I’m sure by now you’ve all heard the exciting news: Ghostbusters 3 is due out next year. That’s

right， the Ghostbusters franchise[特許權(quán)] is back (with the full original cast[演員陣容])， which continues

Hollywood’s decades long obsession[迷住] with

sequels – not to mention prequels and spin-

offs[副產(chǎn)品]. Take a minute and name as many franchises

as you can: Indiana Jones， The Matrix， Jaws， Alien， Saw (what are we up to now， Saw 12?)， The Mummy， American Pie， Austin Powers， Rocky， Rambo， James Bond， Shrek…this list could go on and on.

A joint study last year by professors at

Binghamton University and Florida Atlantic University

finally put the whole thing in perspective[正確地]:

sequels almost never do as well as the original film， but week-by-week they almost do better than

non-sequels， particularly when they quickly follow the original film.

As Subimal Chatterjee， marketing professor at Binghamton University said， “Indeed， we have found that some franchises are closely following this practice. For instance， New Line Studios released The Lord of the Rings trilogy[三部曲] in almost clocklike precision[精確]:

The Fellowship of the Ring in December， 2001; The Two Towers in December， 2002; and The Return of the King in December， 2003. A shorter time gap for

releasing a sequel is better than a longer time gap， given that the ‘buzz[(謠言等)流傳]’ and anticipation[預(yù)期] is likely to dissipate[使消散] in consumers’ memory with a longer wait.”

Turns out star power has a lot to do with it too. As Chatterjee also notes， “For example， people were quite willing to wait for over ten years to see Bruce Willis back in Die Hard or Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones.” But having big stars does not guarantee success.

The success of a franchise mainly depends on the quality of the sequels themselves. “If consumers

perceive[感知，感到] that the sequels are better than the original film，” said Suman Basuroy， assistant professor of marketing at Florida Atlantic University， “the number of sequels can have a positive[正面的，積極的] impact on the current sequel’s box office performance.”

This whole sequels business follows along with another trend[趨勢(shì)] in recent Hollywood productions – 3D movies. The success of Monsters vs. Aliens， which set an opening weekend record with a total take of just under $60 million in the U.S. and Canada， signals that 3D movies

are here to stay. Jeffrey Katzenberg， Chief Executive Officer

of Dreamworks’ Animation Department， has already

announced that his studio will release all future films in 3D. “I think this is the beginning of an era，” Katzenberg said， “and I think we’re going to see a lot of very exciting films and

filmmakers using this new technique.” It is Katzenberg’s hope that over the next year and a half， the number of theaters equipped with 3D technology will have quadrupled[成為四倍] from just over 2，000 in the U.S. to around 7 or 8，000.

As Hollywood continues to struggle with the combined trends of fewer moviegoers and more online piraters[盜版者]，

it’ll only make more sense for movie studios to back[支持]

sequels or filmmaking techniques like 3D. In fact， 3D movies may someday be the only movies people are actually willing to go to the theater to see. Sequels on the other hand， tend to cost less， can be made faster， and don’t require nearly as much promotion as an original film. Producers for a movie like Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull， can rely on Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg to sell the film with a minimal[最小的] amount of advertising. Repetition is just the name of the game[問(wèn)題的實(shí)質(zhì)].

我敢肯定你已經(jīng)聽(tīng)聞那則讓人興奮的消息了吧:《捉鬼敢死隊(duì)3》即將在明年公映。沒(méi)錯(cuò)，《捉鬼敢死隊(duì)》系列將(帶著原班人馬)卷土重來(lái)。這延續(xù)了好萊塢幾十年來(lái)對(duì)續(xù)集電影的迷戀——更不要說(shuō)前傳和衍生作品了。用一分鐘說(shuō)出那些系列電影，越多越好:《奪寶奇兵》、《黑客帝國(guó)》、《大白鯊》、《異形》、《電鋸驚魂》(現(xiàn)在拍到第幾集了?《電鋸驚魂12》嗎?)、《木乃伊》、《美國(guó)派》、《王牌大賤諜》、《洛奇》、《第一滴血》、《詹姆斯·邦德007》、《史萊克》……這張清單可以一直列下去。

