How important are film franchises for producers and audiences?

How important are film franchises for producers and audiences?

Film franchises are important to producers as most franchises are an adaptation of existing books, comics and sometimes even games with an already existing fan base who will be willing to see their favourite characters in a new type of media and have their expectations met or broken and even if the movie isn’t well received the fans will most likely forgive the bad film and still pay to see the next one but have even higher expectations than before and if it does not meet those expectations it is bound to fail at the box office as audience expectation plays a big part in the success or the failure of a film.

Ridley Scott’s 1979 ‘Alien’ is a prime example of this, it was visually distinctive and unique, had a simple story and engaging characters that captivated the audience and grossed at $104,931,801. Alien ends with a open narrative to leave the film open to a sequel and more exploration of the universe created and that’s just what happened in 1987 directed by James Cameron ‘Aliens’ was released and the audience was not let down as it was different, but at its core the same, it had a similar environment, continuation of the storyline and a similar plot but was a different genre, had action elements to attract a more mainstream audience, was dubbed a scifi/horror hybrid and grossed $131,060,248 world wide as the audience got everything they expected from it and just enough new material to create an amazing sequel that didn’t fall into the boring sequel traps that so many films do and once again left the narrative open for further exportation and another movie.

In 1992 this time directed by David Fincher ‘Alien 3’ was released and brought absolutely nothing new to the Alien franchise while killing off some of the most well liked characters in the franchise before the film had even started, director of Aliens James Cameron said ‘the decision to kill off the characters of Bishop, Newt and Hicks is a slap in the fact to me and the fans’ this less than deserved killing of the characters distanced the fans from the story and left them dejected that their favourite characters were killed off so abruptly. This was not the only flaw with Alien 3 as the film was being written and shot at the same time so the finished product was bound to be worse than the others, it also showed the audience more of the alien than in the first two movies combined and gave us a chance to see its POV which was a poor decision as once you become familiar with it then becomes less scary and more like just another character. Alien 3 ended with Ripley killing herself and seemingly giving the story closure and closing it off to another movie.

Alien: Resurrection came out in 1997 and tired to repeat the success of the first two buy failed as it was full of generic conventions, very few surprises or any new cinematic experiences for the audience. The decision to bring Ripley back meant the audiences would feel cheated after Alien 3 brought her story to a close.

Film franchise are important to audiences as stars are becoming less relevant as they are boring and predictable and the sheer amount of media attention they gain means they have lost their anonymity and mysterious quality that older film stars had do the audiences are less interested in them and are more interested in the characters, storylines and the new cinematic experiences that movies can offer them for example the 2009 film Avatar is the highest grossing film of all time grossing $2,7,83,981,982 worldwide and the cast was made up of virtually unknown actors, because of this the characters felt more realistic to the audiences as they had no earlier judgement of an actor and their talent, this reinforced by the fact the only movie in the top ten grossing movie to be really ‘star driven’ was Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law, the rest were all franchises or adaptations like Harry Potter, Avatar and Twilight telling us that audiences no longer care that much about the stars in a movie and just want to be shown something they have never seen before.