Afilm franchise has been described as afilm series which not only continued the narrative throughsequels andprequels, but also included expansion through ancillaryintertexts which could includespinoffs,remakes andreboots. These formats did not have to exist as films either, and could betransmedial story telling, through other elements such asnovels,video games and other works.
While some early filmclassical Hollywood era would spawn a film series, such asTarzan of the Apes (1918), there were generally few series. Others were lower budget material was based on brands such asSuperman asfilm serials and radio dramas. Early franchises and series such as theJames Bond films and others often had recurring characters, settings, plot formulas, but predominantly acted as stand alone stories. As time went on, audiences values began to change, leading to a greater demand for more narrative and in-world consistency between films and their adjacent media, leading to their reception in either format could effect the development of future films in a franchise.
Asconglomerates began to exploit their various film and televisionintellectual property rights, this allowed for multimedia reiteration of works that herald a new age of what that would generate long-term audience appeal through film franchises likeJaws andStar Wars. Production of franchises continued through the 1980s becoming more in the 1990s with film series likeBatman (1989–1997) and other productions led to the rise oftentpole films in the late 1990s and 2000s.
By the 21st century, the conglomeration of American film and television industries favored film franchises over original content.[1] Various financial factors in Hollywood filmmaking led to the development of film franchises over lower budget and independent films that would carry greater financial risks.[2] Thesemedia franchises had a what Bryan Hikari Hartzheim, James Fleury and Stephen Mamber describe as a seismic impact on the film industry.[3] Journalist Ben Fritz went as far to say in 2018 that the franchise film era was the most meaningful revolution in film industry since thestudio system had ended in the 1950s.[3] The change of dominance of film franchises effected previous forms of making films such as thestar system and with a greater emphasis on films set in ashared universe and more unity in narrative in the subtext material in the film franchises. The global box office of Hollywood film franchises became dependent that it had franchises focusing attention on Chinese film markets, and would adapt some of their material to these audiences and later collaborate with production companies in the country.
Academic David Church inHorror Franchise Cinema (2021) wrote that terms "film franchise" and "film series" had become increasingly conflated in popular discourse.[4] Church continued that a contemporary film franchise was multi-film series that not only pushes the narrative forward or backwards through sequels and prequels, but also includes expansion through ancillaryintertexts. This allowed for a range from parallel storylines inspinoffs to re-evaluations of narratives inremakes orreboots, suggesting that a franchise has less to do with the longevity of a series, but to the proliferation that extends beyond linear development.[4] James Fleury and Stephen Mamber echoed this inThe Franchise Era: Managing Media in the Digital Economy (2019), stating that while a series consists of works in a single medium, a franchise migrates a brand across multiple forms of media.[5] Derek Johnson further explained that amedia franchise denotes "multiplied cultural production" and Daniel Herbert has specified that the term refers to a particularly "industrial" logic designed "to expand and spread" anintellectual property (IP) into an array of texts.[6][7]
The importance of narrative continuity has changed in franchises over film history. Outside a few media franchises likeAlien,Rocky andShaft, few early film franchises follow a story continuity that an originating text established.[8] Others are rebooted for new storylines likePlanet of the Apes, while others such asStar Trek establish alternative timelines, serving them as bothreboots and sequels.[8] As the digital era went on, multimedia franchises becametransmedial franchises which applied narrative expansion in all their texts.[9]
As film ismultimedia, it follows a top–down form of management as a franchise, where in which ancillary texts (such astie-invideo games) repeat the narrative of a primary text of a film.[9] An example is the filmAlien (1979) featuringEllen Ripley portrayed bySigourney Weaver trapped on the space vessel Nostromo fight to survive against an alien creature.[9] As20th Century-Fox followed up the first film, the franchise becametransmedial as at first, it was followed up with a novelization and a pair of video games (Alien (1982) andAlien (1984)). These work borrow directly from the film's plot elements and present it abstractly as games.[5]
