FRANCHISE FATIGUE as Han Solo makes loss

The empire strikes whack

The franchise model remains king - just look at the top 10 box office on a typical week, or the annual top 10s, and you'll see this domination (existing audience + brand recognition makes them easier to market, and for CGI epics costs can be spread over multiple movies - especially when planned out like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Avatar sequels or Star Wars movies).

Great new alliterative term to be aware of though - franchise fatigue.
The legendary, nostalgia-fuelled status of the Star Wars franchise is clearly sinking under the weight of annual releases, with the poorly received Han Solo spin-off not quite a franchise killer but the 1st in the series to make a loss!

Just like the star system (Richard Dyer) that Star Wars itself is undermining, nothing is set in stone in the film industry - which is why we talk of conventions not rules!

See 'Too much, too fast': Disney to scale back production of Star Wars movies (Film Guardian - which you can read regularly via the free Guardian app; you will learn a lot more than we can cover in lessons by doing so!)