Franchise Exam Question

A franchise is an intellectual property involving the same central characters, setting and trademarks of an original work of media such as film. Franchises offer an attraction to audiences as it offers a narrative and generic formula in the first film and usually repeat this in each subsequent film.  Audiences like repeatable and familiar experiences. Franchises offer an attraction to producers as if the first film is a success, subsequent sequels and follow up films have a greater chance of success as the audience is already engaged in an open ending story.

Franchises don’t always succeed though. Take John Carter for example. This film, made by Disney flopped dramatically at the box office. Some studios would take a huge hit in regards to cash flow if a film like this lost millions of dollars.  But not Disney. Disney is a horizontally integrated company, which means their main focus isn’t just on producing films. This is known as synergy.  Disney also concentrates on merchandise and other companies owned, promotional tie-ins etc. Disney would have made a loss on this film but made a profit on other projects. Marketing was one of the reasons John Carter wasn’t a success. The name of the film doesn’t give any hint to the audience what the film entails. New cinematic experiences is the main reason this film was a flop. The film was to be shown in 3D, IMAX etc. Audiences have seen this before, and thus aren’t interested, as the film doesn’t bring anything new in regards to viewing experience. Avatar is the biggest grossing film in history because of new cinematic experiences. Audiences saw a film in the theatres shown in 3D for the very first time. Sure enough, more avatar films will be released in the future because of the first film’s success. And on that note, no more films concerning the John carter franchise will be made because the first film was a massive failure.

Franchises have been regarded for young people and that the films are all about fantasy characters that these audiences feel they are growing up with. Stars, directors, and mature stories are no longer important. Some franchises are accepted with this statement, such as the Harry Potter franchise. But others reject this. These are franchises like the Batman Dark Knight series and Alien series.

The Dark Knight franchise I think had success with the main character, played by Christian Bale. He is considered to be a film star. Also success was contributed from their viral marketing campaign. This method of marketing is well suited to franchises because the fans are already established and often web-savvy. The official Batman website contained a black screen and some unusual chanting. Some fans revealed a twitter tag which linked to another website. When fans shared this site on Twitter and Facebook, their profile pictures were used to create a collage, revealing the first image of Bane- one of the new villains that would be making an appearance on the upcoming Batman film. What makes this campaign so good is that it requires participation from fans.

The alien franchise was a success overall as most of their films fulfilled audience expectations and offered new experiences. These films are more likely to succeed than films that rely on the same old formula.

The first film, titled: Alien, was released in 1979. This provided a new take on two existing genres, Sci-Fi and Horror. These were known as being stagnant genres at the time. Alien offers unique visuals and an update on these genres, but also contains universal themes that have appealed to mainstream audiences, such as fear of the unknown and fear of the dark. The film itself ends with an open narrative, which means the ending leaves the film open for further exploration.

The second film released by the franchise was Aliens.  This delivered more of the same from he first film, but offered new experiences. These experiences was the 'action' element to Aliens, this brings more appeal and is more likely to tempt mainstream audiences to the film. This film dodged that curse that is known for failing or worse films than the predecessor.

Alien 3 offered no new experiences. It relied too much on the generic formula that was used for Alien and Aliens. It wasn’t well constructed, and shown the alien far too much. This is a bad thing as before audiences only ever seen glimpses of the alien, leaving fear of the unknown and wonder to when it might crop up next. Alien 3 showed a P.O.V of the alien, signifying that it’d become a character in the plot rather than something to be scared of.  The setting was unfamiliar and strange. Finally, the main character Ripley dies. This brings a disconnection from fans as they have grown accustomed to Ripley and got used to her being in every Alien film. Killing her off was a bad mistake as it contributed to the film being less of a hit than the previous two.

Alien Resurrection was the fourth film released. This film relied on generic expectations and also relied on a formula that Alien 3 damaged. The film offers few surprises or new cinematic experiences to the audience. The film received bad reviews and negative publicity because of these factors.

Uniqueness is key to franchises for success, as the aim should be to bring something new to audiences. Audiences like both repetition and new cinematic experiences and continuing storylines.