In honor of Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, released 30 years after the previous Beverly Hills Cop movie, here are 15 film franchises with a loooooon wait between movies.
But First
We aren’t including straight-to-video cash-ins or films promoted as sequels that don’t involve any of the original creative team from the first movie.
We also aren’t counting films that have just one sequel so far, such as the Avatar movies. We consider a franchise to consist of at least one film and at least sequel and/or prequel, plus some kind of spin-off. TV shows and video games count as spinoffs.
Disagree? Let us know in the comments. And now, here are the 15 most absurdly long breaks between films in a franchise.
The Incredibles (2004) and The Incredibles 2 (2018): 14 Years
Most kids old enough to see The Incredibles in a theater were adults by the time Pixar got around to making The Incredibles 2, the follow-up to the original superhero smash.
But The Incredibles 2 was totally worth the wait. It built on the themes of the first Incredibles, expanded the world, showed us the kids growing up, and delved deeper into Bob and Helen’s marital dynamics.
Also, Art Deco-inspired animation this beautiful takes a long time to painstakingly create. We get it. We also enjoy The Incredibles short films.
Jurassic Park III (2001) and Jurassic World (2015): 14 Years
Given that Jurassic Park III raked in about $370 million worldwide, it’s surprising that Universal Pictures took so long to revisit its dino world. The fourth Jurassic Park film spent years in development hell as creatives and executives tried to figure out the best way forward.
But Jurassic World, which promised bigger, bolder ideas with its title, proved a very good financial idea, clawing its way to $1.6 billion in worldwide box office.
Much respect to co-writer and director Colin Trevorrow, who figured out a way to make the franchise feel fresh and not stain the original Steven Spielberg-directed Jurassic Park‘s legacy as a breakthrough film in terms of visual effects.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023): 15 years
Believe it or not, this is the second-longest gap between Indiana Jones films. And the filmmakers may have waited too long.
The film received mixed reviews, and though its $384 million in worldwide box office grosses may sound impressive, it was considered a disappointment because the costs of making it — including a long opening sequence in which septuagenarian was de-aged — were so high. The film was a loss for Disney, which took over the franchise from Paramount when it acquired Lucasfilm.
The film also lacked the involvement of Steven Spielberg — who had directed all four previous Indiana Jones installments — and George Lucas, who wrote or co-wrote the story for the first four films.
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983) and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999): 16 years
Pretend, like me, you were seven years old when Return of the Jedi came out. It infected your young brain and fascinated and captivated you, leaving you desperate for a new Star Wars film.
Then, nothing.
Nothing for 16 years. Do you know how slowly time passes between the ages of seven and 23, my age when The Phantom Menace came out? This wasn’t the longest of the absurdly long gaps between films in a franchise, but it felt the longest to your humble correspondent.
A lot of people felt the same pent-up anticipation, which is one reason The Phantom Menace made almost a billion dollars at the box office. It also opened the floodgates to many more Star Wars films.
Rocky V (1990) and Rocky Balboa (2006): 16 years
If Star Wars could do it, why not Rocky? The Rocky movies started talking about how Rocky should retire way back in Rocky III, released in 1981, but Sylvester Stallone isn’t much on retirement. He gave Rocky a comeback with Rocky Balboa, 16 years after the disappointment of Rocky V, and earned both good reviews and a good return ($156 million) on a modest budget.
But he wasn’t even done: Rocky returned again in the first two films in the Creed franchise that kicked off in 2015.
Bad Boys II (2003) and Bad Boys for Life (2020): 17 years
The gap between Bad Boys movies is especially surprising when you consider the $273 million worldwide box office for Bad Boys II, but Bad Boys for Life, which reunited Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Miles Burnett, made a very strong showing.
It earned $426.5 million worldwide to become the third highest grossing film in January, a notoriously rough month for new releases. It was also the fourth most successful film of 2020, an incredibly rough year at the box office because of pandemic-induced theater closings.
Bad Boys for Life was successful enough to revive the franchise: The new Bad Boys: Ride or Die came out last month and is doing well in another tough box office season. Both the third and fourth Bad Boys films come from the directing team of Adil & Bilall.
Matrix Revolutions (2003) to The Matrix Resurrections (2021): 18 years
Remember that pandemic situation we mentioned? It was at least a small factor in the blip-like reception for The Matrix Resurrections, directed by Lana Wachowski, who directed the first three Matrix films with sister Lilly Wachowski.
Expectation were very high for the fourth Matrix film, which brough back Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss, but The Matrix Resurrections was one of many 2020 Warner Bros films released simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max because audiences were hesitant to go out to theaters.
The Matrix Resurrections earned only $159 million worldwide, not surprising given the state of movie theaters at the time and the easy access to the film for streaming at-home.
Warner Bros. still has hopes for the franchise: A fifth Matrix is in the works with The Martian screenwriter Drew Goddard directing and Lana Wachowski executive producing.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008): 19 years
The first three films in the Indiana Jones franchise are basically perfect, so Indy’s return — with Steven Spielberg returning to direct, no less! — was hotly anticipated.
The film — which found Indiana Jones older and wiser, but still up for action — earned a very impressive $786 million worldwide, making it the second-highest grossing film of 2008. And it cleared the way for yet another Indiana Jones film, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which appeared a few slides back.
