It’s a tale as old as time - A film does well, makes a lot of money or receives critical acclaim and BOOM! A rushed, unneeded, disappointing sequel is churned out to capitalise off of its success.

Some have nothing to do with the original, like ‘American Psycho 2’ which ditches Patrick Bateman entirely for a college student killing her competition to land a job, and others were just unnecessary, like ‘Jaws 2’, which somehow held the record for the highest-grossing sequel in film history at one point, despite being slated by movie-goers.

Here are three films where the sequel was actually considered by many to be even better than the original:

The Dark Knight

2008, Director: Christoper Nolan Following on from 2005’s ‘Batman Begins’, Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight’ sees Christian Bale reprise his role as one of the most beloved superheroes of all time. The film is a step-up from its predecessor in large part because of the introduction of The Joker, and not just any Joker, but Heath Ledger’s. Ledger is widely regarded as one of the best representations of The Joker from the DC comics that made Batman, and there’s no doubt that his performance was one of the reasons ‘The Dark Knight’ picked up two Oscars and eight nominations, where ‘Batman Begins’ won none.

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

1980, Director: Irvin Kershner Featuring an epic battle on an icy planet, Han Solo’s carbonite catastrophe, some Jedi training with Yoda, and the biggest reveal of the franchise, ‘Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back’ is widely regarded as an even better film in the series than ‘A New Hope’. Though the first in the line of space-flicks received six Academy Awards, and ‘Empire Strikes Back’ won only two, you only need to speak with a few Star Wars fans to know the debate rages on years later, and many still consider this sequel to be the very best of George Lucas’ work.

Toy Story 3

2010, Director: Lee Unkrich Pixar’s ‘Toy Story 3’ was only the third animated film to be nominated for the Academy Award for ‘Best Picture’, after ‘Up’ and ‘Beauty and the Beast’, and won the award for ‘Best Animated Feature’. Though this category didn’t exist when the first film came out, it’s still a testament to the success of the film.

Following Buzz, Woody, and a host of fan-favourites, and introducing the iconic villain Lots’-O-Huggin’ Bear, this film continued to build on the success of the franchise, without cheapening its trajectory. ‘Toy Story’ was one of the unique franchises in which its first sequel was also considered on par with the first film, and its third film is regarded as being even better, becoming the first animated film to gross over $1 billion worldwide.

Honorable mentions include Terminator 2: Judgement Day, which won four Oscars where the original failed to get a single nomination, and Martin Scorsese’s The Godfather Part II which pulled in a whopping six award victories and eleven nominations.