furious	The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift	47.67	$157,794,205	0.65
4	Fast and the Furious	2 Fast 2 Furious	44.33	$236,410,607	0.82
5	Batman	Batman Forever	48.33	$336,529,144	1.24

Batman & Robin is the lowest-rated film on our list, with a pitiful 0.35 movie score.
The X-Men has experienced a roller coaster of success and failure since it was first introduced to the big screen. The worst in the series by far is Dark Phoenix with a terrible 0.59, ranking the second most hated sequel out of all the franchises analysed.

You can see the full, detailed version on Uswitch’s website, here.

This article was sourced from a media release sent by Camille Laurent of Digitaloft