The Game of Thrones Franchise Is Moving in the Wrong Direction

What is perhaps most debilitating for Iger, however, is the simple fact that the rules of the game have changed, and the ambitions have diminished. The glory days of growth and conquest that defined his first tenure have given way to a brutal battle for survival, one in which Iger may be forced to deconstruct the very empire he helped build, starti... See more

But crucially, the Metaverse will also lead to the establishment of many new entertainment franchises and consumer-facing brands. This is because new access technologies do more than shift how consumers access content. They change the content itself.

In this decade, worldbuilding is not just an imaginative exercise with purely artistic aims. The writer-reader relationship has been supplanted by a creator-consumer dynamic. As a thinly veiled commercial endeavor, its purpose is to oil the wheels of major fan-favorite franchises. Worldbuilding provides grist for expansion. The wider the world, the... See more

There’s no reason to believe that this type of caution will pay off. The supposed sure shot of IP is currently misfiring: in 2023, Disney’s The Marvels fell more than $64 million short of breaking even, and its Indiana Jones sequel drastically underperformed. The Flash, for Warner Bros. Discovery, lost millions, and the company’s Shazam! Fury of th... See more