Experimenting with Franchises Keeps Hollywood Afloat

Risky takes on well-known IP or existing franchises have been a success story for Hollywood this year, which offers an exciting path for bold filmmakers to play in a big-budget sandbox.

The Big Picture: As the American film and TV industry contracts after years of unbridled spending in streaming, studios have focused their development dollars on safe, “surefire” hits that audiences have a pre-awareness of. But if an original vision is what audiences are really drawn to, finding the balance between those forces may be a winning formula.

Behind the Curtain: THR reports that a top studio exec said this felt like the first year in a while when “‘franchise’ was no longer a dirty word.” The box office receipts don’t lie.

• The domestic box office is at roughly $5.5 billion this year, thanks to hit titles like Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Alien: Romulus, Deadpool & Wolverine, A Quiet Place: Day One, Inside Out 2, and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
• Every one of these films (and several others) — no matter the ratings and genre, according to Comscore box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian — exceeded expectations.

Closing Credits: What each of these franchises represent are established worlds that audiences know and love. But while many reboots and retreads failed — either critically or commercially — over the past decade, this year’s movies across the board took unexpected approaches to their storytelling, which is what ultimately helped broaden their appeal to a new generation (similar to last year’s Barbie). It’s possible that the next era of blockbuster filmmaking will be experimenting with just how far franchises can be pushed creatively. Should be fun.

Alternate Take: For all the franchise love, audiences love to be knocked out by an original story that surprises them. It just takes some great marketing to get them in the theater.