Franchise

How important are film franchises to producers and audiences?

Film franchises are very important as not only do they usually earn a huge sum of money for producers but they’re also very relatable for audiences and can have an impact on them.

Firstly, film franchises are important to producers because of horizontal integration. Horizontal integration is when a company buys other companies in order to create a large sum of money from their products, the making of money from merchandise being synergy. Film companies buy other companies that sell newspapers, magazines, merchandise, toys, games, DVDs and sometimes food; they also buy companies that own television channels where they can advertise. An example of a company who have used horizontal integration to gain more money is NBC Universal, the owners of Universal Pictures. This company have own many companies such as CNBC, the world leading channel for business and financial news; furthermore they own 32% of Hulu which is a subscription website used by many to purchase film, TV programme and trailer rentals. NBC also own Universal Parks & Resorts with the most commonly known park being Universal Orlando, the second largest park in Greater Orlando after Walt Disney World. Moreover, NBC has had many partner companies such as McDonalds who have helped in selling toys from Universal’s franchises in their Happy Meals aimed at children. From NBC Universal owning these companies and many more they are able to sell merchandise, advertise and gain money from family days out to theme parks all from one film franchise.

An example of a film franchise produced by NBC Universal is Despicable Me. This franchise has been a huge success for NBC with Despicable Me 2 being the most successful NBC film in the box office of all time. The main reason for Despicable Me being such a success is the minions, these are little yellow characters owned by a super villain and are very relatable for the audience as they create comedy for the audience and are the main idea for making the film original. For this franchise, NBC used their business partner, McDonald’s, to sell toys in their Happy Meal. They also created an app for iPhones, iPads and Androids called Minion Rush which was a huge success gaining 26188 downloads per day.

Another very successful franchise important to producers is Star Wars gaining total revenue of $27 billion. Because of this huge revenue, Disney have recently bought Star Wars from the original producers, however they have not done so to create a new film for the audience. Disney’s main reason for buying the Star Wars franchise is so that they can make a huge new theme park based on Star Wars which will attract many types of people and of all ages and will make Disney a huge sum of money, This shows the importance of film franchises as they can make a huge amount of money for companies who never even came up with the idea.

During 2012, Disney attempted to produce a new film franchise named John Carter, however the first film resulted in the biggest film failure of all time. However, because of Disney’s many other successful film franchises no dramatic loss of money was made due to other franchises earning Disney a huge sum of money and making them the richest entertainment company worldwide.