Creating an enduring film franchise may not be an easy feat, but if done right it can mean box-office gold. In 2011 alone, the top seven grossing films in the US were all sequels, with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 at number one, and Cars 2 rounding out the list.
A film franchise, for the most part, is made of multiple films with linking story lines or characters. They can be films that stretch a storyline among different parts, like Lord of the Rings or Star Wars, or simply tell different tales of characters who were introduced in the first film as in the American Pie comedy franchise. As outlined in Filmsite.org, it takes a minimum of three films to make a franchise; they can be sequels, prequels and sometimes remakes. In terms of genre, they typically fall in the category of horror, sci-fi, fantasy and adventure; or, at least statistically speaking, most of the successful series fall under one or more of these classifications.
Getting it right means gaining a dedicated audience who will go back for more; be it to resolve a storyline, or continue the adventures of a favourite character. This being said, the audience still needs to be hooked from the first film, or already have an appreciation for the characters or storyline. According to The Economist Online, the current Hollywood franchise model “starts with the advantage of name recognition. It has also become keen on what the studios call ‘pre-sold’ films – stories based on a book (like Harry Potter) or a toy (like Transformers).”
Harry Potter is one of many film franchises that have established literary roots. Lord of the Rings and Twilight had reading audiences before spectators. The first of the “blockbuster era”, Jaws, which was followed by three sequels, started off as a Peter Benchley novel of the same name. Many of the 22 James Bond films are based on Ian Fleming’s 007 books. The long-running franchise was only recently surpassed by the Potter films after the eighth instalment took the top spot for total accumulated box-office revenue.
Not all franchises, though largely founded in fiction, are based on pre-existing characters from novels or comic books. Horror franchises like Nightmare on Elm Street (8 films in total) and Friday the 13th (now up to 12 films in its roster) seem to have a life of their own. Both of these franchises have seen remakes in the past couple of years, and have even been combined by pitting one villain against the other in Freddy vs. Jason; two ways producers have kept the undead from dying for good.
Speaking of coming back from the grave, the rebooting of an older franchise is fairly common. Last year’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a prequel to the Apes series that started in 1968; both X-Men: First Class and Wolverine are “origin” stories. Even Casino Royale can be considered a loose prequel; at least in terms of providing a background for Bond’s life. Otherwise, the 007 series has managed to stay alive by replacing the lead role with the “latest and greatest” leading man six times since its inception in 1962.
As Eric Gozlan, of Goldrush Entertainment points out: “Franchises are not easy to come by; while most production companies don’t focus on them, if they do come across a great formula they can strike gold”. Though Goldrush is not necessarily franchises-focused at the moment, Gozlan says: “Because of its lucrative nature we are always looking for projects that can be franchised.”
Whether the promise of conclusion, a new adventure of an iconic character or introducing a different actor to bring a flagging series back to life, the top box office results of 2011 has proven that franchises are a huge draw for audiences. What series will be brought back to life in 2012? Will the next major franchise be based on a book? We’ll just have to wait to find out.
To be continued…
