Threequel

Threequel is a word that can be used to describe any third part in a film franchise. However, a richer understanding of threequels would highlight that they are third parts that exist primarily because of financial rather than narrative considerations: they are made because there was more money to be milked, rather than a need for a closing chapter in a planned three-movie arc. Therefore The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King isn't necessarily a threequel in the way that Rush Hour 3 definitively is.

The watershed year for threequels was undoubtedly 2007, in which the following films were released (in chronological order):

• Spider-Man 3

• Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End

• Ocean's 13

• Shrek The Third

• Rush Hour 3

• The Bourne Ultimatum

• Resident Evil: Extinction