George Chrysostomou on movie franchises and when they are beyond saving…
In a world of record breaking blockbusters year in year out, the big studios look to push their chosen franchise to their absolute financial limit in an effort to tell as many stories as they can whilst squeezing every last penny out of the property. This could be seen as a cynical viewpoint, but the fact remains that a movie studio will look to make the most from any project that sees an ounce of critical or especially financial success. But for every franchise there comes a day where the same product cannot be created again. Perhaps it is a natural ending to a narrative, such as The Dark Knight Trilogy, or perhaps audiences simply lose interest in the specific characters. Very occasionally however, a franchise bows out due to an utter critical and/or commercial disaster. It’s even more rare when a franchise is saved from this disastrous fate, with a subsequent sequel that revives a failing brand and brings it back to audiences in a refreshed way. This article discusses some of those franchises brought back from the brink, and asks ‘when is it really too late to save a franchise?’.
Looking across some of the biggest franchise films of the past year, we can see two examples of movies that have breathed new life into their respective brands. The first and perhaps most obvious choice is from a franchise that has struggled for years to find critical success. Bumblebee was a soft reboot of the Transformers movie series and it did it so many favours in so many people’s eyes. On the whole audiences are responding well to it, whether it be the critics or the everyday moviegoers. It appears that sticking closer to its source material has fared well for the Robots in Disguise and this may be the start of a new, better Transformers universe – one away from the hands of Michael Bay.
The DCEU has had a well storied and troubled path so far, from the failures of films such as Justice League to the successes of Wonder Woman. Aquaman has become the highest-grossing chapter of the DCEU, and will likely over The Dark Knight Rises to become the biggest DC movie ever. It appears that Aquaman has righted the train on the track once more and pushed this cinematic franchise in the right direction, a saving grace the brand badly needed.
There is something to be learnt from the franchises that have been brought back from the brink of death. There are many lessons to be learnt from the franchises that have been brought back from the brink of death in terms of casting, storytelling and simplifying what may have overgrown its initial boundaries. Many franchises that have failed have perhaps grown too big to live up to fan expectations, or forgotten the root of what they are actually about. For the franchises that have been saved there is certainly an element of going back to basics. For both Aquaman and Bumblebee that meant revisiting the source material and studying what it is that works about that. It also meant looking at what came before and the mistakes that were made.
Being able to be self critical of the work that has been done so far is perhaps one of the only ways to actually address the problems. Learning the right lessons from past mistakes is something that Hollywood doesn’t do often, but it can mean big bucks for those who do it properly. Working out what truly functions properly within any given series is the way to fix it. This can even be carried over to TV shows. Look at the Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. turnaround from its first season and it’s clear that introducing larger narratives and more comic book elements (with an element of creative liberty) was the key to fixing that franchise.
For every franchise saved, there is at least one that’s had its last breath. Some of these may have been rebooted in completely different ways, but – for the time being at least – the original version of the story is over. The Amazing Spider-Man series is one that comes to mind in regards to being stopped dead in its tracks. Just two films in to what was intended as an expansive universe of interconnected Spidey characters, the series was so badly received that Sony had no choice but to completely cancel any future plans and strike a deal with the far more successful Marvel Studios to relaunch a new version character into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The Pirates of the Caribbean film series may also be in a similar situation. With Disney opting to drop Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow from the next instalment, it seems a complete re-imagining is now in store. The franchise is dead in the water as it stands, but may not be quite as salvageable as some other big names. The Blade Runner sequel, whilst critically astounding, certainly wasn’t the commercial hit many had hoped, seemingly ending the very quick revival of the iconic sci-fi property. Of course there are many young adult novel adaptions that have also met similar fates. The Alex Rider series never made it past Stormbreaker before being cancelled due to poor reception, and the Percy Jackson series managed to make it to two before their plug was pulled, despite many threads being left hanging.
Sometimes it’s just too late to save one of these beloved (or not quite so beloved) franchises. The writing is usually on the wall early on, with disputes between studios and creatives, or even ill feelings from the cast members themselves. What usually tends to go wrong with a franchise is the lack of awareness of the audience and what that audience wants. For adaptations, understanding the source material better is a must. For something like Pirates of the Caribbean, perhaps knowing when enough is enough is also a good thing; or maybe being aware as to how to keep a franchise fresh and evolving rather than presenting characters that have been almost identical in each film. And for other franchises perhaps they can learn something from themselves – for example, surely even those involved with The Amazing Spider-Man 2 understood that Spider-Man 3 didn’t work because of how overstuffed it was (and the dancing).
So, what is the dying point of a franchise? Honestly, there’s no consistent answer to this, apart from whatever point that studios decide to ignore the lessons from their failures and continue to push the same product without any evolution and without any understanding of why what did work, worked at all. You can creatively replicate without copying, and without being able to take major risks. So when we see another franchise on its last legs, as we will likely do soon, looking back to the successes and failures of that franchise will be the key to its survival. As long as these are addressed then a franchise is never beyond saving.
George Chrysostomou