去年，由(紐約州立大學(xué))賓漢姆頓大學(xué)和佛羅里達(dá)州大西洋大學(xué)的教授聯(lián)合進(jìn)行的一項(xiàng)研究終于對(duì)這種迷戀作出了正確分析:續(xù)集的表現(xiàn)基本上不會(huì)比第一集好，但一周接一周地放映，它們會(huì)比非續(xù)集電影表現(xiàn)得更優(yōu)秀，特別是當(dāng)它們與第一集的間隔很近時(shí)。

賓漢姆頓大學(xué)營(yíng)銷學(xué)教授蘇比

馬爾·查特吉說(shuō):“確實(shí)，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)一些電影系列嚴(yán)格地遵照這種模式，例如新線電影公司發(fā)行《指環(huán)王》三部曲的時(shí)間就規(guī)律得像時(shí)鐘一樣:《護(hù)戒使者》于2001年12月發(fā)行，《雙塔奇兵》在2002年12月發(fā)行，而《王者歸來(lái)》則在2003年12月上映。鑒于消費(fèi)者記憶中對(duì)電影的‘興趣’和期望會(huì)隨著長(zhǎng)時(shí)間的等待而消失，發(fā)行續(xù)集的時(shí)間間隔越短越好?！?/p>

原來(lái)明星效應(yīng)也很有關(guān)系。查特吉同時(shí)指出:“舉個(gè)例子，人們?cè)敢獾壬鲜耆タ床剪斔埂ね乖俅纬鲅荨痘⒛扆埻罚蛘呷タ垂锷じＬ氐摹秺Z寶奇兵》?！钡谴竺餍遣槐ＷC電影一定會(huì)成功。系列電影的成功主要取決于續(xù)集本身?！叭绻M(fèi)者認(rèn)為續(xù)集比第一集好，”佛羅里達(dá)州大西洋大學(xué)營(yíng)銷學(xué)助理教授休曼·巴舒羅說(shuō)，“續(xù)集的數(shù)量會(huì)對(duì)正在上映的那一集的票房表現(xiàn)有正面

影響?！?/p>

最近，除了這種續(xù)集模式以外，好萊塢生產(chǎn)線又出現(xiàn)了一種新潮流——3D(三維立體)電影。《怪獸大戰(zhàn)外星人》在美國(guó)和加拿大的首周票房創(chuàng)下近6千萬(wàn)美元的紀(jì)錄，它的成功標(biāo)志著3D電影正式登堂入室。夢(mèng)工廠動(dòng)畫(huà)部首席執(zhí)行官杰弗里·卡岑貝格已經(jīng)宣布，其制片公司將來(lái)發(fā)行的所有電影都將是3D電影?！拔艺J(rèn)為這是一個(gè)時(shí)代的開(kāi)端，”卡岑貝格說(shuō)，“我們將看到很多精彩的3D電影，更多電影制作者會(huì)使用這種新技術(shù)?！笨ㄡ惛裣Ｍ谖磥?lái)一年半的時(shí)間內(nèi)，美國(guó)配備3D技術(shù)的電影院的數(shù)目可以翻四番，從兩千家增加到七八千家左右。

在電影觀眾越來(lái)越少、網(wǎng)上盜版電影日益猖獗的雙重夾擊下，好萊塢繼續(xù)在夾縫中求生，制片公司支持續(xù)集的拍攝以及3D這類電影技術(shù)也合情合理。實(shí)際上，也許有一天，人們真正想到電影院看的只有3D電影呢。另一方面，續(xù)集的費(fèi)用往往更低，更容易制作，也無(wú)需像原創(chuàng)電影那樣進(jìn)行大量宣傳。像《奪寶奇兵4:水晶頭骨》這類電影的制片人可以依賴哈里森·福特和史蒂文·斯皮爾伯格，以最少的廣告宣傳將影片推銷出去。重復(fù)就是王道。