How important are film franchises for producers and Audiences?

How important are film franchises for producers and audiences?

Films are not the most important part of an industry anymore, in fact, in modern-film studios; the film has become a gateway to create a multitude of revenue sources. But whilst for producers, their main aim is to make money, they also have to please their audiences to meet their expectations, so by making the first movie for a franchise, they must make sure the audience can connect to characters and enjoy the film to keep them hooked for further sequels.

In attempting to begin a new franchise, the company must have a new, unique idea to appeal to their target audience and a successful example of this is the first Alien movie, which provided a brand new experience as it combined sci-fi, action and horror into one. They then proceeded to release Aliens, a sequel to the first, which was a success at it repeated key themes but made sure it was bigger and better than the first by having a mass amount of aliens rather than just one. This meant that fans of the first film would go and see this film and have it meet their expectations with the same characters that they have connected to previously with a continued, understandable storyline. Ultimately, the production of this successful sequel meant fans were happy and the producers were making a lot of profit.

It is essential that films and their sequels meet the audience’s expectations as if they fail to do so; it could have a massive effect on the reputation of its producers and the success of the film franchise as a whole. Alien 3 happened to be a disappointment for fans of the Alien franchise, as their expectations were not met, this was because in the third instalment, there were new, unappealing characters, and popular characters from the previous films were anonymously killed off. It also, did not bring anything new to the franchise and repeated the same themes as the first film; and because of this, along with the overly complex storyline and bad press, it all lead to bad word of mouth and ultimately a failure.

Companies can avoid a massive loss of money if a sequel fails through use of synergy, and an example of this would be the production of merchandise, which allows the fans to buy certain things with the theme of movie. For example, with the Harry Potter movies, fans were able to buy wands, cloaks, t-shirts, mugs and other things, which gave the company another source of revenue to keep the money coming into the business. So, if a film does not do well in the box office, it has the safety net of the other sources of revenue to make up the loss of money.

Franchises also offer a security for the producers of the films as once they have an audience who are fans of what they are making, they still have people buying tickets to see the movie and therefore have that stream of income.
John Carter was the biggest movie failure of all time as it did not bring anything new to the movie industry and tried to repeat themes of the most successful film of all time, Avatar, but because Disney, one of the biggest and richest companies in the world made a 13 billion profit the same year it was released, the loss John Carter brought to the company had little effect on profits. This is useful as it means there is a reduced chance of the company going out of business and losing mass amount money as a whole.

Horizontal integration is like a win-win situation for both the industry and it’s audience as the sequels it produces, if done right can keep fans happy and entertained whilst at the same time generated millions or even billions for it’s company. Harry Potter is a good example of this as it had the luck of having fans before the movie was even made due to it being a book meaning it already had a secured audience. The first movie appealed to audiences as again, it offered a new experience with the already popular franchise of books, which as a result hooked a fan-base and offered security for the upcoming sequels which went on to generate massive profits and success. The sequels kept a continuous, understandable storyline with the same themes and ideas but each time made bigger and better to keep audiences interested and these aspects of a successful franchise meant the films done well at box offices and supplied a guaranteed audience for the other films.

In conclusion, franchises are very important for the producers and at the same time, the fans as it provides both entertainments for the audiences and the income of money for the producers, but, it is important they do it correctly to have success in both those areas otherwise the sequels could fail and have a negative effect on the franchise as a whole.