Rambo III (1988) and Rambo (2008): 20 years
After naming the sixth film in the Rocky series simply Rocky Balboa in 2006, Sylvester Stallone took the same approach to the fourth Rambo movie, naming it simply Rambo. (He left off the first name John, for whatever reason.)
The film was successful enough to spawn a fifth and allegedly final Rambo movie, Rambo: Last Blood, in 2019, 11 years after Rambo.
Rambo follows John Rambo as he rescues Christian missionaries being held in Burma. It made $113.2 million worldwide against a production budget of about $50 million.
Tron (1982) and Tron: Legacy (2010): 28 years
There’s a terrific Simpsons joke in 1995 in which almost no one in the cast has seen (or will admit seeing) Tron. But the movie, a moderate box office success in the early ’80s, when arcade games were red hot, had enough of a following to spawn a sequel directed by Joseph Kosinski that brought back Tron stars Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner, as well as Tron writer-director Steven Lisberger, this time as a producer.
A third film, Tron: Ares, is due next year, and Tron was also, of course, a very cool video game.
The new Tron paid homage to the original while spinning the original story fascinatingly forward, and looked arguably even cooler than the first. It also proved that Kosinski was stunningly adept at bringing 1980s film into the modern era, as we’ll see again.
Independence Day (1996) and Independence Day: Resurgence (2016): 30 years
Was it worth the three-decade wait for a film that didn’t bring back Will Smith as its star? Even though it brought back Roland Emmerich, director of the original, and his co-writer, Dean Devlin, as well as stars Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman, it proved to be a critical and box office disappointment with $389.7 million worldwide.
How is that disappointing? Because the budget was around $165 million.
Don’t count Independence Day out yet. It also yielded two hit video games.
Beverly Hills Cop III (1994) to Beverly Hills: Axel F (2024): 30 years
The film, currently a hit for Netflix, reunited Eddie Murphy with the whole gang from the old Beverly Hills cop films, including Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, and Bronson Pinchot. It’s a fun, fairly action-packed trip down memory lane, which in this case is Rodeo Drive.
The fourth film in the action-comedy franchise also benefits from fresh blood in the form of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Taylour Paige, and Kevin Bacon. At one point Gordon-Levitt’s character works in a very inside joke about the disappointment of Beverly Hills Cop III in 1994.
Maybe one reason Eddie Murphy knew he could pull off Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F three decades after Beverly Hills Cop III is that he had already made another sequel with an even longer break between films: 33 years passed between Coming to America and Coming 2 America.
We aren’t counting the Coming to America movies as a franchise, yet, but Murphy is reportedly considering a third film.
Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985) and Mad Max: Fury Road (30 years)
George Miller is the only creator to maintain control over a franchise as long-running and successful as Mad Max. While he went off to make several critically acclaimed films and kids movies after Thunderdome (including Lorenzo’s Oil and the Babe and Happy Feet movies), he never forgot about the post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max, and finally brought it back — after an incredibly difficult shoot — with Mad Max: Fury Road, one of the most celebrated action movies ever made.
Though results were mixed at the box office — it was a hit, but an expensive one to make — but it earned widespread critical praise and ten Oscar nominations, including for Best Picture, which is unheard of for the fourth movie in an action franchise. It won six.
It also spawned Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, which has earned strong reviews but proved a box office letdown.
Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017): 35 years
This is one of the most legendarily long gaps between films in a franchise. The original Blade Runner (above), set in 2019, is a sci-fi classic that felt like a closed story, impossible to improve upon. But Denis Villeneuve dared to take over from original Blade Runner director Ridley Scott, and did the original film justice in this sequel that featured K (Ryan Gosling) hunting down replicants and running eventually into the hero of the original film, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford).
Ana de Armas, in one of her breakout roles, added an element of mystery and sadness as K’s A.I. hologram girlfriend, Joi.
Blade Runner 2049 was a box office letdown, but feels like a building block to Villeneuve’s incredibly ambitious Dune films. It also spawned a TV series, Blade Runner: Black Lotus.
Top Gun (1986) to Top Gun: Maverick (2022): 36 years
Joseph Kosinski’s mastery of revisiting older material is most apparent with Top Gun: Maverick, which he directed. It brought back Tom Cruise as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, and has proven to be, so far, the biggest hit of Cruise’s long career.
Earning nearly $1.5 billion worldwide, it was the second-highest-grossing film of 2022, behind Avatar: The Way of Water, and deserves much of the credit for bringing audiences back to theaters after the long pandemic shutdowns. (Avatar: The Way of Water was released a mere 13 years after the original Avatar.)
Also, Cruise wisely added to the excruciatingly long wait between films in the franchise by opting not to release Maverick on a streaming service, but rather to wait until people were ready to go back to theaters. And, in fact, Maverick gave them a reason to return.
Did Tom Cruise save movies? You could make that case. And a new Top Gun is in the works. Top Gun has also inspired many video games.
Liked This List of 15 Excruciatingly Long Breaks Between Films in a Franchise?
You might also like this list of Movies That Never Had a Sequel or Remake or this list of Roles Eddie Murphy Turned Down.
Main image: Ana de Armas in Blade Runner 2049.