4. Mega Franchises Will Replace Individual Franchises As King Of The Money Printers
A popular franchise is the golden calf of any major movie studio. Harry Potter, Star Wars, Twilight. As long it's something you can make more of and keep raking in the ticket sales, producers will love it and never cease to produce them. What Marvel has done is create a new model. Iron Man is a franchise unto itself and will continue to sell tickets so long as Robert Downey Jr. dons the mask. However, The Avengers is bigger than just his little world. Somehow, reducing the percentage of screen time devoted to Tony Stark actually managed to increase revenue. The thing is, The Avengers was receiving free publicity and advertising back in 2008. A stinger here, a sly reference there, and fans would feel the tease. They all knew it was coming. It's a hype machine that's never turned off. It's product placement within the product itself. In the marketing world they call this synergy. In the rare times that this has ever been attempted in the major blockbuster movie world, though, it's failed. Marvel has proven it can succeed. You don't have to look too far to see how this might affect the landscape of studios that aren't owned by Disney. With Christopher Nolan out of the Batman game, Warner Bros. needs a new movement to latch on to. Man of Steel willthey hopeinvigorate the DC fanbase. Beyond that, though, the Justice League movie is planned to go in to production without individual new movies for all the characters. The new Batman, as well as some assortment possibly including Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Martian Manhunter, and even Aquaman will all be thrust on to the silver screen in 2015. Regardless of how successful that movie will be, you can bet DC and Warner Bros. will be trying to find a way to create individual franchises from each character, while retaining the occasional team-up movie to pad their wallets with an extra billion dollars or so. This modelin theory at least is fantastic not only because its enthralling, but because it requires little commitment from the viewer. Much like in comic books themselves, the stories are as immersive as you want them to be. Its not necessary to see Captain America in order to enjoy Thor. In fact, arguably, its not even entirely necessary to see any of the other Marvel movies in order to enjoy The Avengers. The ability to blanket the market with movies in a variety of styles, bait viewers with one that catches their interest, then turn and say, Well, if you like that, maybe youd like these six other movies! is, in movie studio terms, a friggin gold mine. You can bet that every production company around will be trying (with varying levels of success) to duplicate this delicate and powerful model.