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Universal Pictures franchises

  • Hannibal Lecter (franchise)The Hannibal Lecter franchise is built around a brilliant, cannibalistic serial killer whom police keep asking for help. It is a strange arrangement. The authorities need the mind of a murderer to catch other murderers. This character has…
  • Madagascar (franchise)Madagascar is a DreamWorks Animation franchise that has grossed more than 2.2 billion dollars. That makes it the ninth highest-grossing animated franchise ever, and the third biggest at DreamWorks, behind only Shrek and Kung Fu Panda. Its…
  • Kung Fu PandaKung Fu Panda began on the 6th of June 2008, when DreamWorks Animation released a film about a giant panda who was never supposed to be a hero. His name is Po Ping. He is bumbling and gluttonous, and he is improbably named the prophesied…
  • The Exorcist (franchise)In January 1974, a letter from the Zodiac Killer reached the San Francisco Chronicle with an unexpected film review. The writer called The Exorcist "the best satirical comedy that I have ever seen". That a real-life killer felt the need to…
  • Fast & FuriousFast & Furious, the franchise first called The Fast and the Furious, began with a magazine article. In May 1998, Vibe published "Racer X" by Ken Li, a report on underground street racing in New York City. Within a few decades, that article…
  • Street FighterStreet Fighter player Daigo Umehara parried 15 hits in a row with one pixel of health left in 2004.
  • Flash GordonGeorge Lucas made Star Wars after he could not get film rights to Flash Gordon. Producer Dino De Laurentiis refused.
  • King Kong (franchise)King Kong earned $90,000 in its first four days in 1933, even though the Great Depression had emptied most Americans' pockets. The giant ape at the center of that film has since carried an entire franchise. It now spans thirteen films,…
  • Monster HighMonster High is a fashion doll franchise from Mattel, and on the 16th of May 2022 a fresh batch of its dolls disappeared from the internet in less than a day. They were reproductions of the very first dolls from 2010, offered through the…
  • Little Golden BooksLittle Golden Books launched in October 1942 at just 25 cents each. Comparable books cost two to three dollars.
  • Doom (franchise)Doom is an American media franchise created by five people: John Carmack, John Romero, Adrian Carmack, Kevin Cloud, and Tom Hall. Its hero never receives a proper name. Players call him Doomguy, the Doom Marine, or, in later entries, the…

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