Cash Cow Franchise / Literature

• Despite the original V. C. Andrews having died in 1986, romance novels written under her name have continued to be published on roughly a yearly basis since then.
• Harry Potter. Even with J. K. Rowling having finished the books and moved on to another series, it's not going anywhere for quite a while. To put in perspective just how HUGE a franchise this is:
  • The New York Times has a separate bestseller's list for children's books just because the Harry Potter books kept taking up slots for months on ends.
  • J. K. Rowling is the first (and so far only) author to become a billionaire due solely to writing. Though she persistently insists that her personal wealth is drastically overestimated by the press.
  • In the space of a decade the eight Harry Potter movies became the most successful movie series of all time (until the Marvel Cinematic Universe surpassed them). When inflation is taken into account, they're still third - with only Star Wars and James Bond ahead of them.
  • Not only Rowling decided to make a theater-only sequel of sorts, but Warner wouldn't let the films die so easily: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a comedic Defictionalization of an in-universe text book, would become a film and franchise of its own.
• Although not well known to the English-reading audience, the Perry Rhodan series has been published in Germany since 1961 (and translated into multiple languages) and has passed 2500 novellas and novels with associated comics, reference materials, music-inspired-by and other things. With the exception of one movie in 1967, it hasn't been on the big screen or television, which might explain its limited exposure in North America.
• For most of its history, The Lord of the Rings was simply an intensely popular work of fantasy literature and the inspiration behind a great number of other successful franchises of geekdom. It was certainly popular enough to make the posthumous publication of The Silmarillion, and to a lesser degree the 12-volume The History of Middle-earth, and continuing posthumous publications of material, an intensely anticipated event. Then, when the Peter Jackson films went into production, it was turned into a cash cow of Star Wars proportions. With the three-part The Hobbit being released in 2012, 2013, and 2014, alongside the continued success of the LOTR MMORPG, and now with the Amazon's series this cash-cow will certainly be around for the next few years.
• In a slightly different niche, there's Conan the Barbarian. Robert E. Howard wrote just shy of two dozen Conan stories in his lifetime. After his death, L. Sprague de Camp and others wrote dozens more, and since then there's been two successful comics series (one with Marvel Comics, one with Dark Horse Comics), two animated series, two Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, the pseudo-prequel Kull the Conqueror, the MMO Age of Conan, and a handful of other games featuring everyone's favorite Cimmerian. On the negative side, Age of Conan didn't do too well and the following movie (an attempt at a reboot) flopped hard at the box office and was savaged by critics.
• The Twilight Saga quickly became this in 2008, spawning films, clothes, toys, manga, candy, and even glittered dildos. Bad reception definitely didn't stop the films from racking up over $3.3 billion. Fed even more with the hate that it has from the Twilight haters that buy or see the merchandise to trash it.
• The Discworld universe has been described as a "Cottage Industry" but that doesn't mean that there isn't a shit load of weird merchandising. Like the Ankh-Morpork Stamp Collection.
• Tom Clancy has no real input into the Tom Clancy's line of novels and video games nowadays, outside of licensing. Even his death hasn't slowed the franchise down.
• What James Bond, Warrior Cats and Harry Potter are to the West, the Alice, Girl from the Future series by Kir Bulychev is to Russia, Eastern Europe, and the former Communist countries. This Science Fiction series about the adventures of the girl from the future spans over forty books. There have been seven films, the most famous being the 1984 Guest from the Future, which made people more interested in Alisa. There have been three computer games as well.
• Warrior Cats. If the 20+ main novels weren't enough, there are at least 4 field guides and more mangas than you can count! The books keep coming because they make Harper Collins rich. And because the fans always want more.
• Agatha Christie is certainly one of these in general as Poirot and Miss Marple are as popular as each other. Spanning over eighty books, they've both had several television and film adaptions for each of those books (with ridiculous amounts of different actors) (which started in the 1920s and is still being made in the 2010s), there's been a spin-off anime and manga adaption of the two characters working together (2004), there's a series of western graphic novels in 2007-2008, nine video games, various novels have been turned into plays (and the other way around) and then there's her long running play The Mousetrap.
