Who really is the Bigger Franchise?

Star Trek vs. Star Wars!

In the end, there can be only one...oh wait, that's an immortal thing. Seriously though, phaser vs. blaster, the force vs. the Q...who has the bigger franchise. Lets look at the numbers and see who wins the title of "Best in Franchise".

Movies

Star Wars - 7 movie releases
Star Trek - 11 movie releases WINNER

In general, the only reason to release a sequel is if the preceding movie make a profit and was moderately successful (the exception to this is making a movie to reboot or rejuvenate a series if the preceding movie tanked in the box office). If all you consider is the number of movies released as a show of how popular a franchice then Star Trek wins. A phenomenon in Hollywood is that every odd numbered Star Trek is cursed to failure. Wrath of Khan (II), Voyage Home (IV), Undiscovered County (VI) and First Contact (VIII) kept this phenomenon alive until the release of Nemesis (X) which marginally made more than it cost to make. With the recent release of Star Trek (2009) as a reboot to the franchise with talk of further sequels it appears Star Trek is going strong.

Financial

Star Wars - $3,487,952,687 WINNER
Star Trek -$1,334,226,925

What is the one thing that matters most to the Hollywood big wigs? Money! Surely it doesn't matter how many movies you make as long as you make a lot of money. Well in this case, Star Wars wins by far. At over $3 million since the original release of Star Wars: A New Hope in 1977 Star Wars has made a combined that is just under 3x what Star Trek has made. George Lucas must be sleeping on three king sized mattresses covered in $1000 bills. I know I would. If money is all that matters to you, you need a life, and it would be obvious that Star Wars is the winner.

*Please note that figures used in this blog are from IMDB.com and uses rental totals, estimated costs and worldwide gross as up to date as possible.

Cost

Star Wars - $415,000,000 WINNER
Star Trek - $483,800,000

If you are going to give gross money made in this argument, you must then consider what the movies cost. The less the movies cost to make, the more you collect as profit from your gross. This is basic economics and business. Once again, Star Wars is again the winner. The eight films cost $415 million with Star Trek a close runner up at just shy of $5 million. However, this is a combined total for the each franchise in their entirety. If one does the math on average cost per film then you get a very different outcome. In this case Star Wars films cost an average $51,875,000 and Star Trek films an average of $43,981,818.18 - actually less per film. Now one could argue that a bigger budget makes for a better film, but a "better" movie has far too many variables to consider so as sheer costs go this batter goes to Star Trek.

Star Wars - Avg. $51,875,000/film
Star Trek - Avg. $43,981,818.18/film WINNER

Rentals

Star Wars -$2,233,100,000 WINNER
Star Trek -$644,000,000

Lets try this from the point of view of rentals. Many movies don't gain major acceptance in the theaters but do develop a cult following later in rentals (both VHS, DVD and more recently Blu-ray). Once again, Star Wars is the winner. It has made more than double what Star Trek has made in roughly the same time (Star Wars debuted in 1977 and Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979). Kudos Star Wars!

Investment

Star Wars - +1378.57% WINNER
Star Trek - +413.03%

It can be argued that above all else, it must only matter how well your gross or average money spent on films gives you are good return in the end. When you do the math of gross earnings plus rental divided by cost - Star Wars again! A return of over 1000% - George Lucas you rich bastard.

Television Success

Star Wars - 55 combined months on TV
Star Trek - 306 combined months on TV WINNER

With 5 mainstream series and one animated series, Star Trek kills Star Wars by a long shot. Traditionally, Star Trek has dominated television where Star Wars has dominated the film industry. Not only has Star Trek been on TV longer, each individual series has had longer runs than any Star Wars television series. It is interesting to point out that Star Trek used motion pictures as a vehicle to continue stories and characters that viewers grew to love on TV, while Star Wars used television as a vehicle to grow the SW Universe that had been developed in the movies. Congratulations Star Trek.

I would love to go on, but I have to admit that any other comparison I look at gives me the same outcome (e.g. merchandise totals - Star Wars!) so I have to give this epic battle to....

Star Wars (however, with honorable mention to Star Trek as the runner up). If anyone has anything else to add to this discussion, leave a comment below or send me an email to reelgeekz@gmail.com and tell me your thoughts.