Movie watchers have spoken and ranked the worst sequels of all time – with some surprising results considering its box office success.
Digg recently pulled the March 2024 statistics casino.ca about the worst sequels of all time, based on IMDb reviews.
According to casino.ca, the list comes from more than 100,000 reviews on IMDb that include keywords like “disappointing,” “boring” and “trash.”
All twenty films on the list earned more than $1 billion at the box office, ten of the films received at least 90 percent positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, and more than two of them received multiple Academy Award nominations.
While the critics and moviegoers have made up their minds, so have the IMDb users, and their selection of the worst sequels may be surprising.
1. Transformers: Age of Extinction
Transformers: Age of Extinction is the fourth Transformers film and the first not to star Shia LaBeouf as the male lead.
Mark Wahlberg took over the lead role in a film that grossed more than $1 billion at the box office. Wahlberg and box office success were not enough to make the film successful in the eyes of IMDb reviewers.
Not only did it receive a rating of 55 percent of negatively worded IMDb reviews, but it also received negative reviews from critics.
The four Transformers films released after the #1 Worst Movie Sequel received mixed reviews and none of them grossed nearly a billion dollars at the box office.
2. Star Wars episode. VII: The Last Jedi
The 2017 Star Wars film wasn’t even a box office failure, earning a 91 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver may have shined in the eyes of critics, but not for the reviewers at IMDb.
In total, the Stars Wars film received 45 percent of negatively worded reviews out of more than 6,800 responses on IMDb.
3. Skyfall
The 2012 action thriller starring Daniel Craig as James Bond received a 92 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and more than $1.1 billion at the box office.
It also received five Academy Award nominations, winning two. Craig was praised for his portrayal by fans, just not IMDb’s.
According to the 2024 data, the film received a 36 percent rating of comments with negative words.
It may be number 3, but Skyfall was pretty close to fourth on the list.
4. Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Transformers: Dark of the Moon has just a 35 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, despite making over $1.124 billion at the box office.
It was the last Transformers film starring Shia LaBeouf and the first film not to feature the original female lead, Megan Fox.
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley was seemingly up to the task of starring alongside LaBeouf.
Other co-stars include Josh Duhamel, John Turturro and Tyrese Gibson.
The star-studded cast wasn’t enough to ensure it scored higher than number four and it currently has 34 percent of negatively worded reviews on IMDb.
5. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
The 2018 sequel Jurassic World, starring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, was action-packed and finished with a whopping $1.310 billion at the box office.
The film may have been a box office success, but for IMDb reviewers it wasn’t the best.
According to the data, 32 percent of reviews contained negative words out of the nearly 2,000 reviews the film has received on IMDb.
It wasn’t a number one hit in the eyes of critics either, and the film received only mixed reviews and a 47 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
6. Jurassic world
The film before Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom received positive reviews from critics. The 2015 film earned $1.671 billion at the box office and was set 22 years after the events of the blockbuster Jurassic Park.
Jurassic World is tied with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in the percentage of reviews with negative words – 32 percent.
However, Jurassic World only receives almost 1,700 IMDb reviews, which is the likely reason why this film is ranked #6.
7. Avatar: The Way of Water
The sequel to the 2009 blockbuster, more than a decade in the making, became the third highest-grossing film of all time.
It was also nominated for four Academy Awards and won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.
Notably, it received a lower Rotten Tomato rating than the first film and earned less at the box office than the first film.
It still managed to receive over 3,300 reviews on IMDb. Of these reviews, 31 percent contain a negative word.
8. Star Wars episode. VII: The force awakens
The Star Wars film before The Last Jedi featured more than one of the original actors, including Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill.
It was a box office success in 2015, grossing over $2 billion.
That and a 93 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes weren’t good enough in the eyes of IMDb reviewers.
Out of nearly 5,000 comments on the websites, the film received a 30 percent rating on negatively worded comments.
9. Iron Man 3
The Iron Man trilogy can be considered a classic, thanks in part to the stellar performance of Academy Award winner Robert Downey Jr.
It received a 79 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and grossed over $1.2 billion from a $200 million budget.
It also received more than 1,400 comments, 26 percent of which contained negative words.
This ranking clearly hasn’t hurt Tony Stark in any way, as his character continues to be seen in several box office films.
10. The fate of the enraged
The first film without Paul Walker was a memorable one at the box office as it grossed over $1.2 billion.
However, it failed to stay out of the top 10 worst sequels of all time.
According to the data, The Fate of the Furious, like Iron Man 3, received a 26 percent rating on negatively worded reviews.
The data shows that the film has received less than 700 reviews, which is one of the lowest numbers on the entire list.
Top 20 shockers
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won eleven Academy Awards in 2004, including Best Director and Best Picture. The Oscar wins weren’t enough to make the blockbuster miss out on negative reviews on IMDb.
Recent statistics show that 8 percent of 4,236 reviews contain negative wording.
These are negatively worded reviews, comparable to those of Top Gun: Maverick – the highly anticipated 2022 film that became the highest-grossing film of Tom Cruise’s career.
The film has a Rotten Tomato rating of 96 percent, which is the same rating that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 received.
The fantasy film has only 1,119 IMDb reviews, but 9 percent of them have negative wording.
Other films on the negatively worded commentary side include Avengers: Infinity War, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Avengers: Endgame.