Ironically, given that screenwriters in Hollywood recently went on strike for months for better pay, we’ve sunk into a period of creative struggles in US moviemaking. With all of the remakes, sequels, or prequels for movies made decades ago, and the new craze of making series with the same IP as previous movies and shows, it seems that either writers have run out of ideas or studios are only trusting projects that tap into some form of nostalgia somewhere.

Some movies, however, should be seen as such cinematic masterpieces that even the most cash-starved studios wouldn’t dare attempt to run them again. Any cinephile could probably name 50 of these that they don’t want to be remade, stretched into a series, or given a new sequel or prequel, but here, we’re looking at just the Top Three!

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The Godfather

It would take quite the delusions of grandeur to think that anyone could make a better version of 1972’s The Godfather. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, adapted from the Mario Puzo novel, and starring Al Pacino and Marlon Brando, it won three Academy Awards, taking home Best Actor (Brando), Best Picture, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Both leads boycotted the ceremony, but that was due to gripes with Hollywood and the Academy rather than wanting to disassociate with such a vaunted flick.

When the debate comes up for the best films ever made, one of the biggest debates is if The Godfather is better than The Godfather Part II from Coppola in 1974. Now, both are legendary, even to the extent that the original, iconic crime epic has made it to the slots and games online with its own slot title. Not only does the slot feature Don Corleone and other iconic symbols from the movie, but it also incorporates the popular “Book Of” mechanics. So, it delivers the theme of a perfect movie as well as offering a feature slot spinners gravitate to.

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The Lord of the Rings

Long-form cinematic storytelling has seemed to trail from prominence since The Lord of the Rings trilogy by Peter Jackson essentially perfected the art form. The cinematic cuts won stacks of Academy Awards, proving that the fantasy genre deserves praise, talent, and big budgets, but anyone who owns the movies goes for the epic 11-hour, 36-minute trilogy cut.

Like The Godfather, the movies masterfully adapt the J.R.R. Tolkien books for the big screen, sticking as closely as possible to the source material with minimal changes while excelling in all other regards of moviemaking. If you ever need proof that The Lord of the Rings from 2001 to 2003 shouldn’t be touched, you only need to look to the results of the hack-and-slash production of The Hobbit trilogy or, worse still, Amazon’s cringe-inducing mess of a prequel series, The Rings of Power.

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Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Released in 1961 and starring Audrey Hepburn, the romantic comedy snagged two Academy Awards from its five nominations and has been immortalized at the United States National Film Registry. It’s an icon of entertainment, and while the natural thinking would be to run the same story with better tech and in a modern setting, it seems unlikely that anyone would be able to recapture Hepburn’s charm or adapt the jokes successfully. That’s not stopping Paramount from trying to get a remake off the ground, though…

Should any movie studio executive be on the hunt for new IPs to quickly turn around into a new release, it’d probably be best for you to avoid The Godfather, The Lord of the Rings, and Breakfast at Tiffany’s!