Despite changes infilm genres between films such as the moreaction film elements inAliens and theprison film format ofAlien 3 (1992), Fleury and Mamber wrote that a franchise's identity depends more on adherence to the world of the film than conventions offilm genre and extends to the paratexts of a franchise.[10] As theAlien franchise moved to becoming more transmedial, it displayed how film franchises have brought new demands in the later digital age from audiences, demanding stricter continuity among texts, stronger collaboration between licensors and licensees, and regular engagement with fans.[9] These include narratives a central drive for the franchise economy, either through consistency or through changes with reboots, remakes and spin-offs.[11] Daniel Herbert expanded on this, suggesting that howStar Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) "may be a single film, but it held the responsibility of representing and supporting an entire media franchise"[12] This extended to the metatext of franchises, such as the video gameAliens: Colonial Marines (2013) was poorly received by critics who noted its lack of narrative continuity and connection with the film series. This reception led led to 20th Century Fox halting development onNeill Blomkamp'sAlien film production which would initially ignoreAlien 3 andAlien Resurrection (1997) as audiences now placed immense pressure on individual texts in a film franchise to meet the expectations which reflect their mother text.[13]
While the early 20th century introduced certainbrands such as theLone Ranger,Buck Rogers andSuperman, tended to appear in serialized formats with low budgets works such asfilm serials andradio serials and later with television.[14]
Studio film productions had existed asserial entertainment inClassical Hollywood-era, though only a few films such asTarzan of the Apes (1918) andThe Thin Man (1934) spawned sequels.[14]Universal Pictures would produce what Hartzheim, Mamber and Fleury described as a prototype of ashared universe with theirUniversal Monsters films, which involved plots that have the individual characters cross over into each other's individual series narratives.[15] InMedia Franchising, Derek Johnson said the Universal Monster films of the 1930s and 1940s should not be viewed as franchise, as "no such discourse was in play to make sense" of the productions and doing so would beanachronistic "cultural logic".[16] Early cinematic universes like this were rare, showing up sporadically in subsequent decades, such as inKevin Smith'sView Askewniverse.[17]
These radio and film serials influenced the development of franchises such asJames Bond, with Colin Burnett stating that the cinematic character ofJames Bond, specifically that of the first 20 films (beforeCasino Royal (2006)), theBond films established recurring characters, settings, plot formulas, despite primarily being stand alone stories.[14]
Film series in the 1970s exhibited little discernible long-term planning, and often feature narrative incoherence like ignoring the death of Bond's bride inDiamonds Are Forever (1971) inLive and Let Die (1973).[18] Other films such asPlanet of the Apes (1968-1973) had endings that seemed to render a follow-up to be narratively impossible, such as the titular planet exploding at the end ofBeneath the Planet of the Apes (1970).[18]
With theNew Hollywood replacing thestudio system,conglomerates began to exploit their various film and televisionintellectual property rights, allowing for multimedia reiteration of works that herald a new age of what Hartzheim, Mamber and Fleury described as "strategically open" and "high-concept entertainment" era that would generate long-term audience appeal through franchising films likesJaws (1975) andStar Wars (1977).[18][19]
While sequels were common in the 1970s and 1980s, the concept of sequels were considered novel during this period. Films likeJaws 2 (1978) andHalloween II (1981) were promoted with posters proclaiming them to be "All New" despite retreading the narratives of their original films.[19] By the end of the 1980s, sequels became so prevalent they becomes jokes within films likeSpaceballs (1987) andBack to the Future Part II (1989) which teased imaginary sequels titledSpaceballs 2: The Search for More Money andJaws 19 respectively.[19] The introduction ofhome video in the 1980s introduced older films to new generations of audiences, leading to conglomerates to develop belated sequels likeThe Color of Money (1986).[20]
This cycle accelerated of the late 1980s and early 1990s through films like theWarner Bros. film production ofBatman (1989), which exemplified a synergy based model, allowing a franchise with sequels, animated spin-offs and other ancillary merchandise through various sectors of the Warner Bros. conglomerate.[18]Disney specifically would make more films throughout the 1990s, particularly afterJeffrey Katzenberg left the studio in 1994.[1] This led to rise oftentpole films in the late 1990s and 2000s.[1] While tentpole film productions have existed since at leastJaws (1975), at the time they only represented a single part of a studios larger film production strategy.[21]
By the 21st century, the conglomeration of American film and television industries favored franchises over original content.[1] The fall of home video sales since 2009 due to a lack of adoption to later formats, rise ofstreaming andinternet piracy were financially costly to film studios, and fueled the drive towards franchise films over lower budget an independent films that carried greater financial risks.[2] Themedia franchises had a what Bryan Hikari Hartzheim, Mamber, and Fleury describe as a seismic impact on the film industry.[3] Journalist Ben Fritz went as far to say in 2018 that the franchise film era was the most meaningful revolution in film industry since thestudio system had ended in the 1950s.[3] The growing influence of digital technology redefined the entertainment industry as content was no longer exclusive to traditional media companies.[22] Media trades continued to document stories ranging from celebratory to panicked depending on the box office fate of various sequels, prequels, remakes, reboots and spin-offs.[23]
