Use of a creative work across several different media
A
media franchise
, also known as a
multimedia franchise
, is a collection of related
media
in which several derivative works have been produced from an original creative work of fiction, such as a
film
, a work of
literature
, a
television program
or a
video game
.
Bob Iger
, chief executive of the
Walt Disney Company
, defined the word
franchise
as "something that creates value across multiple businesses and across multiple territories over a long period of time".
[1]
Transmedia franchise
[
edit
]
A media franchise often consists of
cross-marketing
across more than one medium. For the owners, the goal of increasing profit through diversity can extend the commercial profitability of the franchise and create strong feelings of identity and ownership in its consumers.
[2]
Those large groups of dedicated consumers create the franchise's
fandom
, which is the community of fans that indulge in many of its mediums and are committed to interacting with and keeping up with other consumers.
[3]
Large franchise-based fandoms have grown to be even more popular in recent years with the rise of social media platforms, as many fans seek to interact with one another for discussion, debate and even to create their own fan-made pieces of media revolving around the franchise, on websites like
tumblr
,
Reddit
and
Fandom
.
[4]
In the case of successful transmedia franchises, each different medium should expand the target demographic and fandom, build the interest of the consumers and add to the overarching story and narrative of the franchise itself.
[5]
A connection between the characters, settings, and other elements of the media franchise do still exist within the different mediums, regardless of the fact that they are being presented in sometimes completely different ways,
[6]
such as the shared, interweaving storylines and elements of
Spider-Man
films, television shows, comics and video games. Espen Aarseth describes the financial logic of cost-recovery for expensive productions by identifying that a single medium launch is a lost opportunity, the timeliness of the production and release is more important than its integrity, the releases should raise brand awareness and the cross-ability of the work is critical for its success.
[7]
American Idol
was a transmedia franchise from its beginnings, with the first season winner
Kelly Clarkson
signing with
RCA Records
and having the release of
A Moment Like This
becoming a #1 hit on Billboard Hot 100.
[8]
The success resulted in a nationwide concert tour, an
American Idol
book that made the bestseller list and the film
From Justin to Kelly
.
[8]
A transmedia franchise however is often referred to by the simpler term "media franchise". The term media franchise is often used to describe the popular adaptation of a work into films, like the popular
Twilight
book series
that was adapted into the five films of
The Twilight Saga
.
[9]
Other neologisms exist to describe various franchise types including
metaseries
, which can be used to describe works such as
Isaac Asimov
's
Foundation
series
.
[
clarification needed
]
[10]
Multimedia franchises usually develop through a character or fictional world becoming popular in one medium, and then expanding to others through
licensing agreements
, with respect to
intellectual property
in the franchise's characters and settings. As one author explains, "For the studios, a home-run is a film from which a multimedia 'franchise' can be generated; the colossally expensive creation of cross-media conglomerates predicated on synergistic rewards provides an obvious imperative to develop such products."
[11]
The trend later developed wherein franchises would be launched in multiple forms of media simultaneously; for instance, the film
The Matrix Reloaded
and the video game
Enter the Matrix
were produced at the same time, using the same actors on the same sets, and released on the same day.
Canon content
[
edit
]
Transmedia franchises occasionally release content through certain mediums that is not canon to the main or greater story that the franchise is built around, meaning that the elements of said content do not truly exist in the main timeline of the franchise.
[12]
Canon content often times breaks continuity, leading fans to speculate or seek to confirm which mediums are canon and which are not, which can get confusing if the franchise does not provide an answer themselves since entire mediums can be non-canon to the greater story, with a popular example occurring.
[12]
On the other hand, specific episodes, volumes or parts of a series can be canon while others in the same medium are not, such as the fact that only some of the
Battlestar Galactica
comics are canon, with a large amount of them breaking the continuity of the main story.
[13]
Japan
[
edit
]
In
Japanese culture
and entertainment,
media mix
(
wasei-eigo
:
メディアミックス
,
mediamikkusu
) is a strategy to disperse content across multiple representations: different
broadcast media
, gaming technologies, cell phones, toys,
amusement parks
, and other methods.
[14]
It is the Japanese term for a transmedia franchise.
[15]
[16]
The term
media mix
gained its circulation in late 1980s
and is first used to describe adaptations of
Sakyo Komatsu
's
Japan Sinks
,
[
clarification needed
]
but the origins of the strategy can be traced back to the 1960s with the proliferation of
anime
, with its interconnection of media and commodity goods.
[17]
Some of the earlier popular Japanese franchises such as
Vampire Hunter D
in the 1980s and
Pokemon
in the late 1990s, acted as benchmarks in the country's transmedia dominance.
[18]
[19]
The latter in particular began as a video game available on
Nintendo
's
Game Boy
, and crossed through the mediums of television, film, news, and other non-media related realms, such trading cards, merchandise, and more.
