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This Week in Lumps
#2 [29/05 - 04/06]

· It must have been a slow news day for BBC Online when they covered the news that “A Theme Park inspired by the adventures of schoolboy wizard Harry Potter is to open in the US. ‘The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter’ will open at the Universal Orlando Resort, in Florida, in 2009.”

Now, I’m not a Harry Potter fan. I’ve no dislike for the books or the films because I’ve never read or watched them, so I cannot pass judgement myself; I can only go by what other people have said. Some admit they are poorly written, and are about as predictable as the sun rising. However, a Theme Park is a great idea, you cant deny it. Like you’ll see below, there are certain franchises which never fail to rake in the money, and this is going to be one. Its huge amongst kids (as well as adults who should know better; don’t deny it, I’ve seen you reading it on the bus) and what better way to capitalize on this by starting something kids love: Theme Parks. You may be thinking “ah, this could be really hit and miss”, and you may be right, but when you hear that The Harry Potter series of books has been translated into no less than 65 languages with more than a whopping 325 million copies sold worldwide, you know there’s an untapped market, and being honest, the pictures that illustrations that have been released look mighty good. A nice way to make the richest woman in the UK even richer. Oh, the jealousy.

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· So far this summer, Spider-Man, Shrek and Pirates have all been across our big screens, while the Oceans crew, Harry Potter, and Die Hard are all coming soon; good examples of some real film crackers from the past coming back for more; could they be examples of promising franchises turning into future classics? Which spurred ‘Film School Rejects’ asking the question: “What is the most powerful movie franchise in history? Is it the one that has grossed the most money at the box office? Is it the franchise with the most longevity? Is it the one with the most marketing prowess or the largest fan-base?”

The author even submitted his own top ten, but as you can imagine, I didn’t agree with it. so, Lords, Ladies and Gentleman; here is my top ten most powerful franchises to ever grace our screens*:

* NB: these are not my top ten favourites at all, that would be an entirely different list altogether.

10. Batman / Spider-man / Superman (I can’t really pick one above the others, so this is like a equal 12th)
9. Terminator
8. Toy Story
7. Indiana Jones
6. Die Hard
5. Lord of the Rings
4. Rocky
3. The Godfather
2. James Bond
1. Star Wars

Notable mentions to: Rambo, Back to the Future, The Matrix, Aliens and Lethal Weapon. What no Harry Potter? Am I mad? Not yet, but give it a year or two and it will definitely be in the Top 10. Just not now.

Going by the Wiki definition of media franchises, I had to take a few factors into consideration before making my list up, such as the following:
Theme Music: You can look at my top 4, and instantly know the theme music, without hesitation. It’s not like Jurassic Park where you start humming the theme song only to realise that you’ve got it confused with Godzilla. C’mon, you can whistle any of them in your work place or around the dinner table only for worried others nearby to ask “Why are you whistling the Rocky theme?”
Advanced Planning & Attention: This needs a bit of explanation. Films that have people talking about Sequels (and prequels) before the most recent films have even been cleared from the bargain shelf. Take Shrek, they’ve planned the next two films going into 2010. That’s also the same for Harry Potter; going by the book production, they’ll keep Daniel Radcliffe on our screens for the next 3/4 years. Look at the media attention Daniel Craig got when he was announced as the next Bond. Look at the fan-base pressure that films such as Rocky, Die Hard and Indiana Jones gets to produce ‘just one more’.
Hardcore Fan-base: The reason why Star Wars was 1st, and James Bond narrowly pipped into 2nd, was that after taking everything into consideration, I made my decision that Bond was just lacking that plateau of obscene fanatical obsession. Believe me, that was a hard choice to make. I had argued with friends, planned my reasoning for, and even started writing this blog having Bond as #1, However I was forced to reconsider after looking at the facts: Star Wars has made nearly $20 billion worldwide, with Bond just hitting $4 billion. If you look at merchandising and endorsements, again, Star Wars has come out on top. Its popularity? well, its unquestionable. I’ve just watched Alex, Dan and Jeff on Episode 10 of The Totally Rad Show Pod-cast, where they attended the five-day convention of Star Wars. I mean, having just one or two days isn’t enough, its so popular they have to squeeze all these fanatics in over FIVE days! You cant argue with that.
It’s also the reason why The Godfather is in the list. It’s popularity is sky high. Ask 10 men, and I can bet that at least 8 of those will list it as one of their top films ever. Its cult viewing.
There’s lots of other things I could go on to talk about, but the fact is, no matter what I use to argue my list, I don’t think it will change from that. The question I leave you to ponder: What films that have been released recently, or are soon to be released, could go on and challenge the top 5? It will take something very special indeed. And yes, I know Harry Potter ticks all of those boxes, but like I said, give it a few years time.

