SSC Film Studies

How important are film franchises to producers and audiences?

Film franchises are important to both producers and audiences and allow for horizontal integration meaning a company can own a franchise and sell the same product/story/character again and again. However, there are pros and cons to this.

Franchises are important to producers because they allow for more creative freedom within a story, whether that is utilised or not. Writers create a new story line with familiar characters in a similar or different setting.  This is a positive because the audience were attracted to the initial film and if the sequel has similarities then people will go to see it.  In a Financial Times article it said “ Hollywood studios love franchise films because they have a built in awareness with audiences.” This means they already know what type of film to put into production. This creates a safety net for producers because they know they will not be struggling for money of the film is considered a flop as they have a guaranteed audience. 

They are also important to producers because they allow a company to be funded for whole years revenue. If an initial film does well and people become excited for the sequel, it will be a box office hit, meaning a lot of money for the producers and the company. This money can often be enough to support a company to make other films and still have profit left over. However, if the film flops, the producer loses a lot of money, that’s why only big companies such as Disney and 20^th Century Fox are the people to enter the franchise world as they can afford the loses whereas independent companies couldn’t. For example in 2015, Fantastic Four was released and was expected to do well at the box office due to its genre of Superheroes. It lost Fox around $60 million and some of that loss went to Marvel’s studios to. This was not an issue for them thought because in the same year 20^th Century Fox released The Maze Runner- Scorch Trials, The Kingsman Secret Service and The Martian, which was a surprising hit. This made up for the losses of the company as these films brought in profit. Marvel also released the Avengers sequel, Age Of Ultron, and Ant Man, which gained the producers millions.

Franchises also allow producers to take advantage of synergy, they can sell rights to toy companies such as Hasbro toys and sell them. This brings more money in from the original film and therefore more money for the producers. For example, Hasbro Toys has a deal with Star Wars; they sell star wars figures and have made $12,000,000,000.

On the other hand, people view franchises as bad for producers because if its an independent company and the film is a flop, they’ll lose money and not be able to afford to make a come back.  In addition, it means there is a lack of creative flow. Producers are essentially creating the same film, the only difference is setting or villain, and even then, the villain is trying for world domination like the last one. Even the setting just changes from New York to London, places were all Western people know of and can relate to. This is another negative for producers as it means it does not attract viewers in places like Asia. Now a days, producers are making a more conscience effort to make films more appealing for other cultures, for example, Avengers Age of Ultron was shot in Bangladesh, South Africa and South Korea. They also cast Claudia Kim who is a South Korean actress.

Audiences benefit from franchises because they know that with a sequel or series of films, their expectations are likely to be met because the film features the same universe and characters with something just slightly different. Last years Avengers: Age of Ultron, sequel to the Avengers was released and despite doing well at the box office, gaining $1,404,705,868, received a lot of criticism for being too dark. Essentially, some people didn't like it because the film was too different from the original.

Another benefit of film franchises for audiences is that it helps to build communities. On websites such as tumblr, with 280.4 million blogs, many of which will blog about films and its actors, people can share their opinions and meet fans of the same things as them. Film also builds communities by

Audiences

Pos

Builds communities

Theme oarks and merch

We experience the film outsode the theatre

Cons

Repetition

Creates division among fans

May not meet expectations