Importance of film franchises

Audiences are now demanding experiences which franchises offer, they are becoming a universe and have taken over the film industry. The franchise Iron Man shows how popular franchises are as it made over 1 billion whereas a film like oblivion only made over 2 million. Franchises also create expectations for the audience, which they use to decide whether to watch the next film. If somebody likes Iron Man then they are more likely to go watch Iron Man 2 and 3. This is shown true in the box office as they all do very well and people are being a part of the journey as Iron Man 3 did the best. As audiences are demanding a challenge from films they want to see if what they think is going to happen will, making them go see the next film. Franchises require more attention and commitment from audiences, which meets the audience’s desires. They allow people to ‘go on a journey’ with the characters. Harry Potter did very well over time as a generation grew up with them and this made it relatable. As the characters were growing up so was the audience and this made a connection with people and Harry Potter. Franchises are also a ‘Social Experience’, the audience will go see the films with the same people and it becomes a ritual. As the audience have to wait for the next film of the franchise they have many other things to engage with the franchise outside of the cinema. There is now so much merchandise on offer that the franchise becomes a part of people’s lives, there are things being made like Harry Potter World. This allows people to connect with the franchise on a personal level as they can see parts of the set and props from the actual films and feel closer to it.

Although franchises can be very positive for audiences they also have many negatives. Franchises are becoming so popular that they are being made more reducing the potential choices on offer. The box office sales for 2013 show he majority of the best selling films are a part of a franchise. Out of the first 28 best selling, all but 10 were franchises, which proves how there is less variety in cinema. Studios now run the risk of over saturating the market and falling in to a creative vacuum. The Spiderman franchise shows how it has fallen in to a creative vacuum, each film decreases in the box office sales, which shows how the audiences are becoming bored of the same thing. Another franchise that fell into a creative vacuum is Alien. Alien begun unique and had two very well made films that audiences loved. When Alien 3 came along, it was the same as all the others but never offered anything new. After Aliens came after Alien each film was becoming more tense but Alien 3 went back to a small scale. It also demonstrates how sometimes people need to have seen previous films to understand the new ones. I personally had to talk through the story of Spiderman to my little cousin as he had never seen any of them before but wanted to watch the latest one.

As well as franchises being important for the audiences they also have a positive impact on the producers. Franchises go on for many years; this means if producers make a successful franchise they have potentially guaranteed man profits for years to come. A successful franchise like Harry Potter has made a lot of profit for its producers as it was and still is very popular. As so many people grew up with it, it became its own expansive universe, it is certain to keep making a return in popularity as new generations come. The success of this franchise allowed for merchandise to be made and this also brought in a lot of profit. The toy sales for Harry Potter were $7,307,500,000 and the DVD sales were $1,878,000,000. This shows how popular merchandise can become and how much money they bring in for the producers. Another positive of franchises for producers is they can reduce costs by reusing sets and costumes etc. Transformers The Island had a scene were there was a car chase on a busy highway. This epic scene was reused in a later Transformers film which was Dark of the Moon. This saved the producers lots of money as they no longer had to hire the highway out or smash up lots of cars. Failure films no longer necessarily mean a ruin for a studio because of integrated business models. Disney's John Carter did terribly for Disney leaving them with a $200 million loss for the company. This however didn't ruin the studio as Disney came back with many successful films such as Frozen which became the fifth highest-grossing film in box office history. Franchises leave many questions and expectations open for the audience. Studios use this to predict what will suit the demands of the audience which makes them be more successful. Most of the big box office films are now franchises which shows how much audiences enjoy them, audiences like to see if their expectations were correct.