How important are film franchises for audiences and Producers?

How important are film franchises for audiences and Producers?

Since 1999, Hollywood has been inundated with film franchises, both successes and failures. Film franchises aren’t necessarily new, but their dominance in Hollywood is. 1999 saw the revamp of Star Wars with The Phantom Menace, and the beginning of two hugely successful franchises in The X-Men and The Matrix.

A film’s main aim is to make money, through any medium. Franchises make this possible through merchandising and promotions. I myself have been pulled into a franchise and bought nearly every piece of merchandise imaginable, whether it be a Star Wars t-shirt, or a life-size Yoda doll. However, I have never bought any merchandise, except the DVD, for a film that isn’t a franchise. This is why franchises are important to producers; they create synergy. Franchises play a huge part in the horizontal integration business model used in Hollywood. The ability to make money from several different streams from a set of films is now easier than ever, as audiences are more inclined to prefer films that are part of a franchise.

A reason for this, and a reason why producers prefer franchises too, is because ‘stars’ have died out drastically. It is now very rare for a star to sell as film. Audiences prefer to have expectations of a film that can be met constantly. Unlike stars, franchises never go away. For example, Ridley Scott’s Alien was released in 1979, and 32 years later in 2011, the same director brought the Alien universe back into the forefront for a new generation in Prometheus. Franchises bring to the audience a fulfilment of their expectations, as well as several new cinematic experiences. Whether it be the multi-genre Alien, or the ground-breaking 3D in Avatar, franchises are generally the first films to give the audience this new cinematic experience they crave.

In my opinion, producers are more than aware of this, and so franchises are so important to them not only to make money from a movie, but to gather a loyal fanbase that will continue being loyal to the franchise long after its release, up until – and including – when a new set of films is released, such as the case with Alien and Star Wars.

The Alien franchise is a perfect example of how a franchise works. Alien was released in 1979, and its simple story and iconic alien character made it hugely popular and successful. The film reinvigorated the previously mocked Sci-Fi genre, and combined it with the ever-popular Horror genre. Its use of a female protagonist was a risk that paid off, so it was no surprise that when the sequel, Aliens, was released in 1986, fans were eager to see it.

Aliens, directed by James Cameron, satisfied audience expectations gained from the first film and was better than the seemingly perfect Alien. The same characters were brought back, ensuring fans could still follow their favourite characters, whilst new ones were also introduced. The film was still horror/sci-fi, but with more action scenes than ever, it brought a whole new set of fans; action genre fans. Both Alien and Aliens brought new cinematic experiences that pleased fans and left them wanting more.

It was inevitable that Aliens wouldn’t be the last we saw of the iconic alien, but sadly for the franchise, the audience saw more than they wanted. There is always a lot of pressure on sequels within a franchise to do well, and this didn’t seem to be an issue with Alien. Aliens was a huge success, so when Alien 3 was released in 1992, it was a surprise to many, particularly the loyal fans the franchise had garnered since 1979, that the film was a huge disappointment. Alien 3 offered nothing new to the audience and didn’t satisfy their expectations. The iconic, eyeless alien, made famous by its unpredictable nature, was shown far too often in the film, and POV shots showing what the alien could see didn’t work well. The story was new in a way but after seeing Ripley and co fight an army of aliens in Aliens, coming up against just one alien in Alien 3 seemed pointless and boring to the fans. Not only this, the audience were left displeased when popular characters such as Newt and Hicks were killed off, seemingly without proper reason.

The pressures on a franchise to do well made me think ‘why do producers keep making franchises?’, but then it became obvious to me. Even after Alien 4 was a worse failure than Alien 3, the franchise still had fans. Video games of two iconic franchises, Alien vs. Predator, were released and were hugely popular. They kept the franchise in the forefront, particularly for a new generation of fans. Their huge love for the first two films meant they could forgive the two bad ones. When Prometheus was released in 2011, fans old and new watched in approval as questions left unanswered in Alien, such as “Who is the space jockey?”, were answered, and the film was a huge success.

Franchises are risks to producers, but when they work out, the inevitable profit is huge. I know that, even though the modern Star Wars prequel wasn’t great, I still bought the merchandise and I will probably see the new films when they are released. Producers love tapping into a loyal fanbase and creating a long-standing franchise that combines popular films and the potential for synergy. In my opinion, franchises are now the most important aspect for audiences, and I feel that, because making money is key to producers and studios, franchises are the most important aspects to producers, too.