Franchises Essay

How important are film franchises for audiences and producers?

I believe that film franchises are very important for both audiences and producers in specific ways, however despite this both have negative sides when it comes to franchises.

Audiences - Positive

Audiences now enjoy more demanding experiences and franchises offer this, This is because contemporary audiences of today are too sophisticated to be affected by flashing arrows within film and need something more from their films all of which is brought on through franchises, this is backed up by the fact that a majority of the highest grossing/popular films are franchises.

Franchises also allow audiences to ‘go on a journey’ with characters and see them develop, this makes them more complex and meet up to the audiences desires. A great example of this would be the Harry Potter Franchise which started with the first film about getting used to new school/surrounds and dealing with bullies, but then as its audience grew so did the type of scenarios as it evolved into relationship problems and a love triangle. Despite this, however, a counter to that argument is the 'Die Hard' Franchise which had no complexity or evolution in the plot over the movies.

Franchises enable the audiences to engage with the story outside of just the cinema with things like: games, theme parks, etc. This allows the audience to become more immersed in the films extended universe and enjoy the escapism a lot more.

Franchises can now also offer a 'Social Experience' as you might have watched the first film of the series in the cinema with friends, doing this for every film in the series creates a social experience for bonding with those friends more as the films are apart of your friendship.

When looking into a Franchise, previous films create a set of expectations that the audience can use to identify films they would like to see, an example would be Iron Man 3. If you enjoyed 1 and 2, you are most probably going to enjoy 3. Another example would be The Avengers as 1 was a great success in the box office, 2 has high expectations and they are already planning out 3.

Audiences - Negatives

Franchises reduce the potential choices on offer as more and more studios begin to make franchise films. This is greatly backed up by the fact that 15 of the highest grossing films are apart of franchises.

Some say franchise films insult the intelligence of their audience, a great example of this would be in Michael Bay's 'Transformers' as a few shots from a previous film of his called 'The Island' were reused in it with Transformers plastered over the top. Though this choice was great financially, it insults the intelligence of the audience.

Films are becoming predictable and we are given less choice than ever before, as more demanding films are becoming quite rare. The predictability of franchise films is quite common as they follow the same formula as their predecessor.

Sometimes we are required to have seen previous films if we are to fully enjoy/understand films we see. A great example would be Iron Man 3, which seems to centre a bit around Tony and Pepper's relationship, however their relationship can only be understood if you watch the 1st and 2nd Iron Man films. Another example is with Guardians of The Galaxy as you would've needed to have watched/had knowledge about Thor and the other Avengers.

Studios run the risk of over saturating the market and falling in to a creative vacuum. This is backed up by 15 of the highest grossing movies being franchise films, like I mentioned before. This is saturating the market and making films quite predictable, it also doesn't allow outer franchise movies from reaching their full potential.

Producers - Positives

A successful franchise could potentially guarantee profits for years to come. This is backed up by the fact that 15 of the highest grossing movie are franchise films but also because of the intergrated business model