‘Twilight’ Will Be Revived via Short Films on Facebook
LOS ANGELES — Two years after Lions Gate released the fifth and supposedly final installment of its “Twilight” movie series, the studio has devised an unusual franchise-rekindling effort — and it may hold clues about Facebook's future in Hollywood.
Context & Ripple Effects
Facebook has been circling Hollywood for years: back in 2010 the studio behind The Social Network pointedly declined to market that film through Facebook itself, and in March 2011 Warner Bros. began renting movies digitally on Facebook starting with The Dark Knight — a test that never became a habit for studios. What changes with this story is who is initiating: it is Lions Gate, a major franchise owner, choosing Facebook as the venue for reviving Twilight rather than merely renting catalog titles there.
First-order effects
- Lions Gate gets a low-cost laboratory for the Twilight property — short films aimed squarely at an existing fan base can gauge whether appetite survives the 2012 finale without committing to another theatrical installment.
- Facebook gains a marquee studio franchise using its platform as primary distribution, strengthening its case with Hollywood that it is more than an ad network despite the ad-network push announced days earlier.
Second-order effects
- Other studios holding dormant franchises now have a template for cheap revival experiments on social platforms, pressuring rivals of both kinds — studios that must justify theatrical reboots against cheaper digital tests, and platforms competing for exclusive branded content.
- If short-form studio content performs, Lions Gate's marketing spend shifts further toward audiences it can reach directly on Facebook, eroding the middleman role of traditional promotional channels.
Third-order effects
- Franchise ownership starts to matter less than audience access: studios with deep catalogs and platforms with built-in distribution each need what the other holds, pointing toward structural partnerships between Hollywood IP owners and social networks.
- A pattern where franchises skip theatrical relaunches entirely would reshape release economics, making the short-form digital revival a standard first rung before any studio commits to a full sequel.
The trend: Hollywood franchises are beginning to treat social platforms as legitimate first-run venues, with Lions Gate's Twilight experiment turning Facebook's long-gestating video ambitions into a concrete studio commitment.