Blogger Post 22: Failure of the Franchise

This is not so much an angry post, its more of a sad one. The thoughts about to be expressed by myself haven't simply come out of nowhere, they've been developing over time and they relate to that popular form of entertainment known as the film franchise. Ths summer blockbuster has been an annual event ever since the success of Jaws oh so long ago. Every year in America the summer period is littered with all the BIG movies that this year has to offer, its not to say that all blockbusters come out during this time but a fair majority of them do in order to keep the country's population occupied whilst on their long holidays. More and more we are seeing sequels pop up during this summer blockbuster period and franchises have become a permanent fixture of the cinema landscape as we know it today.


I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with franchises, I love my event films and usually no matter how bad the reviews I will still go and see a movie if its one I've been excited about for a long time. Two recent films however, Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and Spiderman 3, have confirmed a fear that has been growing in me since this whole franchise thing started. This fear relates to the pressure put on filmmakers by studios who want as many films made from the one franchise as possible thus maximising their profit as much as possible. Both Spiderman and Pirates of the Caribbean end ambiguously and in such a way that if the intention was put fourth to make another entry in the series it could easily be done. So despite the fact that studios advertise these films as the last in the series they end up being just another entry. Long,overblown ones at that.

It's up to the filmakers to take a stand against this kind of thinking as it stops a film from being a full story and rather one which never really ends satisfactorily in the hope that someone will pick up the pieces and provide the prospect of even more money. Both Gore Verbinski (Pirates director) and Sam Raimi (Spiderman 3) have refused to rule out sequels to their films and its a little dissapointing to hear that neither of these guys can admit that they intended their film to be the last of a story. If studios insist on dreching us with sequels the least they could do is think of their audiences as more than just a source of income.