How important are film franchises for producers and audiences?

How important are film franchises for producers and audiences?

Film Franchises have become the dominant format for films in Hollywood. The modern reliance on Franchises began with the release of X-Men (1999) and The Matrix (1999). There are a number of reasons why franchises have taken off in the last 10 years and in this essay I will be exploring the different types of elements that attract producers to these types of projects and why the modern audiences love them.

Audience’s love for a film to tend to their expectations and this is one of the main reasons why franchises have taken off so dramatically. Franchise films establish a narrative and generic formula in the first film and repeat this in every subsequent film. It is one thing to take into account the audience expectations but also a new experience is vital for success at the box office.

Franchises have almost replaced the idea that a ‘star’ is required in a film in order for it to make money. They have shown them to be no longer relevant in the film industry because audiences have become smarter when watching films and no longer come to see films because of who is in it but for a new experience and for a good story.

The majority of new franchises explore the idea of escapism and with the growing development of Special FX these go hand in hand to attract audiences and produce enormous profits. This is the main factor in my opinion for the sci-fi genre becoming so popular in recent years. For example Alien coming off the back off star wars provided a different take on the newly expanding sci-fi genre. It was also a split genre film, which was unusual but proved to be very effective because the decision to make it a horror/sci-fi attracted a variety of different audiences and generated a lot of money. Alien was also one of kind at the time of release because it was a new cinematic experience. This is the most important aspect of a franchise in my opinion in order for it to be successful. Audiences want to see something they haven’t seen before and this will give them exactly that.

Alien was a very big success in the box office because no one had seen such a good film that incorporated two genres and was so dominant on both sides. While creating a truly frightening tension throughout the film it also showed people an amazing monster that was incredibly unique and unexpected.

After Alien no one thought there would be another which such a good response from the audience and with a new up and coming director. James Cameron became an exception to this by producing Aliens that was just as much as a success as its prequel. One of the reasons of this success was that he used repetition in order not to compromise the integrity of the first film and to appeal to the audience’s expectation and provide them with a new look and new cinematic experience.

A following third film was made that had a lot of problems from the get go and resulted in the worst film of the franchise. Alien 3 was considered to be a flop compared to Alien 1 and 2 but audiences have grown to love the franchise so much that regardless of how bad the film might have been they would still show there loyalty by going to the next instalment of the franchise.

The main reason for producers being attracted to franchise projects is that there is an enormous amount of money to be made. Franchises allow for big profits, not only with the ticket sales they can appeal to people through things like toys, games, theme parks etc. This is called ‘Horizontal integration’ they allow one corporation to generate many revenue streams from one set of films (Synergy). When producers get involved in making these types of films they do so because they know that franchises are primarily produced to make money.