We ranked the 7 Pixar sequels from worst to best

Cars 2

It’s not often that a movie’s second sequel is better than the film that came before it, but in the case of the Cars franchise, 2011’s Cars 2 is widely seen as not only the worst film in the series but Pixar’s worst film period.

Cars is one of those series that people love to make fun of, especially because of the fact that it got not one, but two sequels in a matter of years. Meanwhile, it took the company well over a decade before giving us follow-ups to fan favorites like The Incredibles and Monsters, Inc., but we’ll talk more about those later.

The film had a domestic gross of $191 million on a budget of $200 million, which isn’t a total flop in the grand scheme of things, but for Pixar, it’s not exactly a win. Cars may have been a huge hit among young audiences, but it was already one of their least respected films, so a low-earning sequel is not optimal.

Apparently, it wasn’t such a bust for the company, though, since it did earn a whopping $551 million worldwide. They still went ahead with production on another sequel, Cars 3, in an obvious attempt to cash in on the merchandising possibilities for the franchise. Clearly, it was not because of sentimental reasons, like with Toy Story.

Many seem to think that the Cars franchise is an obvious money grab, but Pixar’s John Lasseter disagrees, saying “It’s not true. It’s people who don’t know the facts, rushing to judge.[M]y job, my focus, my deepest desire is to entertain people by making great movies, and we did that with Cars 2.”

Whatever you say, Mr. Lasseter.