[19]
A number of Japanese media franchises have gained considerable global popularity, and are among the world's
highest-grossing media franchises
. For example,
Pokemon
's penetration into the American market of the franchise along with others of Japanese origin, such as
Yu-Gi-Oh!
,
[14]
gave rise to the recognition of what is variously called
transmedia storytelling
, crossmedia,
transmediation
, media synergy, etc.
[17]
Researchers argue that the 1963
Tetsuwan Atomu
marked a shift in Japanese marketing from the focus on the content of the commodity to "overlapping the commodity image with the character image".
[15]
The book
Anime's Media Mix: Franchising Toys and Characters in Japan,
by Marc Steinberg, details the evolution of the media mix in Japan.
Japanese terminology
[
edit
]
- anime-ka
(
アニメ化
)
, recast as anime
- dorama-ka
(
ドラマ化
)
, recast as drama
- g?mu-ka
(
ゲ?ム化
)
, recast as computer game
- noberaizu
(
ノベライズ
, "
novelize
")
, recast as novel
- komikaraizu
(
コミカライズ
, "comicalize")
or
manga-ka
(
漫?化
)
, recast as manga
- eiga-ka
(
映?化
)
, recast as movie
Development to other forms
[
edit
]
Fiction
[
edit
]
Long-running franchises were common in the early studio era, when Hollywood studios had actors and directors under long-term contract. In such cases, even lead actors are often replaced as they age, lose interest, or their characters are killed. Spin-offs and adaptations of popular pieces of media within a franchise can even be created, which ultimately leads to the creation of brand worlds.
[20]
Since the creation of
Disneyland
in 1955, bringing fictional media franchises to life through the theme parks slowly became increasingly popular as the way to perfectly blend tourism and real-life involvement with media itself.
[21]
Similar to transmedia, the concept of bringing fictional media into a non-fictional space where fans can immerse themselves in real-life versions of elements from the fictional worlds they love, adds to the overall narrative the franchise creates through its other mediums.
[22]
Marvel's
Avenger's Campus
park is one of the many franchise-based theme parks created in recent times, following the creation of
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
at
Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure
and Star Wars'
Galaxy's Edge
at Disneyland and
Disney World
.
Media franchises tend to cross over from their original media to other forms. Literary franchises are often transported to film, such as
Nancy Drew
,
Miss Marple
, and other popular
detectives
, as well as popular
comic book
superheroes
. Television and film franchises are often expanded upon in
novels
, particularly those in the
fantasy
and
science fiction
genres. Similarly, fantasy, science fiction films and television shows are frequently adapted into
animated television series
, video games, or both.
A media franchise does not have to include the same characters or theme, as the brand identity can be the franchise, like
Square Enix
's
Final Fantasy
or the
National Lampoon
series
, and can suffer from critical failures even if the media fictional material is unrelated.
[23]
Non-fiction
[
edit
]
Non-fiction
literary franchises include the
...For Dummies
and
The Complete Idiot's Guide to...
reference books
. An enduring and comprehensive example of a media franchise is
Playboy Enterprises
, which began expanding well beyond its successful magazine,
Playboy
, within a few years after its first publication, into such enterprises as a modeling agency, several television shows (
Playboy's Penthouse
, in 1959), and even its own
television channel
. Twenty-five years later, Playboy released private clubs and restaurants, movie theaters,
a radio show
,
direct to video
films, music and book publishing (including original works in addition to its anthologies of cartoons, photographs, recipes, advice, articles or fiction that had originally appeared in the magazine), footwear, clothing of every kind, jewelry, housewares (lamps, clocks, bedding, glassware), guitars and gambling, playing cards, pinball machines and pet accessories, billiard balls, bedroom appurtenances, enhancements, plus countless other items of merchandise.
Non-fiction media franchises also exist in the television and film mediums, with
reality TV
being one of the most well-known examples; ranging from competition shows like
The Amazing Race
to the day-in-the-life episodes of the many different
Real Housewives
series.
[24]
Documentaries
and
docuseries
are other highlights of the non-fiction branch of media franchises,
[24]
such as the popular
Planet Earth
series, which serves as both a film and television transmedia franchise.
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Keiles, Jamie Lauren (December 1, 2022).
"
'Avatar' and the Mystery of the Vanishing Blockbuster - It was the highest-grossing film in history, but for years it was remembered mainly for having been forgotten. Why?"
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. Retrieved
December 3,
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"Critical Analysis across Media: Games, Franchises, and the New Cultural Order"
(PDF)
. First International Conference on CDA.
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(PDF)
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. Retrieved
16 September
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.
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,
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.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Marc Steinberg,
Anime's Media Mix: Franchising Toys and Characters in Japan.
Further reading
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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