Franchises

Franchises are very important to film because of the popularity they have created. Sequels have become popular for carrying on the story after the original film. This is because of horizontal integration, which means the same thing through different platforms such as video games and merchandise. This is what films make their money from. The films make money themselves but adding merchandise in it makes a ton of money. Franchises are the most made films now and because of this people are following the trends that the films set. The franchises are important to producers as well because of the money being made. If a film flops then it isn’t going to make any money but because there is now the merchandise and theme parks to do with the studios and the films there is still money to be made. For example the film John Carter flopped at the box office and yet it still made money through the John Carter part of Disney World.

A good example of a franchise is Back To The Future because the trilogy was made from 1985-90 and is still making money today through merchandise. Back To The Future was originally just a film to be shown in the cinema with very little merchandise but because of the films popularity it expanded and is now the 19 most grossing film for Universal. It used to have a Back To The Future ride in Universal Studios but it was closed in 2007. The ride generated a lot of money but it had to be closed as it was old and had been open for 16 years. This was all important to Universal because it generates a lot of money each year through merchandise but sadly no longer the ride. The merchandise grew in numbers when Back To The Future hit its 30^th anniversary in 2015 because many anniversary box sets were made and the films were sent back to the cinemas for one day. This generated $4.8 million in 2000 cinemas worldwide because the fans were able to see it again on the big screen and because of this only being one day every screening was fully booked very quickly.

The producers of franchise need them because of the money generated through them so they can then make more films. The money generated from the popular franchises is a lot for example Back To The Future made $210,609,762 on original release. If the film flops they have a back up to money such as merchandise and theme parks.

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