Making a superhero movie is a constant balance between making a good movie and making a profitable movie. In an ideal world, the most popular movies would be the best movies, but that would mean Avengers: Endgame winning the Oscar over Parasite. At the end of the day, blockbusters exist to make money. Typically, that means getting butts into seats and selling merchandise, but there’s another way for Hollywood to make a profit even if nobody sees a film or buys the action figures afterward.
HBO’s satirical comedy The Franchise has been landing brutal blows on the superhero-movie-complex ever since it premiered, but Episode 5 takes the series to new heights by exposing one of Hollywood’s most egregious sins: product placement. In the process, The Franchise also takes a break from pummeling Marvel and shifts its attention to a few other studios.
