海角大神

Five is the new magic number, as author J.K. Rowling has announced that the plan is for the upcoming 鈥淗arry Potter鈥� spin-off movie series 鈥淔antastic Beasts and Where to Find Them鈥� to consist of five films.听

鈥淲e鈥檙e pretty sure it鈥檚 going to be five movies,鈥� Ms. Rowling said at a fan event in London, according to Reuters.

The first movie, 鈥淔antastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,鈥� will be released this November and stars Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, an expert on magical creatures who travels to America. The story is based on the book of the same name, which was written by Rowling and styled as a textbook, written by Newt, for students at Hogwarts.

The film will co-star Katherine Waterston, Ezra Miller, and Colin Farrell, among others.

How many movies is best for a successful film series? Is more better, or do moviegoers get tired of the series if it goes on for too long?听

Trilogies have long been a popular form of adaptation. Part of this may be that trilogies are popular in fantasy and science fiction, which recently have served as the basis for such successful film series as 鈥淭he Lord of the Rings.鈥澨�

And it鈥檚 caught on in film series that weren鈥檛 based on a book. The 鈥淪tar Wars鈥� film series first presented itself in three parts and has mostly stuck to that structure, with Disney planning two more movies to follow the 2015 hit 鈥淪tar Wars: The Force Awakens鈥� (not counting spin-offs 鈥� more on the "cinematic universe" model later).

Recent successful film series like the 鈥淒ark Knight鈥� movies also chose a three-part storytelling method.听

This formula has been slightly tweaked in recent years with the 鈥渟plit the last book in half鈥� method of adapting successful series for the screen, however. The 鈥淧otter鈥� series split the final and seventh book in the series into two movies, and other recent literary adaptations followed suit, such as听the 鈥淗unger Games鈥� movies.听

And the currently popular notion of the cinematic universe has broken down the linear series idea somewhat as well. Are there trilogies in Marvel movies? Well, kind of 鈥� three 鈥淚ron Man鈥� movies were released. But because Marvel films follow different characters, there are some movies that bring them all together, like 2012鈥檚 鈥淭he Avengers,鈥� and others that center on one particular character, like the 鈥淐aptain America鈥� series, of which there were three. Technically there have been 13 Marvel movies, but no one would call those films a 鈥淢arvel series.鈥澨�

Is there a specific numeric rule for making a more successful movie series? If there was, every Hollywood executive would of course be adhering to it. But there may be some lessons to be learned from the highest-grossing film series of all time.

The most successful movie series of all time are of course those who have released the most installments 鈥� that鈥檚 simple math. James Bond reached 24 installments with the 2015 movie 鈥淪pectre鈥� and is one of the most domestically successful franchises of all time, without adjusting for inflation.听

But not adding 鈥�2鈥� and 鈥�3鈥� to the end of your titles may help a franchise. The Marvel films are the most successful franchise of all time domestically, without adjusting for inflation, and because Marvel movies aren鈥檛 labeled, for example, 鈥淐aptain America 3鈥� or 鈥淭hor 2,鈥� that may stave off audience fatigue. Many moviegoers probably wouldn鈥檛 have been able to name off the top of their head that 鈥淐aptain America: Civil War鈥� was the thirteenth, for example. And Marvel shows no sign of slowing down.听

Fatigue may also be avoided by taking breaks to build up audience anticipation. The 鈥淪tar Wars鈥� series, which is only beaten by Marvel when it comes to all-time domestic franchise gross without adjusting for inflation, took at least 10 years off in between the start of each trilogy. This was a strategy also used by the movies based off J.R.R. Tolkien material, with a nine-year gap between the conclusion of 鈥淟ord of the Rings鈥� and the debut of the 鈥淗obbit鈥� film series, and the 鈥淏atman鈥� film series, which had a lull of eight years between 鈥淏atman & Robin鈥� and the debut of the Christopher Nolan "Dark Knight" film series, 鈥淏atman Begins.鈥