Don't think it's a swqual - remember Judge Dread was a long running comic book series long before the film was made, and is still going strong (I'm not 100%, but I think it's one of Britains top comics, or at least the best know comic that's made by the UK rather than America). Think what the last two Batman films were compared to the four before them (or the one before those), or the last two Bond films compared to the 20 preceding them.