The future of streaming is looking fresh, but for how long? Recent reports from Parrot examine data on the success and failures of both original series, and series that serve as extensions of existing franchises across streaming platforms. While 73.4% of series content on Disney+ are original non-franchise shows, the platform still owes much of its success to its pre-existing franchises. For Disney+, 60% of its most in-demand series between January 1st and July 13, 2022 belonged to the Star Wars or Marvel Universes, according to Parrot.
Despite these franchises’ success on Disney+, Parrot examines the diminishing returns Star Wars or Marvel series make with each new season in comparison to original shows. The result creates a strict fanbase surrounding these series, which could eventually lead to a long term isolation of new subscribers looking for an original new project.
One of the best examples of this can be seen with season 3 of Prime Video’s original series “The Boys” which had over 919 millions minutes of view time in the U.S this year, second only to the newest season of Netflix’s “Stranger Things”, according to Nielsen.
With the success of “The Boys,” Prime Video began multiple spin-off projects, starting with the animated anthology “The Boys Presents: Diabolical.” Why make its first spin-off animated? According to Parrot, animation makes for the largest share of demand for franchise originals on Prime Video. The goal of “Diabolical” is twofold; to keep existing subscribers coming back for more content within “The Boys” universe, in addition to attracting new ones through a different genre that has already shown promise on the platform.
Now, “The Boys” has a live-action spin-off on the way next year — “Gen V.” It’s further proof Prime Video has struck gold with an original streaming franchise.
The animated Prime Video original series “Invincible” is an example of a potential new franchise that targets the same fanbase in search of graphic superhero adventures. Looking at another Parrot analytical chart, “Invincible” ranks at the 98.1 percentile performance-wise within the United States in just the last 30 days alone. This makes it the most in-demand animated streaming series, and one of Prime Video’s most successful original animated series.
“Invincible” will serve as another long-lasting Prime Video series, with the show already seeing a renewal for both seasons 2 and 3. If the main series continues to perform as strongly as it did in its first season, we could potentially get an expanded TV universe of “Invincible” spin-offs as well.
Now, each streamer is trying to mimic the Marvel/Star Wars model. Netflix is doubling down on “Stranger Things,” with a spin-off series in the works. HBO Max is going back to the world of “Game of Thrones” with “House of the Dragon.” Paramount+ believes its future lies with endless Star Trek spinoffs and “Yellowstone” offshoots.
While it seems a wise strategy to appeal to your existing audience with more of the same, we’ve seen diminishing returns as fanbases grow exhausted. While “The Mandalorian” seemed fresh, “The Book of Boba Fett” was stale. Fans flocked to “WandaVision,” but later Marvel installments haven’t generated the same buzz.
The trick for streamers is to continue generating new series with franchise potential, then manage those franchises carefully. Create enough content to keep the fanbase happy without diluting the product. And it doesn’t hurt if you have an endless supply of superheroes, dragons, and other computer-animated creatures to keep the audience entertained.