As Hollywood shifts towards the digital era, the role of the media franchise has become more prominent. This edited collection, from a range of international scholars, argues that the franchise is now an integral element of American media culture. As such, the collection explores the production, distribution and marketing of franchises as a historical form of media-making - analysing the complex industrial practice of managing franchises across interconnected online platforms. Examining how traditional media incumbents like studios and networks have responded to the rise of new entrants from the technology sector (such as Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google), the authors take a critical look at the way new and old industrial logics collide in an increasingly fragmented and consolidated mediascape.

Adaptations in the Franchise Era re-evaluates adaptation's place in a popular culture marked by the movement of content and audiences across more media borders than ever before. While adaptation has historically been understood as the transfer of stories from one medium to another-more often than not, from novel to film-the growing interconnectedness of media and media industries in the early twenty-first century raises new questions about the form and function of adaptation as both a product and a process. Where does adaptation fit within massive franchises that span pages, stages, screens, and theme parks? Rising scholar Kyle Meikle illuminates adaptation's enduring and essential role in the rise of franchises in the 2000s and 2010s. During that decade-and-a-half, adaptations set the foundation for multiplexed, multiplied film series, piloted streaming television's forays into original programming, found their way into audiences' hands in apps and video games, and went live in theatrical experiences on Broadway and beyond. The proliferation of adaptations was matched only by a proliferation of adaptation, as fans remixed and remade their favourite franchises online and off-. This volume considers how producers and consumers defined adaptations-and how adaptations defined themselves-through the endless intertextual play of the franchise era.

Franchise business, as discussed in this book, is one of the invisible hands of the global economy. If you are imagining an economic trojan horse, then franchising is exactly what it is. The goal of the franchise is not as extreme as the trojan horse that destroyed the city of Troy in Greek heroic tales, but because it is one of the right hands of capitalism, it has the potential for efficient expansion and infiltration.

When the first Fast & Furious film was released in June 2001, few predicted that it would be a box office hit, let alone the launchpad for a multi-billion-dollar franchise. A mid-budget crime movie set around L.A.'s underground car-racing scene, featuring a cast of relative unknowns, the film became one of the surprise hits of that summer, earning more than 5 times its budget in worldwide ticket sales. 2 decades and 9 films later, Fast & Furious today ranks among the 10 highest-grossing movie franchises of all time, with a box office total of $6.6 billion and has also given rise to an animated TV show and theme park ride. Full-Throttle Franchise is the first book to offer an in-depth analysis of the Fast & Furious, bringing together a range of scholars to explore not only the style and themes of the franchise, but also its broader cultural impact and legacy. The collected essays establish the franchise's importance in cinematic and ideological terms, linking their discussions to wider issues of genre, representation, adaptation, and industry. Topics range from stardom and performance, focusing on key actors Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson, to the way in which Fast & Furious intersects with dominant ideas of racial, gender, and sexual identity. Aimed at both scholars and fans, Full-Throttle Franchise seeks to uncover just what has made Fast & Furious so enduringly popular, mapping its outrageous set pieces, ever-expanding universe, and growing cast of global megastars in terms of wider cultural and industrial forces.

This book explores horror film franchising from a broad range of interdisciplinary perspectives and considers the horror film’s role in the history of franchising and serial fiction. Comprising 12 chapters written by established and emerging scholars in the field, Horror Franchise Cinema redresses critical neglect toward horror film franchising by discussing the forces and factors governing its development across historical and contemporary terrain while also examining text and reception practices. Offering an introduction to the history of horror franchising, the chapters also examine key texts including Universal Studio monster films, Blumhouse production films, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Alien, I Spit on Your Grave, Let the Right One In, Italian zombie films, anthology films, and virtual reality. A significant contribution to studies of horror cinema and film/media franchising from the 1930s to the present day, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of film studies, media and cultural studies, franchise studies, political economy, audience/reception studies, horror studies, fan studies, genre studies, production cultures, and film histories.

The book highlights how creative entrepreneurs saved the Hollywood studios in the 1970's by making the calculated blockbuster, consisting of key replicable markers of success, Hollywood's preeminent business model. Scholars of film studies, screenwriting, and popular culture will find this book of particular interest.

Students, scholars, and readers of film, media, and celebrity studies will enjoy this deep dive into a complex Hollywood figure.

The first MLB franchise to be featured in the new, exciting, and completely original Sports by the NumbersTM series! THE TEAM: The New York Yankees is the greatest franchise in sports history with forty Hall of Fame legends, thirty-nine American League Pennants, twenty-six World Series titles, and the largest fan base in professional sports. The Sports by the NumbersTM franchise unlocks the storied history of the “Bronx Bombers” by providing fans with a unique and captivating look at the legends who make us all dream of wearing pinstripes. THE FORMAT: The presentation created by the authors distinguishes Sports by the NumbersTM from everything else available today. New York Yankees is composed of ten chapters, each offering one hundred numbered “mini-stories”—facts, anomalies, records, coincidences, and enthralling lore and trivia. Each chapter begins with a stirring introduction highlighting the many exciting stories detailed in that chapter. INTERACTIVE: Numerical entries tagged with SBTN-All Star and SBTN-Hall of Fame logos are scattered throughout this book. These logos indicate that more information is available at our website www.sportsbythenumbers.com. Just click on the athletic locker in the bottom right-hand corner of the homepage and access additional reading material, audio and video clips, and more. Sports by the NumbersTM books are not just for die-hard sports fans, but for every fan and sports history reader who loves sports and wants to know more about their heroes and favorite teams. They will quench any fan’s thirst for entertainment and knowledge. About the Authors: Daniel J. Brush is currently working on his Ph.D. at the University of Oklahoma. David Horne is a professional educator and former high school athletic director currently pursuing his doctoral degree at the University of Oklahoma. Marc CB Maxwell is a Ph.D. student at the University of Oklahoma and is the author of Surviving Military Separation: 365 Days (Savas Beatie, 2007).

Who was the best baseball team of all time? This timeless question can most effectively be answered through comprehensive analysis of baseball statistics. Over the course of a season, winning teams tend to score more runs while allowing fewer than their opponents. The greater the difference in runs per game, the more a team can be expected to win. Comparing this data for the top five percent of Major League nines from 1901 through 2014, this book argues that runs above league average is the best statistic for ranking teams. The author sorts 220 teams by era, franchise and skills--hitting, fielding, baserunning, pitching--evaluates their strengths and weaknesses and assigns numerical values to each player's skills to demonstrate how they contributed to team performance.