Jamie Lauren Keiles, writing for The New York Times, has a piece on Avatar.

A franchise is an ecosystem oriented toward an infinite horizon, in which a common set of characters and stories are constantly refreshed and reworked across platforms.

The whole piece is filled with interesting ideas. The concept of franchise IP is fascinating.

I was not very enamored with Avatar when it came out, and I don’t really care about the sequels. I’m sure they will not be flops, but are people really excited to revisit Pocahontas with giant-size Smurf people?