The Lowest Rated Karate Kid Movie According To IMDb

After "The Karate Kid" came out in 1984, it quickly became a classic for many young people who grew up during that era. As most of us know, the franchise lives on in Netflix's sequel series "Cobra Kai," which released its 4th season back in December 2021. "Cobra Kai" picks up around 30 years after the events of the original film series and follows characters like Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) in their adult lives.

For many, when they think of the series, it is the iconic first movie that will immediately come to mind. However, there were actually three sequels to "The Karate Kid" — "The Karate Kid Part II," "The Karate Kid Part III," and "The Next Karate Kid." Daniel travels to Mr. Miyagi's (Pat Morita) home of Okinawa Island in Japan during "Part II," then faces the threat of John Kreese (Martin Kove) once again in "Part III." Meanwhile, "The Next Karate Kid" introduces a completely new student for Miyagi to train in the form of Hilary Swank's Julie Pierce.

Sequels are notoriously difficult for movies that become so massive and era-defining, and this was no different with "The Karate Kid." Here's what we know about the lowest-rated Karate Kid movie, according to IMDb.

The 1994 film "The Next Karate Kid" follows Miyagi as he meets Julie (Hilary Swank), the granddaughter of an old friend who passed away. After discovering that Julie is struggling to cope with the death of her parents, Miyagi offers to stay as Julie's caretaker for a while. He also learns that Julie is clashing with a group of ultra-aggressive hall monitor bullies at her school known as the Alpha Elite. Miyagi takes Julie under his wing and after some training, they work together to bring down the Alpha Elite. 

While Swank would go on to become a well-known actor and win two Oscars, "The Next Karate Kid," which was one of her earliest movie roles, received the lowest rating from users on IMDb, scoring just 4.5/10 stars. This would be relatively no different on Rotten Tomatoes as well, as it has a paltry 7% critic score. In his review of the film, Emanuel Levy wrote, "Desperately trying to infuse new blood into the l980s franchise, The Next Karate Kid ... is a hodgepodge of a movie, fashioned entirely from recycled ideas and characters."

Fortunately, "Cobra Kai" continues to be well-loved by fans of "The Karate Kid" series.