You say ''unimaginative money makers''. I don't believe Star Wars started out like that, nor that George Lucas intended to be a money milking machine.
I know. Trilogies are fine. When I say franchise, I'm thinking of when there are 4 films or more and it seems like they just won't stop. The other thing is I don't normally care about most action or comedy or adventure-type movies. Horror movies aren't what they used to be either. So maybe I'm biased because most franchises just happen to pump out types of movies that I don't really like.
Although, there were 4 original Star Wars films if you count The Star Wars Holiday Special, haha. I watched that last year, pretty funny but had very little involvement from Lucas.
I feel like film in general has become so bad in the last 15 years or so. There's been a couple of movies that I've been excited to see but overall it's just a bunch of shit coming out that I couldn't care less about. I'm sure there's plenty of indie/underground/artsy/foreign films that have escaped my attention though. I'm not the voracious movie-watcher that I used to be. I still greatly enjoy watching movies but I can't watch them alone. I live by myself now (no roommates / gf / etc) so I watch very little of anything. For some reason I find watching a movie alone to be one of the loneliest experiences, so I don't bother. These days I basically just watch YouTube clips when I feel the need.
As far as horror goes, there's a few that I like but overall I'm not a fan of the genre. I watch movies to escape from reality and enjoy myself, not to sit through jump scares and be psychologically f@#!ed for the rest of the day. I like all kinds of movies but the ones I like best are a bit hard to describe... I'd say key components for me would be great use of color and light, great soundtrack / score, authentically representing a certain time period while also showing a side of it that maybe some people weren't aware of, some sort of sexuality / chemistry, edginess, real emotional impact (not gimmicks), etc. That said I also have a soft spot for B-movies and kinda cheesy movies too. Maybe that's because I used to be a huge stoner for years lol.
Some movies I can watch any time:
-Kids
-Literally anything by Gregg Araki... his movies are perfect IMO if you are up for something 'different' and cool, especially his 'doom generation' trilogy. It's so 90's it hurts.
-The Virgin Suicides
-Amelie
-Irreversible
-Brazil
-The Beach
-Go
-Dazed and Confused
-Friday
-Half Baked
-The City of Lost Children
-City of God
-Easy Rider
-The Raid
-The Handmaiden (the Asian one)
-Any Indiana Jones movie (aside from the newer one)
-Anything by Gaspar Noe
-Anything by Andrei Tarkovsky
-Anything by David Lynch
-Crash
-Dutch
-Jeremiah Johnson
-Miller's Crossing
-Almost anything by Guy Ritchie
-Anything by the Coen Brothers
-Anything by Gus Van Sant
etc etc.