In the old days before The Empire Strikes Back, Hollywood did not do sequels.
Hollywood did not come out with Gone With the Wind 2: Gone Even Further or Casablanca 2: Return to Morocco.
I heard or read someone say that this is a sign of Hollywood being lower-quality, being cheaper.
Is this true?
We got sequels and franchises after Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back.
As far as I am concerned, quality in movies went way Up at that point, not down- and in particular, much greater scope and ambition.
Once we made one little formula musical or film noir after another, plug in the formula, movies about ordinary stuff in ordinary life.
All of a sudden, in 1977, we are teaching Eastern philosophy and how to be a hero with Star Wars, and reaching out to the Divine with Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Examining the nature of intelligence and our relationship with our creator with Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
Clearly, the quality did not go down!
So, what role does the sequel and the franchise play?
Three things.
First of all, it takes more effort and greater risk to make something ambitious like Star Wars.
Hollywood rewards that greater effort with greater reward- if your effort and risks work out, perhaps you get not only one successful hit movie but a whole series of them!
Second, Hollywood once made the same kind of movie over and over.
The same kind of film noir, the same kind of fluffy musical.
Now, instead, they do sequels.
Finally, sometimes it is not a matter of compromising the artistry at all.
Sometimes a story is so huge that it needs more than one movie!
George Lucas, in the original Star Wars, told a story so large that it took three movies to tell!
Harve Bennett, in the second and third Star Trek movies, told a pair of related stories so big that it needed two movies to tell the story and fully explore the themes of life and death, self-sacrifice, and other things that were introduced in Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan, that could only be fully explored over the course of two movies!
Sometimes the more ambitious stories are so huge that they need more than one movie!
And that is the three reasons that Hollywood often relies of franchises and sequels!
All because since Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977, movies have been far more ambitious!
God loves you! May the Force be with you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson