Media franchise
This article or subsequent section is not sufficiently supported by evidence (e.g., anecdotal evidence). Information without sufficient evidence may be removed in the near future. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and adding good supporting evidence.
Franchises in the media context are a form of licensing of trademarks and other intangibles in a media work (franchising) that extend beyond the original author, its publisher, the context of creation and the original media form. Media franchising most often takes the form of merchandising, but has evolved far beyond that.
Successful media works - such as books, films or computer games - often contain exploitable content beyond the original context. This can involve characters, storylines, game locations or objects that are protected by copyright for the benefit of the original author and his publisher on the one hand, and generate audience interest beyond that on the other. The author or publisher may license these rights to other exploiters who sell visual representations or, for example, game pieces, continue storylines in new books or films, or design computer or board games based on the original.
While there had already been earlier licensing in the form of marketing cooperation, especially around the James Bond film series, in which product placement took place in the film and subsequently the products used in the film could advertise with the James Bond character and the 007 logo, the 1977 film Star Wars is considered the first extensive application of media franchising. The author and director George Lucas had reserved the merchandising rights and was able to conclude extensive licensing agreements for the production of game figures for the first time in film history; this was followed by books set in the Star Wars universe, computer games, television series and other forms of marketing.
