[Flex time] How many movies have to be in a series before you call it a franchise?
Time to time certain movies are called a franchise, like the James Bond series, Friday the 13th, Fast and the Furious, movies, etc. To be a franchise in your book does it has to have a set number of movies along the original theme even if they are not sequels like 5 movies, half a dozen, too many to count? If a movie only had three of them total, can that be a franchise, or is it the frequency they come out? If every three years or less you can expect another installment of that movie, even if it a stand-alone movie, does that make it a movie franchise?
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9 Answers
Two. And usually that is one too many.
But a movie “franchise” is not merely a run of movies, but various iterations based on a story from another medium, like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter or Marvel comics. And the “franchise” implies lots of other forms, like games and toys and comics.
I thought it had to do with who owns the rights.
I’d say 3 or more. It’s subjective. But no less than 3, or it isn’t a franchise. To me…....
3 minimum.
Trivia question: What was the most successful movie franchise to never receive an Oscar?
fran·chise
noun
1.
an authorization granted by a government or company to an individual or group enabling them to carry out specified commercial activities, e.g., providing a broadcasting service or acting as an agent for a company’s products.
synonyms: warrant, charter, license, permit, authorization, permission, sanction, privilege
“the company lost its TV franchise”
a business or service given a franchise to operate.
a general title or concept used for creating or marketing a series of products, typically films or television shows.
“the Harry Potter franchise”
(chiefly in North America) an ownership structure in professional sports in which a league is limited to a fixed number of teams.
North American
an authorization given by a league to own a sports team.
North Americaninformal
a professional sports team.
North Americaninformal
a star player on a team.
noun: franchise player; plural noun: franchise players
2.
the right to vote.
the rights of citizenship.
synonyms: suffrage, the vote, the right to vote, voting rights, enfranchisement
“the extension of the franchise to women”
It’s not the number of movies that matters, it’s how much sh*t they can sell off the popularity. If one movie produces product spin-offs, such as Toy Story, then that’s enough.
Whatever is made after the number of films initially planned.
If anyone cares, the answer is the Harry Potter films.
After further consideration, the correct answer might be one, since the franchise would include all the related media. Certainly Avatar is a franchise, even though they only made one (yes, they are making 4 more).
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