Five Key Franchise Building Lessons For Hollywood (Not Just Lionsgate) as 'Saw' Turns 20 and 'John Wick' Turns 10

If Tinseltown can take the lessons of John Wick and Jigsaw to heart, maybe we can see more of their ilk instead of just more sequels and spin-offs from those franchises.

In a kind of two-for-one celebration, today marks the 20th anniversary of the first Saw film, while this past Thursday marked the 10th anniversary of the first John Wick flick. Both were and remain prime examples of Lionsgate doing what Lionsgate did best, namely (alongside the first slew of Tyler Perry Productions features) offering something unique unto itself and crafting entirely new franchises sans IP or branded content. Even in the nostalgia-skewing 2010s, The Hunger Games was the last tentpole-sized "new to cinema" live-action franchise. And even while audiences slowly pivoted to treating the theatrical experience as a glorified greatest hits album, John Wick joined the likes of The Expendables, Knives Out, Wonder, Divergent, The Hitman's Bodyguard and Now You See Me as entirely new or new-to-cinema live-action franchises that at least temporarily thrived.  

"Temporarily" is not a criticism. While I still jokingly ask my Lionsgate contacts how Starz-intended The Divergent Series: Insurgent Part II is coming along, successful franchises shouldn't run forever. In the proverbial olden days, when actors were at least as much of a draw as IP and studios could treat "the Adam Sandler comedy" or "the Julia Roberts rom-com" as a franchise, you could make a few Lethal Weapon movies or decide that a unique unto itself blockbuster like Independence Day or Who Framed Roger Rabbit? didn't need a sequel. If Another Stakeout bombed, you just don't make another one. Today, those who run the studios view once-successful IP as essentially endlessly replenishable resources that should never stop producing new "content." And yet even McDonalds doesn't offer the McRib year-round.  

Some of that is the audience mostly giving up on showing up for new would-be franchises, prioritizing another Hunger Games over the possible "next" YA fantasy franchise gem. However, as even the surefire 2010s biggies like Star Wars, Jurassic, The Fast Saga and Mission: Impossible reach the end of their natural lifespans or begin to potentially run on fumes, where even the MCU seems now predicated on 2010s-era nostalgia, there needs to be an investment in the new franchises and new-to-you adaptations. So, looking at the towering and unique-unto-themselves successes of Saw (which defined the post-9/11 horror ecosystem and released seven films over seven straight years) and John Wick (which went from a would-be VOD Taken knockoff to a decade-defining action franchise), what lessons can they teach about how to build a new theatrical franchise?