Hindustan Times
Will there never be a ‘The End’?
The other day I went to see Wolverine. As we were driving back home, I stared thinking about the Hollywood film I had seen last week (Star Trek) and the film everyone was urging me to see (Terminator Salvation). And I suddenly realized that all three films were part of franchises. And I further realized that most of what Hollywood is churning out these days is franchises. A couple of franchises are extinct (we can only hope), some are still fully active, while others have been dormant for some time but will no doubt come to life in the next couple of years.
Don’t believe me? Here’s a rough list, off the top of my head:
Superheroes: Batman, Superman, Spiderman
Science fiction/Fantasy: Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien, Matrix, Harry Potter
Horror: Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th (the 12th film is coming out this year), Scream (the fourth film is in the pipeline), Zombie, Halloween
Action/Adventure: X Men, Terminator, Pirates of the Caribbean, Men In Black, Jurassic Park, Jaws, James Bond, Fast And Furious, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, The Naked Gun, Rocky, Mission Impossible
Animation: Shrek, Ice Age
And I’m sure I’ve left out quite a few. A very very large chunk of what Hollywood produces every year comprises of franchises. The characters are the same. The storylines are the same with a bit of tweaking here and there. There are new but similarly sleek special effects.
The same hype and publicity surrounds each and every film. Sure, I’ve enjoyed some of these films (I loved the new Star Trek), but many of them really suck. In any case, isn’t it a bit much?
I can just imagine all the Hollywood studio honchos sitting around and saying to each other, “Okay, what can we release next summer which will get us lots and lots of money? How about franchise A or franchise B or franchise C (right up to franchise Z)? They’ve done well in the past and all the addicts will queue up again to see the latest installments. All we have to do is rope in a couple of big stars and we’re home and dry (more accurately, we’re at the bank and in the black”). Can there ever, ever be a franchise free year? Don’t bet anything on it.
PS: There’s this American chap called James Rolfe who reviews movies and video games on YouTube (he has a site too, www.cinemassacre.com). I saw a hilarious video about how bizarrely sequels are named. (Please don’t watch if you’re squeamish about four-letter words).
Some examples:
a)The first five Rocky films are all numbered neatly (Rocky I, II, III, IV and V). But the sixth Rocky film is inexplicably called Rocky Balboa. Why not Rocky VI?
b)The first Rambo film is called First Blood. The second Rambo film is called First Blood Part II. So far so good. But why is the third film called Rambo III??
c)The first one was called Alien. The second one Aliens. Then came Alien 3. And then Alien Resurrection. What’s the logic? Huh?
(9 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
Loading ...Posted by Poonam Saxena on Friday, July 3, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Filed under Pop Culture · Tagged Franchises, hollywood, Hollywood movies
I was on Yahoo and found your blog. Read a few of your other posts. Good work. I am looking forward to reading more from you in the future.
Tom Stanley
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poonam saxena Reply:
July 5th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Thank you
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Sara Reply:
July 5th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
I agree with most of what you’ve written except Harry Potter. You know, if there are seven books then it is very obvious that there HAS to be seven movies (even if 6 of them suck)
Oh and BTW, Iron Man2 is being made too
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poonam saxena Reply:
July 6th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
That’s true, there have to be seven films since there were seven books, but you know what? Despite J K Rowling’s many protestations, I wouldn’t be surprised if, at some point, there’s a prequel (or maybe Harry’s kids grow up and some other Voldemort kind of guy suddenly pops up). Would you absolutely rule it out??
Deb Reply:
July 7th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
That’s as true for James Bond movies (which I enjoy thoroughly). There were so many of JB books, so that had to be so many movies. But it’s still a franchise, even if the books were not as blatantly written to encash the movie franchise.
anurag Reply:
July 10th, 2009 at 12:23 am
i don’t know about the harry potter series but my 10 year old niece is crazy about the series and she is waiting for new one. harry potter movies are meant for kids. so see them like kids movies doesn’t get much cynic about it.
hey u forget the greatest sequel of all the times ” the godfather triology”
Amrita Reply:
July 11th, 2009 at 3:22 am
There are going to be 8 Harry Potter films - the last book will be done in a 2 part film. I guess they’re already trying to postpone the inevitable end so like u i too wouldnt be surprised if a prequel about harry’s father and his fight with voldemort or a film about voldemort - like the last Star Wars film- came up.
