Exam Question - Frank Boylan

Exam Question

How important are film franchises to audiences and producers?

Film franchises are becoming more and more popular with audiences; we enjoy seeing a collective series of movies to get an on-going story and to emphasise with the developing characters through the movies.  As a franchise continues producing movies, it can be a Social Experience for audiences. It can also make audiences Eager to watch a new upcoming franchise adaptation. For example, A group of friends could go to the cinema every 2 years to watch the continuation of a film franchise that they all love and enjoy. This also allows audiences to bond and relate to the characters as they develop through the story and giving a sense of familiarity to audiences, making films more relatable.

As the demand and appreciation towards film franchises increases this is something a film studio can use to their advantage – for the only reason films are made, profit.  Film studios can create a new film, which is a continuation of a franchise, to increase the popularity and creates more revenue for a franchise. For example, when the new Star Wars film will come out in cinemas, the film doesn’t have rely on the Box Office figures as its only source of revenue. Instead, the movie can rely on the sales of other products of the franchise; like Video Games and Merchandise. The franchise will receive an influx in merchandise sales just because of the release of the new film, all of the sales add towards the total revenue of the Star Wars franchise. To gain extra benefits from film franchises film studios will release and sell merchandise, from the same franchise, at the same time of the new film to generate more sales. This is known as Synergy.

Another example of the importance of franchises to films studios is Sony’s Resident Evil franchise. Although it started of as a video game, the franchise quickly made it’s way to cinema. With the help of Synergy, the Resident Evil video games have sold over 60 million copies, becoming the 20^th all time best selling video game franchise.