Any big movie that isn't a remake or adaptation in cinemas this summer will almost definitely come with a number somewhere in the title. The only other thing approaching a sure bet in films is that people will pay to see sequels, so long as they paid to see the earlier installments of the franchise. Hence 2014 sees the release of not one but two more entries into the Paranormal Activity series, a fourth Transformers film (itself based off of a line of toys), along with further films in the Muppets, Rio, 300, and 21 Jump Street franchises. Even The Purge has somehow earned a sequel, for crying out loud! Presumably greenlit during the 24 hours where all crime was legal. If anything franchises are even safer for movies, because not only are they properties that have been shown to turn a profit, but have turned a profit as films. As opposed to, say, a successful game franchise that makes the leap to the silver screen and may not do as well. For audiences, though, there's a law of diminishing returns quality-wise. Not that the Transformers series was anything approaching a masterpiece in the first place, but you have to think they're running on fumes by now. This film features robot dinosaurs. How is that even a disguise? We still keep going to see them, though, and so long as the takings are still decent they'll keep knocking out the sequels, prequels and side-quels (which is apparently what 300: Rise of an Empire is. Definitely not a real word). If you catch a whiff of something nasty, that's the creativity of big budget film stagnating. And it doesn't look like it'll come up smelling like roses any time in the near future.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