Media conglomerates experimented with narrative chronology.Video games would be adapted from film content such asthe 1984Ghostbusters video game from the filmGhostbusters (1984). This would lead to video games that served as direct sequels to films such asKonami'sThe Goonies II (1987) and prequels likeStar Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003).[20] Laterdigital age franchises such asThe Matrix and the MCU focused ontransmedia storytelling, where audiences are required to seek out the narrative across multiple forms of media.[1] While Reboots were initially made to resurrect ossifying franchises. while soft reboots existed for decades such as a new actor taking over for James Bond, the "hard" reboot gained popularity afterBatman Begins (2005), which reset the cinematicBatman film series. Hard reboots developed a negative reputation, such as the backlash against the all female cast ofGhostbusters (2016), leading to soft reboots becoming more common.[20]
Further narrative experimentation happened with a focus on shared cinematic universes, the production of which grew exponentially with theMarvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), which had studios shift from standalone franchises to cinematic universes to provide reliable profits.[17] Hartzheim, Mamber and Fleury described these narratives as a natural extension ofwriters' rooms, a television practice where a team of writers collaborate on episodes for scripts and television season arcs, an act which they described as and lessening the impact offilm directors. Conglomerates would often hire directors who would have onlyindependent film work or television their credit such asPatty Jenkins andTaika Waititi. Several films onStar Wars and the MCU franchises have had their directors replaced during production, often citing creative differences, which caused Fleury, Hartzheim and Mamber to suggest that directors have become interchangeable for these films.[17]
TheStar system involving making films around certain popular actors was also affected by franchise films. Hartzheim, Mamber and Fleury that suggested that characters rather thanfilm stars dominated box office. This is scene with actors likeHarrison Ford being paid 50 times more than his co-stars to reprise his role ofHan Solo inStar Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) while films with that featured film stars such asMoney Monster (2016) andThe Nice Guys (2016) did not perform well in the box office, leading to theLos Angeles Times to suggest films have moved to a character-based economy.[24]
Fritz suggested the franchise era was similar to the studio system, except companies did not own talent, they owned cinematic brands while[25]Wesley Morris ofThe New York Times summarized this in 2016 on discussing superhero film franchises, writing that "the brand comes first, Marvel is the star" in 2016.[21] This is illustrated by film stars likeDwayne Johnson, who makesstar vehicle films. His projects such as the soft rebootJumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) was a hit film, while his non-franchise filmsSkyscraper (2018) stumbled in the North American box office.[21]
The global audience for franchise films, particularly with the rising box office in China, where the Chinese box office grew from 2.7 billion US Dollars to 6.8 billion in 2015.[26] Ben Fritz stated these international audiences preferred "big budget films full of visual effects" and proven "brands" over most American dramas, comedies and other mid-budget productions.[27] This led to Hollywood productions to developblockbuster franchise films particularly for Chinese and non-American audiences.[26] An example of this is withPacific Rim (2013), which underperformed in both the Japanese and American box office, while its sequelPacific Rim Uprising (2018) had grossed nearly as much in China as it had in the United States and Japan combined.[26]
China box office influence led to indirect control over the Hollywood film market. This involved having filmsSkyfall (2012) be reedited for Chinese release, adding scenes toIron Man 3 (2013), and having content changed during the scripting phase ofDoctor Strange (2016) with film executives experimenting what would play best in China.[28] Chinese companies also began investing in American film production, leading to more direct changes, such as supporting roles for actors likeAngelababy inIndependence Day: Resurgence (2016) andLi Bingbing inThe Meg (2018). AfterStar Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) lost to a Chinese franchise filmThe Ex-File 3: The Return of the Exes (2017), Hollywood studios briefly began partnering with Chinese companies such as theDalian Wanda Group. The Chinese company nearly purchased a 49% stake inParamount Pictures, which was halted due to disagreements within the corporate parent companyViacom.[28]
Some work between Hollywood franchise film and China continued such asTransformers: The Last Knight (2017), which qualified as "local" productions for Chinese regulators, allowing the films to bypass import quotas and provide Chinese producers with a higher than average box office intake.[28] In February 2018, three Chinese franchise films (Monster Hunt 2 (2018),Detective Chinatown 2 (2018), andThe Monkey King 3 (2018) opened on the same and all managed commercial success demonstrating the massive market for local franchise films in China.[29]
Lang commented in 2016 that fears persist that film franchises represent a threat to original story telling.[23]
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