Smaller Franchises you're a fan of?

[Nate Grey]

The Collector? Never heard of it, what kind of franchise is that? Horror?

I've heard of it, never seen it. I think its something akin to Saw, though, since the folks behind it shopped the script around as a prequel but the actual Saw producers said "no."

The sequel is called "The Collection", and the third movie, either coming out next year or 2021, will be called "The Collected". Or, "The Coll3cted" since everyone like to stylize high number sequels now.

[csmith25]

The Underworld franchise. If that counts?

[Vakanai]

The Underworld franchise. If that counts?

Toughie - it's certainly not as big as say Harry Potter or Marvel and so forth, but then again all of the movies were theatrical releases and it is in the R rated horror action genre so like Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th it could be considered one of the big pillars of the genre it's in. But then again it might not be that big in its genre, I don't know. I couldn't tell you.

Personally I loved the first two movies and the prequel, but everything since has been...less good. Yeah, lets go with that.

[ChrisIII]

Poltergeist. The first movie is pretty much Spielberg in all but direction, and even that's up for debate. The sequels seemed to be setting up more of a recurring villain (Kane) but the death of O'Rourke and Beck kind of ended the series, although there were some plans for a prequel and of course there was a remake.

[Jackalope89]

The Underworld franchise. If that counts?

I would say yes. And during a time when freakin' "Twilight" was out, it was my go-to reference for how vampires and werewolves should be (in comparison).

Anyway, I would say Dragon Ball franchise, but that's kind of iffy. Because anime wise, its about as mainstream as it can get. Though only a couple of films, out of well over a dozen, have actually been in theaters (the latest, in a limited release in the US, did earn $100 million, third to only the first two Pokemon movies). But then again, anime, being animated and all, still has a stigma attached to it.

[Vakanai]

Poltergeist. The first movie is pretty much Spielberg in all but direction, and even that's up for debate. The sequels seemed to be setting up more of a recurring villain (Kane) but the death of O'Rourke and Beck kind of ended the series, although there were some plans for a prequel and of course there was a remake.

Did I hallucinate it, or wasn't there a tv series as well? (quickly googles it) There was!
I couldn't tell you a thing about it though.

[Nate Grey]

Did I hallucinate it, or wasn't there a tv series as well? (quickly googles it) There was!
I couldn't tell you a thing about it though.

Ghostbusters without proton packs? Or a precursor to the Friday the 13th TV series. A group of people (five-man band configuration) investigated ghosts and figured out how to dispatch them. Had very little to do with the movie (if anything) other than a little girl was a recurring character (the child of one of the female leads) and it dealt with ghosts.

[AdamFTF]

I'm not sure I'd call TMNT or Ghostbusters smaller franchises, but then again Ghostbusters hasn't had much since the 80s that I'm aware of (one popular videogame and a flop reboot). We'll see when the 3rd one comes out soon (that one I do want to see - yay original surviving cast!).

I was just trying to list properties besides the "usual suspects". Online it seems like there's a really obvious lineup of properties that people geek out about and get talked about ande meme-ified all the time (Lord of the Rings, Doctor Who, Marvel, DC, Harry Potter, Star Wars). Some of the "usual suspects" I'm not even all that passionate about. For example, I like Star Wars but I do not love it.

I'm also a long time fan of the Universal Monsters (shame the studio can't get its act together in bringing these timeless characters back in decent films)

I think it's hard to figure out what to do with them because of how horror has changed over the years. Universal horror was cutting edge, scary horror during the '30s-'50s. But as horror became more of a graphic, adults only genre on the big screen, the old Universal films ended up entertaining kids on Creature Feature shows and selling them Aurora models and other such things. Then the Creature Feature shows died off and new children's horror became focused on cautionary tales starring kid characters (Goosebumps, Are You Afraid of the Dark?). So, you either make them into R-rated modern horror and lose the kid audience you've been selling model kits and fruit snacks to for years (yes, there were Universal Monsters fruit snacks). Or you try to turn it into something more palatable for families like an action movie and you get stuff like Van Helsing.

