When the iconic dance film, Step Up, hit theaters in 2006, fans immediately fell in love with the onscreen duo of then-star-in-the-making Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan. Between the pair’s intense chemistry and the plot line involving a street dancer versus a trained ballerina, the film went on to span a franchise of five films that have recently seen an international adaptation and one TV series, which is now in its third season. As reported by Deadline, the third season of the spinoff TV series, Step Up: High Water, saw its premiere in October on the streaming service, Starz.

Despite fans’ views that the sequel films have not lived up to the hype of the first, the step Up franchise has still seen its share of success. While Dewan and Tatum’s only appearances come in the first film, with the exception of a small cameo from the latter in the second, the franchise does replace the pair with other actors who have similar chemistry and skill. What separates most of the films is which dancer is from the streets and which is an educated dancer. The theme of “the streets” is prevalent in all films.

The franchise is obviously full of dancing as are most movies about dance, but what makes the Step Up franchise unique is the different emphasis on the styles of dancing. From ballet to crunk, and even breakdancing, the franchise’s choreography is one of the many redeeming qualities within all the films, despite critics’ reviews. Here’s where all the films rank in terms of popularity.

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5 Step Up All In

     Summit Entertainment

Step Up All In is the fifth film in the franchise and the one where most of the main cast from the previous films come back to form a new crew and fight a new battle. Andie (Briana Evigan) and Moose (Adam Sevani) from the second film return, and Sean (Ryan Guzman) from the fourth film, along with a few other dancers throughout the years, reprise their roles in this 2014 film. Sean is the main character in this film, and he finds himself taking his crew from Miami to Los Angeles, though his crew, The Mob, ends up returning to Miami after not finding much luck. Sean decides to stay in Los Angeles where he meets up with Moose and Andie as they form a new crew to battle for a three-year dance contract in Las Vegas.

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4 Step Up 3D

     Touchstone Pictures

In the third installment of the franchise, Step Up 3D, Moose and Camille (Alyson Stoner) are the only cast members to reprise their roles from previous films. New leads are cast as the main dancing partners: Sharni Vinson plays Natalie, and Rick Malambri plays Luke. What makes the third installment differ from the first two films is this one takes place not in high school, but in college in New York. Moose is an NYU freshman who helps rally a team to compete in a high-stakes showdown between the world’s best hip-hop dancers. The film was given a theatrical release, though it bombed at the US box office until it was saved by the international release.

3 Step Up Revolution

Step Up Revolution takes the franchise to Miami, Florida when the new lead, Emily (played by Kathryn McCormick), heads to the new city in hopes of pursuing a dance career. While she is there, she meets Sean, a leader of a flash-mob-style dance crew there in Miami. In this film, the threat is still between the budding romance of the two dancers, but it also deals with Emily’s father whose construction company threatens Sean’s neighborhood when they plan on tearing it down to put in a new development. Emily and Sean pair up with his group, The Mob, as they hope to use their dance as a way of protesting the possible build.

2 Step Up 2: The Streets

     Summit Pictures

As you can guess from its name, Step Up 2: The Streets is the second film in the franchise. In opposition to the first film, the street dancer is the female lead while the trained dancer is the male lead. Robert Hoffman plays Chase, a sort of hybrid character of Dewan and Tatum from the first film in terms of his dancing abilities. His partner, Andie, played by Briana Evigan, is the cousin of Tatum’s character, Gage. Gage convinces Andie to try out for a slot at the same art school where she finds herself starting her own street crew after being kicked out of her original one. The climax of the film, of course, shows a dance-off in the streets themselves of Andie’s new crew, made up of the outcasts from the art school, and her old crew.

1 Step Up

No surprise here that the original Step Up was the best film in the franchise. The film kick-started both lead actors’ careers and brought the pair’s onscreen chemistry offscreen, where Dewan and Tatum were married for many years before separating. The film stars Tatum as an untrained street dancer who gets caught vandalizing a prestigious art school theater. While he is working as a janitor at the school to pay for the damages, he finds himself standing-in as a dance partner alongside Dewan’s character in her senior showcase. The unlikely pair turns the heads of many as what starts off as a dance partnership turns into a full-fledged romance that changes both characters for the better.