Screen Rant - The Best Movie Trilogies of All Time

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How do you define a “trilogy”? Is it a series of three connected stories? One big story told in three parts? What if you have a series with more than three films? Can three of them be plucked out of the sequence and considered a trilogy?

In this case, we’re accepting all of the above in our definition of film trilogy. What we’re not considering are movies that are linked only thematically. Screen Rant loves us some “Cornetto” trilogy, aka the films of Edgar Wright starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, but strictly speaking, Cornetto isn’t a trilogy — it doesn’t share any common characters, settings, or plots.

A genuine trilogy can be constructed in different ways. In its purest form, a trilogy is planned from the outset as a three-part story. It starts with the first movie, which is an introduction to the world and its characters and overall scenario. It continues with numerous plot complications and heavier drama in the second part. The finale wraps up the entire saga with an ending that remembers everything that came before. That said, there are also excellent trilogies where a solo flick was so successful that its filmmakers decided to add two more films to continue and finish the tale.

To create our definitive list of the top 15 trilogies in cinematic history, we carefully considered a variety of factors, such as quality, reception, lasting influence on cinema and/or pop culture, and the actual scores a movie was assigned by both critics and general audiences. With that in mind, here’s Screen Rant’s take on The Best Movies Trilogies Of All Time.

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  1. 19 new

    Captain America: The First Avenger

    2011, in 2 top lists Check
  2. 20 new

    Captain America: The Winter Soldier

    2014, in 3 top lists Check
  3. 21 new

    Captain America: Civil War

    2016, in 2 top lists Check
  4. 22 new

    Back to the Future

    1985, in 25 top lists Check
  5. 23 new

    Back to the Future Part II

    1989, in 6 top lists Check
  6. 24 new

    Back to the Future Part III

    1990, in 6 top lists Check
  7. 40 new

    Iron Man

    2008, in 7 top lists Check
  8. 41 new

    Iron Man 2

    2010, in 3 top lists Check
  9. 42 new

    Iron Man Three

    2013 — a.k.a. Iron Man 3, in 3 top lists Check
  10. 43 new

    The Matrix

    1999, in 30 top lists Check
  11. 44 new

    The Matrix Reloaded

    2003, in 5 top lists Check
  12. 45 new

    The Matrix Revolutions

    2003, in 4 top lists Check
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Last updated on Oct 21, 2016; source