Franchises that turned themselves around against all expectations?

Mission Impossible is the big one here for me, after MI3 I thought that was it. Then I heard they were making MI4 and I thought oh no, last one was bad, please stop, and how old is Tom now anyway? But then watching it the first time my reaction was 'not that bad actually', followed by MI5 and MI6 that were great and I'd say the best of the bunch, and now I'm feeling: long live Mission Impossible!'

I don't recall seeing this phenomenon with any other franchise, mostly they just get worse like Police Academy. I did see the latest Fast and Furious out of sheer curiosity - thinking anything that gets that many sequals is worth a look, but turns out F&F wasn't.

Resident Evil
Universal Soldier

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

I was going to say The Fast and the Furious got much better when Fast Five came out, but then died again for me after The Fate of the Furious.

I thought that the Nightmare on Elm Street series pulled itself up a bit with New Nightmare.

Also, if there was a charity that would let you sponsor a series, I would throw dollars at my poor, misguided Hellraiser franchise. Won't some competent director/writer PLEASE adopt this little lovely?

McDonalds maybe?

Dude, we are so of one mind on this. I don't understand how such bad movies can be made with such good substrate.

Bond got better with Craig.

Troll 2 must be said to offer more to the viewer than Troll 1