Whether “I am Iron Man” catchphrase of Tony Stark aka Iron Man in Iron Man and Avengers Endgame movies or Captain America’s “I can do this all day” of Captain America movie series and Avengers Endgame, these shibboleths have been red-hot in everyone’s mouth since the movies have hit the theatres a decade ago. These taglines of Marvel Cinematic Universe have burgeoned the characters of movies all over the world meeting high critical and commercial expectations with the gargantuan number of fans all over the world.
This is just an illustration of the highest-grossing movie franchise of all the time. Enlightening more on the movie franchise, movie franchise, also referred to as movie series, it is an assemblage of related movies in succession that share the same fictional universe, or are marketed as a series (as per Wikipedia). The craze for movie franchising has been taking over Hollywood since the mid-20th century and it has left its hallmark in several movie industries of different countries as well.
Apprising on one of the major hit movie franchises ‘James Bond’, the release of the spy-related movie ‘Dr. No’ in 1962, the taste of success of this movie franchise has been experienced by the team since its first movie release. Similarly, the list goes on for the big-hit movie franchises as:
Terminators (since 1984)
X-Men (since 2000)
Planet of the Apes (since 1968)
Star Trek (since 1979)
Star Wars (since 1977)
Mission Impossible (since 1996)
Harry-Potter (since 2001)
Besides these, ‘Shrek’, ‘Transformers’, and one of the world’s heartthrobs, Johnny Depp’s ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ have successfully landed their chopper with extraordinary storylines in the hearts and minds of the audience. Who else can forget the brave and courageous hobbit, Frodo Baggins, and tall helpful wizard, Gandalf from ‘Lord of the Rings’ movie of Middle-Earth franchise which seemed to be flawless amongst the audience with dumbfounding actions and story? The chockablock action of Wonderwoman, Superman, Aquaman, and Batman of DC Extended Universe along with Joker and Suicide Squad, the actions and confabulation of the movies are mimicked by the kids including old aged people too. People tend to book tickets early to watch these movies long before the movies knock the theatres' thanks to the profound writers, directors, artists, and whole team for their acclaimed works.
Hugger-muggers to Hollywood’s success stories-franchises, remakes, and adaptations, these have been the formulas for the film-makers to welcome newer generations and handing over the franchise generation to generation. Kindred to business franchises, the movie franchises have made major commercial and critical hits. Of all the times, the movies of Marvel Cinematic Universe, 23 movies subsuming major hit movie series like ‘Iron Man’, ‘Captain Marvel’, ‘Captain America’, ‘Black Panther’, ‘Thor’, ‘Avengers’ and more made a total worldwide box office revenue of 22.55b US Dollars accompanied by the movie, ‘Avengers Endgame’ with the box-office collection of 2.8b US Dollars, one of the highest-grossing movies of all the times.
The adaptation of the comic characters created during the mid-20th century into the movies, accentuating famous and evergreen comic-writer Stanley Martin Lieber (Stan Lee) and beguiling artists like Robert Downey JR., Brie Larson, Scarlett Johannson, Chris Evans and many astounding team members, with extra-ordinary plots like Quantum Physics in ‘Ant-Man’, Scenario of World War in ‘Captain America’, etc, with amazing animation and linked storylines, won the hearts of everyone all around the world. There are more movies to come and again in the queue to heartthrob the audiences. Wonderwoman, Black Widow, Jurassic Park, Doctor Strange, the sequels and prequels are yet to hit the theatres.
Barring the expensive-hit movies, some movies fail to amaze the audience despite a huge budget and distinct storylines. X-Men Dark Phoenix, with the budget of 200m US Dollars, didn’t meet its expectation and is regarded as the movie of X-Men franchise with low profit amongst all the X-Men movies. But these are some of the rarest only in terms of franchises. Still, the audience craves the movies of the franchise unveiling different theories and possible events that may occur in upcoming prequels and sequels. This is the craze of the movie franchise, isn’t it?