Today in my management class we were talking about how the movie industry loves to make sequels, prequels, etc, etc.. And I guess I never really thought about the business point of view on why they do that. I naively just thought they wanted to keep us watching and happy and continue the story for our enjoyment. Turns out the keep us watching part is what it’s all about.
Once a movie is made its kind of up in the air if its going to be as popular as the producers and everyone involved in the filming think its going to be. Once it hits the box office and the numbers start coming in they can tell. Then from there if the movie wins a lot of awards and gets a lot of good recognition sometimes there are talks of a sequel. Why would they do this from a strategic side? They already have a niche in the population that loved the movie won’t these people want to see another installment of it so they can make even more money off of it. The second time around they tend to spend more money and really live up whatever made the movie popular in the first place. If it’s the action scenes they throw in a few more of those, if it’s the romance they throw in a few more of that, etc.
They are hoping the niche they captured with the first film along with the publicity from winning all the awards and having great reviews and media coverage will intrigue even more people to come see the second movie. The trick is they have to leave an ending so that there can be a second movie. Take for instance, Titanic, won movie of the year and tons and tons of awards back in the 90’s. Unfortunately they didn’t leave an ending that would allow for them to make a sequel. Bet they’re kicking themselves now because had they not had Jack fall to the bottom of the ocean again a sequel most likely would have also been a hit. I think in this case though its good they left the name Titanic untarnished, if you will, from being followed by potentially bad sequels or prequels.
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Very interesting. We were just talking about that last week! Makes sense though because if you know it works why not make more money off of it. Granted half the sequels aren't as good as the first, but you have to see it because you're curious. I definitely agree with you about the Titanic. It's a one and done movie.
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