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Even though the summer movie season is synonymous with sequels, remakes, and everything else that lacks some kind of originality, movie studios are always on the lookout for the next big franchise, a movie that may end up sparking a series that brings in millions, if not billions, of dollars. Yes, though they weren't common before the late-1970s, the franchise picture is not only something that can be wildly successful, but some can even be amazing entertainment.

The first major franchise to come out of the 1970s was the Star Wars series, beginning in 1977. This sci-fi epic combined a common trope of literature (the common boy dreaming to be a warrior) with slick effects, mysterious names, and a menacing villain all dressed in black, from his mask to his shoes. Though Twentieth Century Fox wasn't too sure what they had on their hands beforehand, the first Star Wars film was a major cash cow, kick-starting Harrison Ford's career, and making George Lucas into one of the biggest names in filmmaking. Of course, when Lucas brought back the Star Wars franchise for three prequels...well, the less said, the better.

Though 2007 had plenty of three-quels, such as Spider-Man 3, The Bourne Ultimatum, and Shrek the Third, this summer and many others like it aren't lacking franchise films. Last week, we had another X-Men film; this week brings the 11th film in the Star Trek franchise; the rest of May brings another film from the creator of The Da Vinci Code and the second Night at the Museum movie. Though you could easily bemoan Hollywood's complete lack of originality (and you could; we'll save that for a separate column), it's worth noting that some franchises are so great, we could easily forgive the rest.

A little warning here: this A-List will not have a couple famous franchises appear, such as the aforementioned Star Trek franchise or the biggest of them all, James Bond. Two reasons for the absence of these two and some others: if I haven't seen all of the films in the series (I'm guilty of this with the Bond films), the franchise won't appear; if a majority of the films in the franchise aren't at least good (I'm looking at you, Captain Kirk), the franchise won't appear. This is the A-List, don't forget; so, enjoy the A-List's look at the best franchises.

Batman

Now, I know what you're thinking if you're looking to catch me in a bit of hypocrisy regarding my rules for which franchises are on the A-List and which aren't. Let's get this out of the way right now: Batman Forever and Batman and Robin are just plain awful movies. I hadn't seen these two films for a long time since they came out in the late-1990s until I caught them on TNT the same weekend that last summer's The Dark Knight came out. Not only was it shocking to see how tonally different these films were from the 2008 release, but...yeah, they're bad movies. If Christopher Nolan hadn't swooped in to make Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, this franchise wouldn't be on the list. Thanks, however, to his ingenuity, the best Batman ever (sorry, Michael Keaton, I'm a fan of Christian Bale and his Dirty Harry-esque voice), and some great villains, the Batman franchise makes it onto our list. The first two films in the series, both helmed by Tim Burton, are more cartoonishly dark than Nolan's two entries, but the production design is amazing, Keaton is a strong and stoic lead, and Jack Nicholson's performance as his first adversary is thrilling. There's no question that the Batman franchise is far from perfect, but if you just ignore or accept the flaws in the middle films, it's clear to see how influential and amazing this series has been on other superhero stories.

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