Step Up Movies Ranked: All Five Films, Best to Worst

I rank the Step Up movies by how well the story and the characters carry the dancing, and I use box office only as context. This is opinion, and it is mine alone. The series has five main films, and the television series Step Up: High Water (which moved from YouTube to Starz, according to TheWrap) is not part of the list. If you want to watch them in sequence first, the step up movies in order page has the full run, and the step up movies hub covers the series as a whole.

So, what did I weigh? First, whether the central relationship feels earned, since a dance film lives or dies on whether you care who ends up on the floor together. Second, whether the dancing grows out of the plot or simply interrupts it. Third, how each film sits in the series, because a sequel that builds on its predecessors is doing something a standalone cannot. Box office and ratings come after those, as a sanity check.

Step Up: All In, directed by Trish Sie, is the weakest film in the series, in my opinion, because it works better as a reunion than as a story. Sean Asa (Ryan Guzman) and The Mob leave Miami for Los Angeles, lose a dance battle to the Grim Knights, and Sean stays on to chase The Vortex, a contest whose prize is a three year show in Las Vegas. Along the way, Moose (Adam Sevani), Andie West (Briana Evigan) and Camille (Alyson Stoner) all return, and it is lovely to see them. As such, the film feels more like a roll call than a journey. It also earned the least of the five, at $86 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo, and its US release was the series' smallest at $14.9 million domestic. The soundtrack is a strength, and the step up soundtrack page lists the songs. Watch it if you have followed the series this far and want to say goodbye to the old faces.

Step Up Revolution, directed by Scott Speer, ranks fourth because its flash mob idea is clever but its central romance is thin. Sean works as a waiter at a Miami hotel and leads The Mob, a crew that stages flash mob performances and posts them online. Emily (Kathryn McCormick) joins without telling them that her father is a powerful real estate developer, and that secret should be the engine of the film. In my view, the set pieces are inventive, and dancing for online views and a cash prize was a fresh turn for the series. But, the leads have less room to grow than Andie or Tyler did, and the stakes never quite land. It grossed $140 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo, on a $33 million budget, according to The Numbers, which is a solid return. The pages for Sean in Step Up and Emily in Step Up Revolution go further on the two leads.

Step Up 3D, directed by Jon M. Chu, is the most purely entertaining film in the series, and it ranks third only because I prize story a little higher. Moose arrives in New York City to start at NYU after promising his father he will give up dancing for engineering. He follows a stranger in rare sneakers to a street battle, wins it, and meets Luke (Rick Malambri), who runs the Pirates from a warehouse that is behind on its payments. Natalie (Sharni Vinson) is a talented newcomer, and the crew heads for the World Jam championship. The battles are the draw, and it shows in the numbers: it is the biggest earner of the five at $159 million worldwide, with $116.9 million of that coming from outside the US, according to Box Office Mojo. In my opinion, the plot is a frame for the dancing, and a good one. If you only have one night, this is a fine pick.

Step Up (2006), directed by Anne Fletcher, is the heart of the series, and it ranks second behind a sequel I happen to like even more. Tyler Gage (Channing Tatum) is a street dancer from a rough part of Baltimore who is ordered to do community service as a janitor at the Maryland School of the Arts after he and his friends Mac and Skinny wreck part of it. He sees Nora Clark (Jenna Dewan), a serious ballet student, rehearsing for her senior showcase, and when her partner is injured he steps in. The film is simple, but the pairing of a street dancer and a ballet student gives it a clean engine. It was also the smartest business of the series, since it made $114 million worldwide on a $12 million budget, according to Box Office Mojo, which is roughly nine and a half times its cost. If you want the story first, start here. The Tyler Gage character page and the Nora Clark page explain the pair, and the step up 2006 film page has the details.

Step Up 2: The Streets, directed by Jon M. Chu in his feature debut according to Screen Daily, is the best of the five, in my opinion, because it gives the dancing the strongest emotional reason. Andie West (Briana Evigan) is a Baltimore street dancer still grieving her mother, who died of cancer. She lives with her guardian Sarah and dances with an illegal crew called the 410 in a competition known as The Streets. Tyler (Channing Tatum) urges her to audition for the Maryland School of the Arts, and Chase Collins (Robert Hoffman) helps her get in. Her two worlds collide, and that tension drives every number. This is also where Moose (Adam Sevani) first appears, and he becomes the face of the series. It grossed $148.6 million worldwide on a $17.5 million budget, according to The Numbers. Read more on Andie in Step Up and Moose in Step Up, and see the step up 2 the streets film page.

For a family evening, Step Up (2006) and Step Up 2: The Streets are the best fits, in my opinion, since both lean on a clear emotional story. The official ratings matter more than my taste here. All five films carry a PG-13 in the US. In the UK, Step Up (2006) and Step Up 2: The Streets are PG, while Step Up 3D, Step Up Revolution and Step Up: All In are 12. In Australia, all five are PG. That makes tweens and up the sensible starting age.

No next Step Up film has been announced. The latest main series film is Step Up: All In (2014), and no studio or trade outlet has given a date for another theatrical release. When that changes, the step up 6 page will carry it. For the cast behind these films, see step up cast, and for the numbers behind the earnings above, see step up box office. If you would rather see the dancing itself, the best step up dance scenes and step up dance crews pages are the next stops.