@Scott -- Not sure about the comparison between Toy Story 3 and Alice in Wonderland.

Both are franchises. Alice in Wonderland has been exploited in many different media for over a hundred years now. If that's not a franchise, I don't know what is.

I also don't think you can dub a movie a franchise until it is one.

It also doesn't need to be successful to be one.

You can't have a burger franchise without a second restaurant.

This means the second somebody started developing JAWS into JAWS 2 it became a franchise. The success of the films is irrelevant.

McG's WONDERLAND SOUND AND VISION did TERMINATOR 4 in the hopes of starting a new franchise (a trilogy 4, 5, 6 set in the future of Terminator movies).

Success or failure -- they were still building upon an already established Terminator franchise. Whether or not they made a "new" franchise, it already was one.

Even with the failure of Terminator 4 to launch a new franchise, anyone making a Terminator 5 or rebooting the franchise still is operating within that franchise.

You can, however, start three restaurants at the same time -- thus starting a franchise without ever having an original.

I'd argue most PIXAR movies do this -- not by creating a sequel but largely merchandising their material on a massive scale across multiple media. Books, Toys, Amusement Parks. The characters become part of something larger than a singular element.

That is very different from say a film like KNIGHT AND DAY. Or better yet, INCEPTION. Neither of these are franchises. But the moment someone wants to make a sequel, they are.

I do think franchise is too often used interchangably with blockbuster which causes confusion.

James, while I take your point -- for example, Disney could choose to do a sequel to the latest version of Alice in Wonderland -- allow me to quibble with the point that you can't "dub a movie a franchise until it is one." That's not how the acquisition and development process in Hollywood operates. Believe me they look at all script projects with one eye very much aware of their franchise potential. Indeed when a manuscript, pitch, pre-awareness title or whatever gets submitted, if a buyer perceives it to have obvious franchise potential, that can be a significant contributing factor to the purchase decision.

Did Universal think Fast & Furious would become a franchise when they made it? Probably not. So yes, movies can get made that become franchises. But it's also true that projects can enter the front end of the filmmaking process already tagged as a potential franchise.

Also as the article points out in detail, the concept of franchise has changed not just to mean a movie the studios can sequelize, but also monetize across multiple revenue platforms.

What my quibble is about is that a "potential" franchise and a franchise are the exact same thing.

If you launch a movie as a franchise, it is one. If it fails, crashes and burns, and doesn't catch on -- it's a failed franchise.

If I start a burger franchise and no one comes, it's a failed franchise.

Hollywood doesn't consider failed franchises a franchise.

And that was my point.

What they're really talking about when they say they are looking for a potential franchise is a "successful franchise."

My second point was that anything can be a franchise.

This is where I think we differ. I do see your point. It's not like BLACK SWAN is the type of script that would typically make a franchise. If by some fluke, they made a sequel it would be a franchise. So this argument was more semantic.

So I agree with you there. I just don't think there's as much weight on looking for potential franchise material as there was say 5 years ago.

I think there's a higher demand than ever simply for good original material.

The difference really is in the business model. In the past, 80s and earlier, really -- most studios would wait to see if a movie was successful before converting it into a franchise.

Several factors have contributed to the shift in the business model.

1) Sequels outgrossing their original.
2) Internet / video / DVD ancillary markets (Most don't realize how radically these have changed business models since the 80s)
3) One shot / Opening weekend advertising campaigns.

This put a focus on putting a massive budget into projects in an effort to gain massive returns.

It also resulted in the loss of middle budget films.

I think we are starting to see this model change. Look at the Oscars.

A bunch of films that were made for 10-20 million dollars that all netted over 100 million domestically.

I actually think we are going to see a shift away from films that were typically thought of as Hollywood potential franchises simply due to the excessive pricetag associated with the film/script and a shift towards original content that can be made on a budget.

And out of those we may get franchises.

A model closer to what franchises were in the 70s. At least as far as original material is concerned.

There will always be films made from already established franchises.

@James: In the most recent Screenwriting Master Class monthly newsletter, I made precisely the same point you did about the -- hopefully -- rise in adult dramas due to success of movies like The King's Speech, The Social Network, Black Swan, True Grit, and The Fighter.

I'm also posting an article tomorrow or the next day about studio that looks like they've gotten into some trouble on a project precisely because they were so anxious to re-start a franchise with a big actor attached.

Awesome! Look forward to that.

@James,

I think there's some miscommunication in that the WSJ article defines franchise differently than you.

You're defining it as any movie property with more than one entry. They're defining it as a movie property that not only justifies sequels, but additional moneymaking tie-ins such as toys and stage musicals.

"Alice in Wonderland" (not Lewis Caroll's story but Tim Burton's interpretation of that story) may inspire a sequel, but anyone would be nuts to expect that millions of kids will want their own Mad Hatter doll.

Therefore, it's not a franchise yet and I'd venture to say it's not viewed as even a potential franchise by studio execs.