Where Franchises Begin

Transformers began in 1984 as a joint venture between Hasbro and Takara, launched with a toy line accompanied from the outset by a Marvel Comics series and an animated television series, a toy and comic origin credited as a pioneer of the franchise model built around a toy line and its entertainment together.

Star Wars began as a single film written and directed by George Lucas in 1977, later retitled Episode IV, A New Hope, and grew from that one film into three trilogies, television series, novels and games, its films alone grossing more than ten billion dollars worldwide.

Godzilla began as a single 1954 Toho film directed by Ishiro Honda, in which the creature is awakened by nuclear weapons testing, a premise widely read as a direct response to Japan's own experience of the atomic bombings and the Lucky Dragon 5 hydrogen bomb test that same year.

Jurassic Park began as Michael Crichton's 1990 novel before Steven Spielberg adapted it for film in 1993, and its photorealistic computer generated dinosaurs, paired with practical animatronics, marked a turning point in visual effects filmmaking.

Harry Potter began as seven novels written by J. K. Rowling and published between 1997 and 2007, selling more than 600 million copies before Warner Bros. adapted them into an eight film series released between 2001 and 2011.

Dragon Ball began as Akira Toriyama's manga serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1984 to 1995, its roughly 42 collected volumes selling more than 260 million copies before its Dragon Ball Z anime adaptation carried it to a much wider Western television audience.

Neon Genesis Evangelion began as a television series created by Hideaki Anno and the studio Gainax in 1995, whose unconventional final episodes, followed by the theatrical recut End of Evangelion, provoked intense debate and are credited with popularizing a more introspective, psychologically driven approach within mecha anime.

Doctor Who began on BBC television in 1963 and, across an original run, a 2005 revival and a later hiatus, has let more than a dozen actors take on its regenerating lead role, making it one of the longest running science fiction television series in the world.

Star Trek began as a television series created by Gene Roddenberry in 1966 and was canceled after three seasons, only to be kept alive by syndicated reruns until it grew into thirteen feature films and several further television series.

Super Mario began as a video game character, first appearing as the player character of the 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong before headlining his own platform series with Super Mario Bros. in 1985, now spanning racing, party and crossover fighting spin offs.