AFTER DARK
“Star Wars,” “The Lord of the Rings,” “Harry Potter,” James Bond and Marvel. These names are associated with some of the highest-grossing movie franchises of all time, each of them amassing well over $5 billion in revenues. You’ve seen the films in theaters, you’ve rewatched them at home and maybe you’ve even bought physical copies of your favorites. But, have you gotten tired of seeing the same characters, settings and storylines? Or are you thirsty for more? Franchise fatigue is a term that describes the frustration some audiences feel with the increasing number of sequels, reboots, remakes and cinematic universes. But does this fatigue really make a difference when the films making the biggest bucks in Hollywood are almost always connected to a franchise?
Money is the Driver “Studios are driven by a desire to make money,” Senior Film Lecturer Michael Caldwell says. “If they think that audiences will pay money to see content, they will evaluate how much money they think they can make from a certain film. Based on how much money they think they can make they will determine how much it is worth to spend making that film so that at the end of the day they have a profit.” Caldwell is known for working on the production of films like “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,” and “Hard
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Candy.” The former is the first sequel in a popular franchise, while the latter is an independent film based on an original screenplay. “The goal in making ‘Austin Powers’ was to make money,” Caldwell says. “The goal in making ‘Hard Candy’ was, fingers crossed, to make money, but it was an independent film, incredibly risky, first-time director. It turned out to be a success because the movie is just really damn good, but it was a huge risk.”
