How important are film franchises for audiences and producers?

Film franchises are important for both audiences and producers. However there are positives and negatives for both. For audiences, they now enjoy more demanding experiences and franchises offer this. An example of this would be Iron Man 3, the audience would have to watch Iron Man 1 & 2 in order to fully understand what is happening in the film. Franchises also allow audiences to "go on a journey" with characters and see them develop, they are more complex and meet the audiences desires. This is prevalent with the Harry Potter franchise. We see Harry grow and go through similar experiences that most young people would but in a fantastical world. The audience see Harry grow as they do, which would encourage them to buy into the franchise more as they can relate to the characters. Franchises also allow audiences to engage with the story outside of the cinema with other revenue streams such as Video games and theme parks. Using the Harry Potter franchise again as an example, every Harry Potter film has seen a video game adaptation, in addition to this, there is a Harry Potter theme park in the US, as well as allowing the audience to engage with the story outside of the film, it also creates synergy for producers. Another advantage of franchises for audiences is that it can offer a social experience for them. For example if you and a group of friends are fans of a certain franchise then it's likely that you will go and see the film together. Finally previous films create a set of expectations that audiences can use to identify films they would like to see. An example of this would be the Spider Man franchise. If you liked the first two films, then the likely hood is, that you will enjoy the third one, this is due to the expectations created by the first two films and the audience would want them to be met with the third instalment. All of these points prove that franchises are very important to audiences, in addition, franchises have consistently made more revenue than star driven films in the last 10 years.

   However franchises can have some negative effects on the audience. Firstly franchises reduces the potential choices on offer as more and more studios begin to make franchise films. An example of this in effect would be the 2013 box office figures. In the table of the highest grossing films, the first eight were all franchises and the few stand alone films in the table were outnumbered dramatically by franchises. Another point is that some would say that films franchises insult the intelligence of an audience. This is prevalent with the Spider Man franchise. In the last 10 years there has been two different trilogies about the same character. This shows that film producers think that the audience would be content with the same thing every time. We also know this is not true as Interstellar made over a billion dollars at the box office, which shows that audiences will pick something different and challenging if given the choice. Another point to make is that films are now becoming more predictable and we are given less choice than ever before. This is shown with The Avengers franchise. In the first film, they are attacked by 'superior' being and have to find a way to overcome the seemingly indestructible threat, after seeing the trailer for the second Avengers movie, I believe that the same concept is there, only with a different antagonist pushing the concept. This shows that franchises are essentially becoming 'more of the same' and are decreasing in the variety in the plot and characters. As well as this, with franchises we are usually required to have seen the previous films in order to understand the plot of the newer film. An example of this would again be the Iron Man franchise in which it is essential to have not only watched the first two Iron Man films, but also The Avengers to understand the story completely. Finally, studios run the risk of over saturating the market and falling into a 'creative vacuum'. This is apparent in the trailer for the 'Ant-Man' film, which is a part of the Marvel superhero franchise. The conventions of the trailer show that it is pretty much the exact same formula of every other superhero movie.

    Although franchises hold advantages and disadvantages for audiences, they also hold the same for producers. For producers, a successful franchise can be potentially guarantee profits for years to come. This is proven with the vast amount of franchises that have become universes, an example being Star Wars who, will eventually boast nine films to it's name as well as over 200 novels, TV shows and merchandise. As well as this one property (a film/concept) can be sold many times generating several revenue streams from that one property., this is called synergy. For example the Spider Man franchise began as a comic book, eventually growing into; films, video games, TV shows etc.  ​As well as this, due to integrated business models, the failure of a film does not necessarily mean demise for the film studio. An example of this in effect would be John Carter, a film produced by Disney which was the biggest box office failure of all time, however the year in which John Carter was released, 2012, was also a record year in profits for Disney due to all of their other revenue streams, such as theme parks and other franchises still producing money. Another advantage for producers is that they can recycle sets and costumes to save money on the production of a film. A example of this would be Micheal Bay's Transformers - Dark of the moon, where a scene from another Micheal Bay film, the island is recycled into this film with added robots. Finally, producers are able to predict audience expectations and desires when making a film. Sequels and genre's are a good way to exploit this. For example, if an audience is a fan of superhero movies and enjoyed Iron Man, then the chances are that they will enjoy Iron Man 2 and 3, due to them being fans of both that particular franchise and genre of film.

    However some disadvantages of film franchises for producers are that producers run the risk of over saturating the market with franchises and boring audiences. An example of this would be the Alien franchise. Although Alien and Aliens saw commercial and box office success, Alien 3 and 4 did not. This is because of the producers trying to carry on the franchise in order to make revenue and eventually ended up boring audiences with the unpopular sequels. As well as this, franchises are risky to begin with and could lead to smaller studios becoming bankrupt. An example of this would be New Line Cinema who tried to produce film franchise of The Golden Compass. The film flopped at the cinema and eventually led to New Line Cinema being bought out by Warner Bros. Another disadvantage of this is that franchise films are likely to become predictable and drive away audiences. This is shown in the Transformers franchise which have become increasingly panned by critics. This shows that the Transformers franchise is becoming stale and boring to audiences. One of the most costly things that could happen is a film franchise failing and disrupting the other revenue streams of the producers. Another danger is a film in a franchise failing and affecting other revenue streams, disrupting synergy. This is shown from the Alien franchise, which, after the failure of the final two films, failed to expand and remains inactive aside from the film Prometheus, which was set in the Alien universe, but is not directly related to the first four films. Finally if an audience reject a film franchise, then that could mean huge financial short falls for the producer. This is shown again from New Line Cinema's production of The Golden Compass, which was rejected by audience and so not only did the film lose money, the producers also lost money from merchandise sales, eventually leading to the companies ruin.