How many long-lived franchises are there?

I found myself thinking about the James Bond films the other day and marvelling at the fact that a movie franchise that got off the ground in 1962 — when my father was still in high school, or whatever they called it in Zambia then — is still alive and kicking.

It occurred to me that most current franchises don’t go back much further than the 1970s, i.e. the dawn of the blockbuster era.

So naturally, I began to make a list.

For the purposes of the list below, I am thinking only of franchises that are still somewhat “viable”, i.e. franchises that have produced new movies in the last, say, five years; and for the purposes of this list, I am not interested in franchises that don’t go back any further than the 1990s, like, say, Mission: Impossible (1996-2006).

Here are the long-lived, recently-viable franchises — “series” might be a better word, in some cases — that come to mind so far:

1. Die Hard: four films between 1988 and 2007.
2. The Terminator: three films between 1984 and 2003.
3. Koyaanisqatsi: three films between 1983 and 2002.
4. Star Trek: ten films between 1979 and 2002.
5. Superman: five films between 1978 and 2006.
6. Halloween: eight films between 1978 and 2002.
7. Star Wars: six films between 1977 and 2005.
8. Rocky: six films between 1976 and 2006.
9. The Exorcist: five films between 1973 and 2005.
10. James Bond: twenty-one films between 1962 and 2006.

Note: I am excluding films that are currently only in development, if that, so the Indiana Jones (1981-1989) and Rambo (1982-1988) franchises don’t count, yet, despite the announced plans to go ahead with new sequels; on the other hand, Die Hard (1988-1995, plus a new film coming out this year) does count because they’ve already filmed enough of the new movie to put out a trailer for it.

Also, to count as a movie “franchise”, there has to be some sort of connection or continuity between the films, such as the theme music and gun-barrel sequences that begin all the “official” James Bond movies. Chris Nolan’s Batman Begins (2005) has even less in common with Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) than Burton’s film has with Leslie Martinson’s Batman: The Movie (1966), so no, I do not consider them to be part of the same movie “franchise” — though they are all certainly part of a much larger pop-culture franchise that goes way beyond movies. On the other hand, Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns (2006) is certainly part of the franchise that began with Richard Donner’s Superman (1978), because it uses the same music, the same basic designs, the same narrative premises, heck even some of the same footage as the earlier movie.

I am not sure whether to count John Moore’s remake of The Omen (2006) as part of the same “franchise” that began with Richard Donner’s The Omen (three films between 1976 and 1981; four if you count the TV-movie made in 1991). I kind of think remakes should be left out of the picture altogether, but this particular remake is such a carbon-copy of the original film that it kind of deserves to be included; heck, it’s even in the boxed set.

There is also the curious case of Freddy Vs. Jason (2003), which kind of extends the Friday the 13th (ten films between 1980 and 2001) and Nightmare on Elm Street (seven films between 1984 and 1994) franchises without necessarily being part of either series, per se. Ditto the Alien vs. Predator movies (2004-2007), which kind of extend the Alien (four films between 1979 and 1997) and Predator (two films between 1987 and 1990) franchises without necessarily being part of either series, per se.

And no, a straightforward sequel to a very old film, with no other films in between, does not quite count as a “franchise”. My apologies to any and all fans of Ingmar Bergman’s Saraband (2003), the sequel to Scenes from a Marriage (1973).

Oh, and I’m ignoring all those straight-to-DVD Disney sequels.

Of course, virtually none of these debatable examples go back any further than the 1970s, and James Bond easily has them all beat.

Am I missing anything?