Stars

Neither audiences, nor producers need film stars anymore’

With the recent acknowledgement that franchises have the potential to draw in larger box office figures than film stars do, film stars have begun a steady decline into redundancy from their previous godlike status.

In 2014, fourteen of the top twenty biggest grossing movies were franchise films, with the top three being Transformers, The Hobbit and Guardians of the Galaxy (bringing in a combined total of over $2600m between them). Aside from this, the other six movies have claims of the launch of a franchise, star director and a story based off a book to diminish their claim that the star was the primary source of income for box office figures.

Christine Gledhill claims that four key points can define stars:

·      Capital value

·      Constructs

·      Deviant

·      Cultural value

However, in the present it seems that now franchises can offer these points that were previously attributed to stars.

For example, capital value is shown in franchise through the fact that franchises have begun to annihilate box office figures year after year and retain very little competition from purely star driven films.

Characters within a franchise are often very personal to their fans and they become extremely loyal to the actors who portray their favourite roles on screen. Because of this, the characters cast often symbolise many points that they share with the character through the way their image is constructed. The way that Robert Downey Jr. and Tony Stark (Iron Man) have somehow blended into one persona in the media is a perfect example for this as his personality off screen and personal history is very similar to that of the character of Tony Stark so his constructed image has become what fans would expect to see of Tony Stark in his everyday life. Even actors that are not well known, such as Daisy Ridley as Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (which happens to be her first acting job aside from college productions), experience huge spikes in popularity and increased personal interest from the media and fans alike who almost demand to know more of her past and how she can link to the character of Rey in her own construction of herself. Taking the actor out of it completely, the power that a franchise brings to drive character constructs to an audience is overwhelming in the way that if a fan or audience member would like to know more about the character then they have almost limitless opportunities to learn more about them such as their backstory and what shaped them to be how they are through the use of merchandising and providing further details through novels, comic books, video games and toys.

The definition of deviant is ‘departing from usual or accepted standards, especially in social or sexual behaviour’; this can be shown through some franchises that do not follow the usual standards of how franchises are maybe supposed to be presented or what they are to contain. An example of this is Guardians of the Galaxy, which was immensely popular upon its release and to this day due to its unique characters and great use of humour. However, what remains a standout reason for the new franchises success is its soundtrack, made up of 1970s and 80s hits which makes the franchise a lot more accessible to an audience in a way that no other franchise have really touched on before then. The films soundtrack album reached number one on the US billboard chart, becoming the first soundtrack album in history consisting entirely of previously released songs to top the chart. This departure from the accepted standards of a franchise (especially a huge sci-fi, space adventure owned by Marvel) makes it completely distinctive amongst the backdrop of its other competitor franchises.

Cultural value is almost epitomised by Disney who, despite their rickety past, have become leaders in acceptance and educating others on social roles of different ethnicities (Pocahontas) …

·       More about the way Disney has become a cultural icon for younger generation

·      Talk about the way ideologies are portrayed by franchise

·      Active audiences – expanded universe of franchise

·      However, points like the revenant