ShortList is supported by you, our amazing readers. When you click through the links on our site and make a purchase we may earn a commission. Learn more

8 film franchises that won't die

Despite our best attempts...

8 film franchises that won't die
Danielle de Wolfe
22 August 2011

The impossibly titled Final Destination 5 has arrived, but it’s a spring chicken compared to these guys.

Got any other ideas? Let us know at the bottom.

(Images: All Star Images)

POLICE ACADEMY (7 FILMS)

They didn’t so much milk this franchise as drain every atom of liquid from its shivering carcass until it crumbled into a pile of dust and blew away with the stench-ridden waft from 1994’s Police Academy 7: Mission To Moscow.

BATMAN (8 FILMS)

Fairly soon, every director on the planet is going to have a Batman film on their CV. Some have done better than others, especially current keeper of the bat Christopher Nolan. We wait, with a heavy heart for the post-Dark Knight Rises reboot which will be seen in the Justice League movie.

TARZAN (89 FILMS)

“Aaaaah-a-aaaaaaah aaaah-a-aaaaaah!” is what you’d be screaming if you had to sit through every Tarzan film ever made. Running from 1918, if they still used the same actor today, we’d be watching a 115-year-old man in a loin cloth accompanied by a chimp skeleton.

PINK PANTHER (11 FILMS)

Five of the first six Pink Panther films (1963-1978) were positively rinky-dink, thanks largely to Peter Sellers’ magnifique Inspector Clouseau (a character also played by Alan Arkin and Roger Moore). Then came Steve Martin and a version that was akin to Taylor Swift covering The Dark Side Of The Moon.

wong FEI-HONG (99 FILMS)

This series about a real-life Chinese folk hero is so prolific that it’s beginning to suffer from ‘title fatigue’. Subsequently, since 1949, audiences have learned how Huang Fei-Hong defeated the tiger on the opera stage and what happened when the iron rooster battled the centipede.

GODZILLA (28 FILMS)

He’s no Wong Fei-Hong, but when you’re a fire-breathing reptile the size of a tower block, you don’t tend to get an inferiority complex. An American ‘reboot’, courtesy of Monsters director Gareth Edwards, is underway, but when the Japanese have already booted it 27 times since 1954, you’d imagine it’s probably had enough.

FRIDAY THE 13TH (12 FILMS)

Whether it’s by design or luck, the current cessation in Jason Voorhees’ murderous reign, which began with some Kevin Bacon-slicing in 1980, means they haven’t had to address the tricky dilemma of how to title Friday The 13th The 13th. But after sending him to space in Jason X, there's literally nothing they can do to top it.

CARRY ON (31 FILMS)

Well, it was either this or James Bond, but Bond relies too much on casual misogyny and double-entendres for our liking...Plus, Carry On wins by seven films (counting the unofficial Bond films) phwoaring and giggling its way to national treasure status. The worrying Carry On London is still in development hell. Thankfully.