Media Synergy

A great deal can be learnt by Contemporary marketers and brand managers from the media synergy strategies developed by Hollywood studio executives, where in various media products are constructed to promote one another. Theme park rides, soundtracks, novel tie-ins and videogames are all profitable convergent media forms.

Since the success of Star Wars (1977), Hollywood has focused more attention on developing greenlighting, marketing mega franchise films. Mark Crispin Miller (1990) is one of the first academics to analyse Hollywood's move from vertical integration (where 2 companies of the same industry but different stages of production come together) to horizontal integration (where a company develops by buying up competitors in the market) and films that are positioned across multiple media platforms for their core value along with "sequelizability" and ability to be cross-promoted with other media texts. Constant media synergy is where everything within a franchise promotes everything else. 

In Hollywood, any film title that is itself a sequel, or a title that has one or more sequels that follow is known as a Franchise film. Therefore, sequels are seen to be the core that contribute to film franchise. David Bordwell, noticed that sequels began to account for over 25% of the domestic box office in 2003. He refers to the sequel generated revenue only and therefore couldn't factor in the revenue generated by would become the first title in a franchise later. In 2003, the top ten performing films included Bruce Almighty, later sequencing Evan Almighty and also Cheaper by the Dozen sequencing Cheaper by the Dozen 2.
Sequels are also known to drive revenues beyond the raw box office. The raw box office revenue is regarded as the single best predictor of all follow-on ancillary revenue by media industry scholars. The 6 media conglomerates market (The Walt Disney Company,Time Warner,Sony,Viacom,Comcast and News Corporation) and distribute virtually all blockbuster products. Though, recently this have become reliant on the increasing extent on sequelized fare. With the increasing diversity on media conglomerates, sequelized block-busters compromise the nucleus that is surrounded by the large media conglomerates Andex-brands such as; Coke and Nike. 
In roughly three decades since Jaws - the block buster tipping point, there have been well over 100 new Hollywood film franchises, with some low performing sequelised film franchises such as Shiloh and some dominating film franchises such as Star Wars.

The 4-S Hollywood Megafranchise model consists of 4 sections these being; Synergy, Spectacle, Sequelization and Story. Megafranchise such as star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Shrek, Lord of the Rings, Spider Man, and Pirates of the Caribbean generally deploy these four elements to establish their success. In terms of media synergy, all of the above have theme park rides, videogames and soundtracks, these conglomerates can therefore, no be underestimated. However, the 4 S's won't ensure success by themselves. The economic logic that dominates Hollywood is a specific type which is found in music and fashion.