How important are film franchises for producers and
audiences?
Film franchises are very important for producers
and audiences this can be discussed over various points one being the audience
following a story evolving around a central character, for example in ‘Iron Man 3’
(2013- directed by Shane Black) it was proven that both the
producers and audience wanted Robert Downey Jr. to star as Tony Stark once
again. This is shown in his dramatic pay rise from $500,000 (the first Iron
Man) to £50,000,000; Iron Man. Robert Downey Jr. has become part of that
‘franchise’ in which the producers and audiences want. Robert Downey Jr. is a
well known star within the comic book adaptation genre starring in The Avengers
another comic book adaptation film which stars Iron Man i.e. Tony Stark i.e. Mr
Robert Downey Jr. so therefore without this star the franchise would be at an
end as the main character couldn’t be replaced due to being put into a franchise.
New York Times audience response to critic ‘I'm
a huge Downey, Jr. fan, grew up reading Iron Man, and enjoyed the Avengers
film, but this film misses its mark and left me regretting spending the money.'
This proves that although the audience may not have liked the plot has gone to
view the film due to admiring Downey Jr. Yes as an audience we mainly go to see
a film due to the star or previous experiences which is why we revisit as a
sequel for instance ‘Harry Potter’, ‘Twilight’, ‘Lord Of The Rings’ and ‘James
Bond’ all franchises and this is all due to an audience decoding exactly what
the encoder wanted drawing an audience so far into a fantasy lifestyle they
will never experience so they attach their selves to a character and live out
their experience in the cinema. Franchises are very important to producers as
the first ever release they needed to gratify it’s audiences with the genre,
stars, narrative in order to allow a franchise to be considered once this
occurs and audience will still appreciate what the producers have aimed to
create. Producers will leave an audience with ‘said’ enigma codes to
draw them back and make them remember experiences, for instance with
Iron Man they purposely put the new Iron Man 3 suit next to others and ones
used in recent ‘Avengers’ movie at a comic-con event in San Diego targeting its
preferred audience instantly. Another example to suggest that franchises are
important to its producers and audiences is remake film ‘Evil Dead’ (2013
directed by Fede Alvarez) from the original ‘The Evil Dead’ (1981
directed by Sami Raimi). The re-make however doesn’t follow same qualities as
use of same stars as it’s a remake but takes on the same narrative and uses
additional special effects and offers better atheistic endowment
for its audience. The Evil Dead and Evil Dead are both Independent
films which have reached into cinema’s franchising. Sami Raimi made it big
within the horror genre as an independent film maker when his fans heard the
title ‘Evil Dead’ he knew as a producer that he’d attract them back to see the
next series of The Evil Dead franchise.
So therefore its safe to say that franchises are
important to both audiences and producers as it allow an audience to connect
instantly to the narrative and a franchise they know will gratify them thus
allowing producers to engage in a massive profit in which will be used to
heavily promote the film globally increasing the gross and it’s franchises
name.