• The Sherlock Holmes stories, when collected in one volume, are quite the Doorstopper. And when you consider all the TV shows and movies based on them, plus the ones inspired by them. The Guinness Book of World Records recognizes Sherlock Holmes as the most portrayed fictional character in movie history.
• Rainbow Magic, a British children's book series about fairies, has been going since 2003, with multiple book releases every year. It's sold successfully for a long time, presently has over 200 unique books, and is only as of 2016-17 showing signs of slowing down.
• The Hunger Games trilogy is becoming this as well, with all the merchandise the movies are inspiring. Case in point, Lionsgate's stock doubled in price the weeks after the first movie's release. When the film series finally ended in 2015, it has garnered over 2.9 billion dollars in worldwide gross.
• Animorphs. While it wasn't as huge as the other series, that didn't stop Scholastic from milking all the money they could out of K. A. Applegate's anti-war Deconstruction of the Recruit Teenagers with Attitude trope. It spawned games, toys, a few videogames and a TV series, albeit a bomb one. Sadly, the re-release didn't make it popular again. 2020 brought the start of a second revival attempt, with the first of graphic novel adaptations of the books being released, and the announcement of a movie in development.
• Goosebumps was another hit series from The '90s, and it's still pumping out new books and TV shows.
• Roald Dahl died in 1990, but his stories for children are still wildly popular. Beyond myriad print and audiobook editions, many of them have enjoyed film adaptations, and in The New '10s two have become hit West End stage musicals: Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Actually, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory counts as a cash cow on its own, given the many times it's been adapted.
• The Noddy books sell really well in the United Kingdom even after the passing of Enid Blyton, and have been adapted into three animated TV shows, two television shows using puppets and a kids' sitcom and has spawned a large amount of spin-off merchandise. Taken up to eleven in France, where the franchise gained two exclusive stage shows (Oui-Oui et le cadeau Suprise and Oui-Oui Et Le Grand Carnaval), tons of exclusive merchandise, and the original books still sell like crazy.
• The Baby-Sitters Club was absolutely huge throughout the 1980s and 1990s, with over a hundred main books, numerous spinoffs, a short-lived television show, and its own movie. However, its popularity began waning in the late 2000s likely due to its dated premise (few American parents would let twelve year olds babysit their kids anymore), and the re-releases didn't do very well. Though it does have a popular enough set of a few Comic Book Adaptations from the 2000s, plus another live-action adaptation commissioned by Netflix.
• Pippi Longstocking became a franchise juggernaut when Astrid Lindgren created her in the 1940s. Not only does the character have a strong following among children, but the franchise includes several books, live-action and animated films and TV series, as well as a theme park in Sweden. Even Lindgren's death in 2002 hasn't slowed the franchise down. Pippi Longstocking is by far the largest entertainment franchise originating from Sweden.
• Sweet Valley High was very popular by book standards. The series lasted 20 years and had 181 main books. It also has nine spinoffs, with some being released over a decade after the original series ended. Sweet Valley High has been adapted into a show, has a movie in production, and has had a lot of merchandise (including board games).
• Redwall certainly counts. Although Brian Jacques has died and the books are seemingly on hold, the franchise is still going strong and still has a fanbase, having spawned 22 novels and 2 picture books, 7 related books including a graphic novel adaptation of the first book and a cookbook featuring recipes from the series, an opera adaptation, countless audio book adaptations with musical performances of songs featured in the books, video games, a cartoon series by Nelvana, and more merchandise. It's probably the fifth most-popular British book series (behind Discworld, Warrior Cats, James Bond, and Harry Potter).
• The Moomins started with a series of novels for children in the '40s, and has since grown into a massive multimedia empire that makes 700 million euros a year, with TV shows, movies, stage plays, and video games regularly being produced, two theme parks (one in the series' native Finland, and another in Japan, where the franchise is ludicrously popular), and, of course merch. Lots and lots of merch, including the famous collectible Moomin Mugs.

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