What's your opinion on this article?

[-Apples-]

You would think that it would be some politics-related article, but it isn't. However, it is on a current hot topic, and it's about franchising in modern Hollywood. The article is How Star Wars made (and then ruined) modern Hollywood. It's a long article, but I definitely agree with this. Although I wouldn't blame Star Wars for this, what it done has lead to heavy franchising.

If you couldn't read the full article, here is a summary of what the writer was trying to say:

Before Star Wars, franchising in the film industry never happened. But after the release of Star Wars and its sequels, franchising has started to take over the film industry. Very early in this trend, it was not as bad. But as the time rolled by, it started to take over the film industry. It's dominating competition, and it's twisting some popular film classics into something insulting to the original. In addition, theaters are losing attendance in general, and it's usually determined by the quality of franchise films.

If you have any comments on the article or anything related to what the article is talking about, feel free to discuss it here.

 

[Bowie]

Hollywood was never a good thing, though. I agree with the article, but I don't understand the point it's trying to make.

 

[KaydeeKrunk]

I agree to an extent. Hollywood is money hungry and that's why even the movies that AREN'T sequels could easily be... If you watch a movie, guaranteed there is at least 2-100 movies with the same plot. People like what people like, and Hollywood thinks, well if this worked once it will work again. For instance, things like the whole Romeo and Juliet plot, it's been done over and over and over, by so many different names, different themes, but the same story. It's been beat to death, but they're still going to pump them out regardless, because it sells. Same goes for pretty much every other "classic" story, like Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, and no I don't mean just the re-makes/sequels of the actual story, but the million and a half movies that just follow the premise. Like Beastly and Ella Enchanted. Obviously not to the T but it's the same story over and over and we keep eating it up. (I'm not say these make bad movies, it's just we've seen it before, we know how it ends the moment it starts, and it's just overplayed.)

Once something gets traction or a fanbase Hollywood ****s out a million different iteration of it so they can make more and more money... like how ALL those freaking mock-umentary ghost/paranormal movies that all came out in the span of a few years... they were selling so they kept producing. Supply and Demand at it's finest.

I don't blame Star Wars, I just think it really helped. I think it more so than anything it helped all that spread into nerdy territory and kind of bore the whole "fandom" thing so for that I think we can give it some credit. They'll keep beating it until it's dead, which some people already consider it. Like the die hard fans who refuse to watch the new movies because it's not true to the first movies, and Disney is "taking it in a new direction." Which I mean, in my opinion isn't necessarily a bad thing? They have a whole universe to explore in the stories so I mean, at least it's not just the same storyline over and over, different things are happening and whatnot.

 

[-Apples-]

The part that stuns me the most was that it took ten years to make five Transformers movies, all of them being huge financial successes and critical failures at the same time. Here's how long ten years really is:

1. If someone were in the 1st grade before the summer Transformers 1 came out in theaters, they would already be in the 12th grade after the summer Transformers 5 came out in theaters.
2. In just that same amount of time, there has been a drought in new Toy Story movies. It took longer than 10 years for Pixar to release a third Toy Story movie.
3. There was also a drought in new Star Wars movies for that long of a time after the Prequel Trilogy ended. There was an even longer drought in new Star Wars movies before the Prequel Trilogy began. And if the prequels don't count, the drought would be over three times as long.

Still, 5 movies of the same series in 10 years is excessive, especially when people don't like the movies.

Another habit I noticed about major studios and distributors have huge franchise plans. DC Heroes films tend to do a lot worse than Marvel films, but Marvel was overfranchising their heroes. That's why I'm not supporting Marvel right now.

 

[KaydeeKrunk]

Yeah, they really pumped them out, I honestly liked the first movie but the others were garbage and made me hate Megan Fox. XD

Franchising is where the money is though, and with the Marvel movies too I think they hit the money spot in their release order, because I remember actually saying that I needed to rent all the movies I hadn't seen before watching The Avengers. (I also much prefer them to DC, I just like the heroes more.) They really know how to sell their movies and the characters, I don't think there is a single item you can't get in a Marvel character form. Like yes, when I need to blow my nose I definitely need it to be out of an Iron Man box!