The Art Of The Perfect Crossover Movie

While it's pivotal to make sure you have enough movies for each individual property before eventually assembling a crossover offering, it's of the utmost of importance that you don't hold off and wait too long.

So many of the major franchises in cinema history have at some point 'jumped the shark.' That phrase comes from the moment in Happy Days where Henry Winkler's Fonzie, decked out in his trusty leather jacket and a pair of swimming trunks, pops on some skis and literally jumps over a shark.

That was the fifth season premiere of Happy Days, and the show's season-by-season ratings went on to drop from that moment on up until the fan favourite series was axed in 1984. That moment with Fonzie is viewed as the WTF moment where it became clear that the minds behind Happy Days were a) focusing on the opposite of what had made the show so incredibly popular in the first place, and b) were clutching at spectacle and elaborate stunts to try and maintain an audience.

For movie franchises, there's always that worry of running out of ideas and simply churning out something that will grab attention rather than be of genuine quality. And for any crossover, those plans have to come to fruition before any such franchise has had the chance to jump the shark - for once that toothy bastard has been jumped, it's a near impossible task for a film series to come back from that jarring, head-shaking, face-palming moment where all credibility is lost.