SSC Film Studies

Franchises are important to both producers and the audience however there are pros and cons to this. The Horizontally integrated corporations is introduced, the ownership for example ‘News corporations’ own several company’s such as The Harper Book Publishers, 20^th Century Fox and the UK’s ‘The Sun’.  These smaller companies then own franchises, 20^th Century fox owns the Planet of Apes franchise. This has been adapted into books and toys.

Franchises are important to producers in ways that can be positive but also demanding. Using a franchise will create more profit if it is popular with the audience.  The money earned by the merchandise, TV show adaptations, video games and toys is then collected by the main ownership, news Corp and is counted as a profit. These franchises are important to producers as they allow and create more space for artistic creativity within the movies that are produced. If the film is a success in the box office it is more likely that a sequel will be produced in the first few months of the release of the original.  Also the film or franchise may be converted to other sources of media or formats. The franchise Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a sequel to the remade 2001 Planet of the Apes. The Planet of the apes was immediately a hit, as 20^th century fox still hadn’t produced a sequel by 2013, News Corporations bought 20^th Century and started producing a sequel.  The sequel was a success with a box office hit of $710.6 million beating its budget of $170 million. Due to this, all profits proceeded to News Corp. Books and toys were then made to promote and make the franchise even bigger.

The negatives for the producers involve other small companies. With News Corp receiving all the profit, the smaller companies such as 20^th Century Fox and the Harper Book Publishers lose a high amount of money as News Corp take all profit and only pay little to the companies hard work. However due to taking this responsibility, if the franchise or film is a flop, the ownership company is mainly effected as they will lose a huge amount of profit, especially if the box office does not make enough to cover the Budget.