It’s been five years since I coined the term legacyquel to describe the flood of movies designed to update long-running franchises by bringing back beloved aging stars to pass the torch to younger successors. Since then, a legacyquel became the top-grossing movie in U.S. history, the concept expanded into the world of television, and “legacyquel” even got its own entry in the Urban Dictionary, the most reputable source for phony baloney words on the internet.

Though the crush of legacyquels has slowed slightly, Netflix’s current #1 show is a TV legacyquel, and their upstart competition Peacock just launched with its own TV legacyquel, a new Saved By the Bell. More big-screen legacyquels are still in the works as well, including 2021’s Ghostbusters: AfterlifeCandyman, and Top Gun: Maverick. Clearly, the legacyquel is here to stay.

With that in mind, here are the best legacyquels to date, ranked from least to most effective. I’ll try to update this list as needed — or at least in 30 years I promise to start a new version of the list, then pass it off to an up-and-coming film writer to continue the project into the future.

Gallery — Movies With Baffling CinemaScores:

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