8 Найкращих Продовжень Фільмів, Які Зібрали $1 Мільярд, Рейтинг

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Published Jun 18, 2026, 7:21 PM EDT

While there will always be attempts by filmmakers to make striking and compelling works of original art, at the end of the day, filmmaking is still a business with the goal of making financial profit, with one of the most concise and effective ways of making box office profits is through franchises and sequels. There have been many notable sequels released over the years, with some of the most prominent and very best sequels crossing over into the lucrative $1 billion club.

Even as recently as films like Zootopia 2 and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, sequels are continuously finding their way into the $1 billion club as the built-in audience of these beloved movies already sets these films up for success. However, simply having a built-in audience isn't enough for great success, as the films themselves have to be appealing and well-made to the general audience for them to have such a lasting impact and make a prominent financial success.

8 'Avengers: Infinity War' (2018)

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More than just the third film in the Avengers franchise, Avengers: Infinity War in a way acts as a sequel to the entire MCU up to that point, bringing together characters from across the cinematic universe into a glorious love letter with massive stakes and pure passion. It has a lot of the inherent strengths of previous Avengers films, only with an even bigger scale, even more MCU movies to pull from, and one of the most legendary endings in superhero movie history.

The film still stands as one of the absolute highlights of the entire MCU, with great action sequences, a seamless blending of all sorts of memorable characters, and easily the extended universe's best villain in Josh Brolin's Thanos. It stands at the apex of when the MCU was at its most popular, fully realizing the strengths and impact of the franchise in a glorious blend of iconic characters, stellar visuals, and distinct self-aware humor. Even if the MCU never reaches this height again, Infinity War will forever hold a special place in the hearts of the audiences that helped make it one of the few films to gross $2 million at the worldwide box office.

7 'Skyfall' (2012)

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The highest grossing film in the James Bond franchise to date, Skyfall exemplifies the greatest strengths of the Daniel Craig era with its mixture of style, high-octane action, and effective symbolic theming. It builds upon the most impactful aspects of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace to create the quintessential modern Bond experience. Even over a decade after its release, the film still has a choke hold over the legacy of modern Bond and continually influences the films, spinoffs, and everything with the 007 name attached to it.

The film acts as this perfect balance between the distinguished strengths inherent to the legacy of James Bond as well as being a massively approachable and widely compelling action thriller. It's the best of both worlds that resulted in untold amounts of success and cemented Craig's legacy as one of the greatest to ever take up the mantle of Bond. With a new era of Bond on the horizon, it will be interesting to see just how much this new era will be inspired by films like Skyfall and how it will be able to distinguish from the standard that it set for modern Bond.

6 'Ne Zha II' (2025)

Image via Chengdu Coco Cartoon

Both the highest-grossing non-Hollywood film and the highest-grossing animated film of all time, Ne Zha II's mixture of exhilarating action sequences and loving tribute to Chinese mythology made it an absolute phenomenon for Chinese audiences. It achieved levels of overwhelming success in a single market that is simply unprecedented, as it's the only film to have grossed over $1 billion in a single market, as well as managing to gross $2 billion in a single market.

While many American audiences simply passed on the film due to a cultural disconnect, the top-notch action and compelling storytelling makes this an absolute blast to watch and arguably greater than many of the animated films coming out of Hollywood in recent memory. Especially considering this level of animated action is so rarely explored at the cinematic scale, Ne Zha II is highly engaging from start to finish and deserves all the praise and success that it has received.

5 'Top Gun: Maverick' (2022)

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Top Gun: Maverick is a complete anomaly as far as legacy sequels are concerned, as it's not only one of the very few truly great legacy sequels that lives up to the original, but it's arguably the only legacy sequel that actually exceeds the quality of the original film. Utilizing exceptional action sequences with real fighter jet action and Tom Cruise at the absolute peak of his modern career, Top Gun: Maverick understood what made the original film such an 80s classic, amplifying and evolving these strengths for the modern era.

These strengths helped make Top Gun: Maverick one of the most successful summer blockbusters of all time, having complete dominance and persistent appeal that lasted throughout the entire summer. Famously the film even managed to retake #1 at the domestic box office on Labor Day weekend in September despite releasing back on Memorial Day weekend in May. Now the film stands as one of the best action movies of the 2020s and one of the faces of 2020s action blockbusters.

4 'Avatar: The Way of Water' (2022)

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It would be difficult for any film to act as a sequel to the highest-grossing film of all time, let alone a sequel that is releasing a decade after the previous film made cinematic history in its success. However, Avatar: The Way of Water proved to be entirely worth the wait with its prominent upgrade to visual flair, striking motion capture technology, and a compelling evolution of the Avatar characters and world of Pandora. While 3D filmmaking had largely fallen out of favor by the 2020s, The Way of Water still pushes the technology forward as if its at the forefront of culture.

The film's various underwater sequences are a glorious sight to behold, feeling masterfully crafted in its execution and finding an effective balance between familiarity and striking new ground with the Avatar franchise. It easily lives up to the quality of the original film, and may just be the highlight of the entire trilogy with its effective emotional moments and great evolutions of classic characters.

3 'Toy Story 3' (2010)

Image via Pixar Animation Studios

The first animated film to make $1 billion as well as considered to be one of the greatest animated sequels of all time, Toy Story 3 evolves and grows these beloved children's characters, telling a story not just for children of the next generation, but for those who grew up with the previous films. Considered by some to be the best of the Toy Story franchise, Toy Story 3's hard-hitting emotional moments and substantial animation quality upgrade have given it an effective legacy as Pixar's greatest sequel to date.

It feels fresh and largely distinct from the previous films in its scope, with the entire cast coming together for a compelling prison break plot while dealing with the ramifications and pain of being left behind and forgotten by a child who has all grown up. While the franchise has continued on with subsequent sequels, many people still consider this to be the true finale of the series, acting as a perfect sendoff for these beloved characters that had millions in tears across the world.