As the summer blockbuster season rapidly approaches, it is interesting to see the movies that are being released this summer. “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Insidious: Chapter 3” and “Terminator: Genisys” are all set for release in the warmer months of 2015. These three are part of a recent trend in Hollywood: the explosion of franchise movies.
Franchise movies are, essentially, any series of films past one or two sequels. Most films that come out annually or semiannually as part of a series are members of franchises, such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars and the The Fast and the Furious series.
It makes sense why Hollywood chooses to do this instead of making new movies. Studios are guaranteed an audience and therefore money if they continue a franchise, while new films have to make their own audiences, which can either end well or poorly for the studio. Sometimes, sequels are good because they mean more great continuations of stories we love. Other times, though, they are just a rehashing of poor stories that do not really do much past make money.
The most important question here is what does this mean for the film industry. First off, it means there will be more action and horror films. It is much easier to make a recurring action series than a drama series since the story can take a backseat to the explosions and blood. Secondly, some companies will begin to take over the box office even more so than they already have. Whichever studios have the most dominant franchises — currently, Disney with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Universal with The Fast and the Furious franchise both bring in significant cash — will draw more consumers to their films than other non-franchise-owning studios can.
Furthermore, franchise movies will take up studio money, which means they are less likely to take a chance on distributing independent films when they can funnel that money into a movie with a guaranteed audience. The flipside to that is franchise movies usually make back a decent amount of money which the studio can then put towards independent movies.
Overall, I’m neutral towards franchises, but I am beginning to lean towards disliking them. Some really do a good job of keeping the movies consistent and giving us the same characters we love while still changing enough to keep the movies fresh. The James Bond series does this and takes in a lot of money from each film as a reward. Others, though, use the exact same storyline to attract an audience, and change nothing other than the antagonist. These are the franchises that do nothing besides make money for the studios that make them. And from my perspective, those are the ones that seem to be coming out more and more.
The former category of franchise takes longer to make and put out because the creators put more time into them. The latter can be made and produced every two years or so, with the same amount of success.
I am not upset at this because they take less time to make a movie. Some great films are shot in just a couple of weeks. It is that they do not respect the films they are making enough to even put in an effort to change the story. Even the James Bond series changes enough of the plot elements each time that few people comment on the repetitiveness of many of the films’ iconic parts, such as the prevalence of the Bond girl. The best way to discourage the film studios that do not seem as if they actually care about their franchise’s stories is with our dollars. If you feel like there is a film franchise that does not care enough about the consumer to make original stories with each new film, then stop going to those movies. If enough people do this, the studios will learn their lesson and discontinue said franchises. More so, go watch the franchises that you think actually care about their films in theaters to encourage Hollywood to keep making those films.
Regardless of how big franchises become or which category the majority of them fall under, studios will inevitably have to take a chance on smaller movies, if only to start new franchises after running their current ones into the ground. Hopefully, Hollywood will try and cater more original stories as opposed to those that clearly do not.