Then there are odd adults like me who like the gothic fantasy aspect but don't like jump scares, blood or gore. But I'm a unique case.

and Toho's giant monsters (glad to see Godzilla getting movies again after that long period between Final Wars and Godzilla 2014). I've recently started trying to get into Ultraman thanks to Mill Creek's Blu-ray releases of all the series, got Ultra Q and the original Ultraman (went for the steelbook editions) and just started watching them, will probably get Orb, Geed, and Ultraseven at the end of the month. Watched the first 7 episodes of Ultra Q last night, definitely feels like I'm watching some mini-movies of the period, which is pretty great.

Kind of split up a sentence there. Sorry.

Anyway, I just got into the Toho monsters again. A lot of people even just call it the "Godzilla" franchise, but Mothra and Rodan were both headliners once. I've nearly finished Ultra Q and need to watch more of Ultraman. I've liked what I've seen so far, though.

I agree I like hearing about geeky franchises beyond the usual stuff. Fun seeing what all people are into and passionate about.

[Somecrazyaussie]

I'm not sure it counts as small, but I've always been a fan of the Stargate franchise. It's kind of amazing that 4 series and 3 direct-to-dvd movies all came from one pretty middling Devlin-Emerich movie.

True. Even Devlin-Emmerich think the film didn't live up to the story potential. Which is their justification for rebooting it with a new movie with them doing it 😂

[numberthirty]

The Collector? Never heard of it, what kind of franchise is that? Horror?

I've heard of it, never seen it. I think its something akin to Saw, though, since the folks behind it shopped the script around as a prequel but the actual Saw producers said "no."

The sequel is called "The Collection", and the third movie, either coming out next year or 2021, will be called "The Collected". Or, "The Coll3cted" since everyone like to stylize high number sequels now.

To lay the whole thing out pretty simply...

We'll call the guy the first film centers around "A".

In that film, "A" owes betting debts and decides to rip off a family he works for as a handyman. During the robbery, he realize that his robbery attempt is overlapping an attack by someone the police have dubbed "The Collector". They settled on that name because he "Collects" a single living victim from each crime. To slightly spoil the film, "A" is "Collected" by The Collector at the close of the first film.

As the second films starts, The Collector "Collects" a young woman from a dance party. We'll call her "B". As this is going on, "A" manages an escape from The Collector. After being picked i[ by the police during his escape from The Collector, "A" is eventually offered a deal to have his existing criminal record wiped to assist in an attempt to rescue "B" from The Collector(based on that "A" is the only person "Collected" who has ever escaped from The Collector).

The second film largely tells the story of that rescue attempt.

[Vegan Daddy]

The Mr. Moto series with Peter Lorre

[Riv86672]

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy. Does that count?

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Life, the Universe and Everything, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, Mostly Harmless and And Another Thing. I think that’s all of them. Those are all still ready to be put on the big screen.

The Lightning Thief series.
I’m thinking full reboot. The first two movies were...not the best.
This series was -always- going to be compared to the Harry Potter franchise, so they should have just leaned into it and for starters, cast age appropriate actors who could grow into the parts, the way the characters in the books did.
Someone decided to try and just get to the older teen drama stuff the HP series took years to get to, after viewers had had time to invest in their development.
It didn’t work.

[Styles]

The Arrowverse

[Jackalope89]

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy. Does that count?

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Life, the Universe and Everything, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, Mostly Harmless and And Another Thing. I think that’s all of them. Those are all still ready to be put on the big screen.

The Lightning Thief series.
I’m thinking full reboot. The first two movies were...not the best.
This series was -always- going to be compared to the Harry Potter franchise, so they should have just leaned into it and for starters, cast age appropriate actors who could grow into the parts, the way the characters in the books did.
Someone decided to try and just get to the older teen drama stuff the HP series took years to get to, after viewers had had time to invest in their development.
It didn’t work.

Percy Jackson Series, actually.

But yeah. First time since Animorphs I enjoyed a first person POV. But man, the films really butchered things.

[Marvelgirl]

Rocky Series
The Tarantino film universe