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· Closing off this media-jammed journey of a blog update is an article which interested me regarding TV Schedules and how they are “changing radically”. It’s about how the invention of PVR’s with HDD built in are changing our TV patterns to suit our social and work patterns, much like other inventions of the last 20 years; MP3 players and the Internet. We play our music when we want to listen to it, and we have all the information we ever could dream of (and more) on a computer screen on our lap or on a desk. This is now being reflected in TV viewing: we are watching programs when we want to watch them; we are too busy to watch this program now, so we will save it for tomorrow night when there’s not much else on.
Does this mean the end for TV schedules? I’m going to be bold and say yes. Part of that choice is because I’m fed up of them. Some nights you get clashes, and you have to decide whats going to be watched, and whats going to be missed. Then there’s days where there’s fudge all on, and you find yourself alphabetizing your CD collection, and re-doing your ‘About Me’ section on Myspace. But that’s not the only reason I think it will be lost into digital space: This revolution of the remote-control masses, the ‘Red Button Army’ as they are secretly known and ridiculed amongst the haters, these are the people who are taking this technology and grasping it with their finger clicking, channel flicking digits. They’re rewinding football goals to gloat to their mates, they’re fast-forwarding though the boring bits of the news to get to the story about Paris Hilton getting a new daddy in jail, they’re saving episodes of Ugly Betty so that they can watch it over and over again, boring the rest of the room to suicide. And soon the rest of us will catch on, because we dont want every episode of Friends on DVD when we could record them from E4, and we dont want to miss ER because we’re going out on the pull. Its just a matter of knowledge and availability. Luckily the digital switchover will rid the Ceefax-scrolling zombies of yore to the digital graveyard, and the rest of us can gloat at having the last fourteen episodes of the Simpsons we missed while we were on holiday, even though we’ve seen them all before and can quote them word for word.
It’s interesting to read that programs are getting more viewers when the station is flexible about the viewing hours, like the new +1 stations which have been appearing. Also, that the sky+ box is fitted in over 2 million homes, and countless more will soon be getting the BT version soon, including me. It seems to have won me over, as all im paying is the installation. the actual Freeview box is free for customers who renew their 12 month contract, and the Pay-As-You-Go channels are, well, like the name suggests, on a top-up basis. Like most things, I shall prep with much more research before I dive in unprepared.
The final note on this is from the final paragraph of the article, which must reassure any advertisement company worried about this shift in patterns:

“…Perhaps advertisers can be reassured by BSkyB data suggesting that 40% of people with Sky+ boxes still sit through commercial breaks. This suggests that even with the option to fast-forward, millions of viewers like watching TV just the way it always has been.”

This surprises me. Maybe its just that nobody likes change, I doubt its because people actually watch them, or maybe its just a level of confusion over changing technologies. Whatever it is, people havent experienced TV until they’ve paused it, made a cuppa, and started it again just where they left off.

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That was the week in lumps, a week in which: Brummie girls “Aren’t pretty enough”, Last.fm was bought by CBS, a man woke up from a 19 year coma, and Microsoft announced the impressive looking, spine snapping ‘Surface’

I shall leave you with the quote of the week, from Steve Jobs, on why Windows users cant get enough of iTunes.

“It’s like giving a glass of ice water to somebody in hell…”

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