Dylan Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Yeah they’ve already encashed the franchise by making 8 movies - 1 extra. But I have no problem with it, as long as the movies are good. The latest one has been opening to excellent reviews, and I’m looking forward to it.
Ha Ha, good one Poonam.
My earliest collection of superman (DC comics) dates back to 1953, and he is still going strong!! I guess thesefranchises will continue.
By the way, even in the IT industry, the Intel chip went from 8086 to 80286 to 80386 to 80486 and suddently the Pentium came along.
So this naming comvention may just be the result of some million dollar study into the deep pschye of the American People!!!
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Deb Reply:
July 7th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
IT industry naming conventions are probably more affected by marketing logic than anything else. In any case, if you look under the hood, you’ll find that what goes around as Windows Millennium, XP, Vista etc. has a technical name which continues the series, something like Windows 4.2.1.1.
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Seriously, all these franchises are putting me off Hollywood
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There is a franchise called Naked Gun! The names of the series are like - Naked Gun 1, Naked Gun 2-1/2, 33-1/3. The next one is going to be Naked Gun 444-1/4 then!
But Indian directors are joining as well.. You have Koi Mil Gaya and Krish already, with a third in the pipeline. What’s that going to be called - Krish flies Kites?
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Nightshade Reply:
July 4th, 2009 at 11:43 am
Yeah, Naked Gun has a weird series of titles. some people are actually confused into thinking that there are 32 movies…
And to call the sixth Rocky movie Rocky Balboa is pathetic, it isn’t even a remake! It sounds like the first movie in the series for god’s sake, who thought that was a good idea!?
There’s a horror franchise called Final Destination. There’s 1, 2 and 3 but they called the fourth one The Final Destination… Yeah, adding ‘the’ to the title is so cool isn’t it? And that isn’t a remake either, again it sounds like the first movie… Who name’s these movies anyway??
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poonam saxena Reply:
July 4th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
I think Munnabhai is the only proper franchise we have — and so far, it’s only two films. Our guys are very keen on remakes — Umrao Jaan, Don, Karz (and I think there are many more in the pipeline)
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some of the franchise are really ****, but lots of them are really good,the batmen series, love the last joker movie and now heard on next batmen johny deep will play villain(waiting 4 that),some franchise they stop like the matrix series(god knows if they came with another sequel), but they make some of the funniest spoof on themselves just watch the scary movies its one of the funniest series( i am waiting for bollywood when they can make spoof on it self), they even make fun on 300 movies(it was riot),
now bollywood also starting this trend, fir golmaal,fir herapheri, now fir dostana,fir don,
lol
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Dylan Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Batman, not Batmen.
Nothing is confirmed about the next movie. IMO there’s not gonna be one. Christopher Nolan (director) is not one to give in to hype. They were planning one which brought back Ledger, but since he’s no more, Nolan doesn’t want to do another movie.
I believe made a spoof called Ghoom.
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What about the Saw franchise? Saw 6 is coming out this October and it is one of the rare franchises where every movie has earned more than the previous one!
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hey Poonam…
my point is that although we sit and crib about the fact that the sequel or the threquel (as in case of Ice Age franchise..) however as soon as we finish watching the earlier part we anticipate the next part then n there…. but the blame should go to the directors to let down the expectations of the viewers!!!
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poonam saxena Reply:
July 6th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Yeah, I guess audiences get sort of addicted to the characters and want to keep seeing more of them
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Dylan Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
I completely agree
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And you forgot James Bond .. thebiggest franchise - ok maybe not the biggest, but the oldest running one !
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Hi,
I agree with your view but it’s not that all franchise releases are that bad. I recently saw Ice Age 3 and I really think it was much better than the first two. But the same can’t be said for the X-Men and Terminator series. Both were quite dissapointing. Now I have high expectations from the recently released Transformers sequel.
Prakhar
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poonam saxena Reply:
July 13th, 2009 at 10:19 am
What’s it like? Saw the trailer and it looked like lots of those toys thingies getting blown up / blowing up other things.
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Prakhar Swaroop Reply:
July 25th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
I enjoyed it. I really think it was worth the wait. The toy things were the same as in the first one. But the action was much better this time.
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Dylan Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
lol Poonam thats exactly what it is. Lots of noise and action, with a few jokes in between. Not recommended. Its too long as well.
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You forgot about the Ocean series: ocean 11, ocean 12 and ocean 13!!
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