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3 Tap that nostalgia

Directors and producers fearful of upsetting loyal franchise fans with gritty reboots can tap a limitless well of pre-existing nostalgia by promising, through trailers, clips and posters, to deliver the franchise of old — see the later Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Lethal Weapon instalments. This, unfortunately, can have painful consequences when that loyal audience discovers that the new movies are not the same, but pale, lifeless imitations of the past.

George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars and producer of the Indiana Jones movies, recently complained that the old hardcore fan-base had unrealistic expectations of his movies. “No matter how you do it, it won’t be what the other ones were in terms of impact, or the way that people remember them,” he said, before tootling off, no doubt, to contemplate the $783 million that the last Indiana Jones movie made.

4 Plot is highly overrated

The successful movie franchise trades in spectacle, action and effects. Plot is a minor concern. “I defy you to tell me the plot of the first three Lethal Weapon movies,” Joel Silver, the series producer, famously challenged during his promotional tour for Lethal Weapon 4. “We just put Mel [Gibson] and Danny [Glover] into situations and let you enjoy what happens to them.” Interestingly, Lethal Weapon 4 was the biggest financial disappointment of the series, making $130 million at the US box office on a budget of $140 million.

The current No 1 movie at the US box office, Night at the Museum 2, is part of an emerging kiddie-friendly franchise (the first movie scooped more than $500 million at the box office) that happily swaps plotting for anarchic action, relentless special effects and a series of amiable cameo performances from Robin Williams, Steve Coogan and Christopher Guest.

5 It’s a blockbuster, not a cure for cancer

Franchise directors, all of them sensitive artistic types, are often reduced to defending their roles as cogs in the giant studio machine by speaking about their movies as lofty philosophical themes. Thus with X-Men we were dealing with metaphorical movies about racism and bigotry in George W. Bush’s America, while the Matrix blockbusters apparently questioned the very nature of reality itself. Recently the Terminator 4 director McG has been talking up the essence of his movie, discussing its stylistic connections to Hitchcock’s Rope (there are none) and how he aims to reinvigorate the franchise because, “it’s a great idea that was once science fiction and is now reality”. Er, what?

6 British isn’t always best

His Dark Materials, The Saint, Tank Girl and The Avengers — all are popular local source material that failed to translate to international franchise status. The Saint wasn’t helped by a camply narcissistic central turn from Val Kilmer, while Ralph Fiennes declared of his wooden turn as Steed in the abominable Avengers adaptation that it was all in the umbrella.

As for His Dark Materials, Gaydos suggests that the movie fatally contravened the rule for fantasy franchises: keep it in the family. “There are rules for what makes a family film,” he says, “and if you tinker with them and make a darker, more troubling, film then you can wind up with a mess on your hands.”

7 Comic books can fail

The annals of ignominious movie failures are cluttered with comic-book adaptations. Everything from Dick Tracy to Ang Lee’s Hulk movie to Constantine, Watchmen, The Spirit and Daredevil show just how far from a guaranteed franchise most comic-book source material can stray. And yet, because comic books carry the association of Superman and Spider-Man, they tend to breed blind spots in studio executives.

8 In fact, there are no sure things

Take Miami Vice (somebody take Miami Vice!). It should have been the franchise success story of 2006. It was made by an Oscar-nominated writer-director, Michael Mann (Heat). It starred two hot young actors — the Oscar winner Jamie Foxx and the heart-throb Colin Farrell. And yet it tanked. “They spent $150 million on the negative costs (the production costs) and $120 million to market it, and it didn’t perform,” Gaydos says. “It wasn’t a very good film, but there are many not very good films that work spectacularly.”

9 But spending a lot of money helps

If you spend enough money on marketing and advertising you will reach a point where you can build an audience irrespective of product. The downside to this, of course, is that the spend becomes so prohibitive that the studios refuse to take any creative risks with the product.

10: Make hay, for your days are numbered

Just when you thought the franchises were here to stay, along comes the recession and sweeps them all away. At least that’s the theory. “I think that art films are going to make a tremendous comeback,” Bart says. “There’s a generation of young film-makers who want to put something into their movies other than comic-book characters.”

In the meantime, of course, there’s always the thrilling prospect of Terminator 4, Transformers 2 and Harry Potter 6!

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