The Relationship Between Quality and Box Office Success in Movie Franchises

Introduction

Quality doesn't always assure box office success. While big franchises often measure their success based on box office returns, the best movies aren't always the ones which make the most money.

Daisy Ridley as Rey in Star Wars The Force Awakens in front of Millennium Falcon.

There are many factors which contribute to a movie's box office returns, and although the quality of the movie is obviously a huge one, it won't necessarily make or break a movie's chances. Marketing strategies, box office competition, and the allure of big names can all affect how many people buy tickets to see a movie, regardless of how good it actually is.

The mosasaurus eating a flying dinosaur in Jurassic World

Some franchises grow exponentially because a movie is so well-received, and this means that the sequel will often make more money. There are plenty of franchises where the highest-grossing movie is also widely considered to be the best.

Transformers_ Dark of the Moon Bumblebee and Sam in Highway Chase

Franchises and Box Office Returns

The relationship between the quality of a movie and its box office success becomes apparent when we look at some of the biggest movie franchises in history.

Neo fights an infinite wave of Agent Smiths with a metal pole in The Matrix Reloaded's burly brawl scene

For example, Star Wars: Episode VII \\u2013 The Force Awakens, the return of Star Wars, shattered the franchise's box office record with $937 million. While the movie brought back beloved characters like Han Solo, Leia, and Chewbacca, and set up the journeys for the future of the franchise, it is still controversial among the franchise's most dedicated fans.

Similarly, Jurassic World, with its impressive visual effects, allowed the franchise to render its prehistoric theme park with more precise detail. However, the original Jurassic Park, directed by Steven Spielberg, is still considered the pinnacle of the franchise.

The Rocky franchise, particularly Rocky IV, raised the stakes with the death of Apollo Creed, but the cheesy dialogue and music-video style robbed the movie of the quiet intensity which made the original Rocky so successful.

John McClane hanging in an elevator shaft in Live Free or Die Hard

The Impact of Quality on Financial Success

While quality and financial success do correlate for most franchises, others have some strange movies occupying the number one spot, and they don't represent the franchise's best.

The Twins sitting in a car together in The Matrix Reloaded

For instance, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was an unstoppable box office hit, but its tangled plots are a little messy compared to The Curse of the Black Pearl. Similarly, The Matrix Reloaded struggled to find an interesting next step after the success of the original movie.

Millennium Falcon in Force Awakens

The relationship between quality and financial success is further exemplified by Prometheus, which, despite its $130 million budget, didn't reach the same heights of the first two Alien movies. The expanded scope of Prometheus isn't necessarily a good thing, as the horrors of the xenomorph are largely unknown in the original movies.

An Engineer in Prometheus