3 key rules to having a successful film franchise

With many successful film franchises proving popular time and time again, filmmakers will undoubtedly want to know how to repeat their success. Betway casinos recently explored the most successful film franchises of all time. The winner was Star Wars, “with a score of 69.3 out of 90”. They revealed the long-running franchise has taken previously $10.3 billion at the box office. With figures like these, it can clearly be seen that getting the formula right can lead to explosive profits for the film companies involved.

Image Credit

Initially, Lucasfilm and now the current Star Wars franchise owners continue to follow an important set of rules for a successful film franchise company. A look at the top movie franchises in Betway’s research sees these rules can be the backbone for an extremely profitable industry.

Appeal To A Wide Viewer Age Range

Producing a film franchise is much easier if your characters and plot lines appeal to a broad age range. The reasons for this boil down to the percentage of the population the film will appeal to. Understanding this has led to some family favourites becoming hugely successful film franchises. Films in the Harry Potter series are proof of this with keen followers from all age ranges. Its 8-film series has taken a staggering $9.7 billion at the box office by having appeal over such a great age range. 

Caricature Evolution And Development

Having great characters is incredibly important to a film franchise's success. Characters are the backbone of a great film series, a commonality through the various films helps viewers identify with a new film quickly as they often contain old and favourite characters. Of course, not all characters from a film franchise need to appear in every movie. Some franchises make subtle changes in characters along their timeline, while others are bolder and introduce new characters often. Careful evolution and development of a caricature through a series of films can be a very successful technique in gaining fans and followers for the film franchise and ultimately takings at the box office.

Build An Exciting World

Otherworld film franchises have proved hugely successful, they offer an added dimension, and somewhere imagination can run free. Successful film franchises like Marvel, Star Wars and Harry Potter all have developed highly detailed and exciting worlds or galaxies where the backbone characters of the franchise can depict the most exciting stories and have them evolve over the different films in a world that works for them in keeping audiences engaged and excited.

A franchise's own world gives them the freedom to attribute the stage where everything happens freely with as few constraints as possible. A great world gives the series writers the best material to work with to create and drive success.

All in all, successful film franchises are about characters that viewers care about, being able to appeal to a large audience and a storyline that people want to pay attention to; combine that with amazing effects and great actors and you’re well on your way.