'' (1945) by
Akira Kurosawa was the earliest numbered sequel in the history of cinema. In
The Afterlife of a Character, David Brewer describes a reader's desire to "see more", or to know what happens next in the narrative after it has ended.
Akira Kurosawa's
Sanshiro Sugata Part II (1945) was the earliest-numbered sequel in the
history of cinema. Film director
Francis Ford Coppola claims to have popularized the trend of including numbers in film sequel titles with
The Godfather Part II (1974).
Sequels of the novel , sequel to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', was an official sequel novel written to satisfy popular demand.|thumb The origin of the sequel as it is conceived in the 21st century developed from the
novella and
romance traditions in a slow process that culminated towards the end of the 17th century. The substantial shift toward a rapidly growing
print culture and the rise of the market system by the early 18th century meant that an author's merit and livelihood became increasingly linked to the number of copies of a work he or she could sell. This shift from a text-based to an author-centered reading culture led to the "professionalization" of the author—that is, the development of a "sense of identity based on a marketable skill and on supplying to a defined public a specialized service it was demanding." As the establishment of a readership became increasingly important to the economic viability of authorship, sequels offered a means to establish a recurring economic outlet. In addition to serving economic profit, the sequel was also used as a method to strengthen an author's claim to his literary property. With weak
copyright laws and unscrupulous booksellers willing to sell whatever they could, in some cases the only way to prove ownership of a text was to produce another like it. Sequels in this sense are rather limited in scope, as the authors are focused on producing "more of the same" to defend their "literary paternity". As is true throughout history, sequels to novels provided an opportunity for authors to interact with a readership. This became especially important in the economy of the 18th-century novel, in which authors often maintained readership by drawing readers back with the promise of more of what they liked from the original. With sequels, therefore, came the implicit division of readers by authors into the categories of "desirable" and "undesirable"—that is, those who interpret the text in a way unsanctioned by the author. Only after having achieved a significant reader base would an author feel free to alienate or ignore the "undesirable" readers. Another example is
Samuel Richardson, an 18th-century author who responded particularly strongly against the appropriation of his material by unauthorized third parties. Richardson was extremely vocal in his disapproval of the way the protagonist of his novel
Pamela was repeatedly incorporated into unauthorized sequels featuring particularly lewd plots. The most famous of these is
Henry Fielding's parody, entitled
Shamela. In
To Renew Their Former Acquaintance: Print, Gender, and Some Eighteenth Century Sequels, Betty Schellenberg theorizes that whereas for male writers in the 18th century sequels often served as "models of paternity and property", for women writers these models were more likely to be seen as transgressive. Instead, the recurring readership created by sequels let female writers function within the model of "familiar acquaintances reunited to enjoy the mutual pleasures of conversation", and made their writing an "activity within a private, non-economic sphere". Through this created perception women writers were able to break into the economic sphere and "enhance their professional status" through authorship.
Video games The cost of developing
AAA video games has increased significantly over recent years, often reaching tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars due to high expectations for detailed graphics, expansive worlds, and advanced gameplay. Video game companies have turned to sequels as a dependable business strategy. Sequels are now a dominant trend in the industry, making up a large proportion of new releases from major publishers. One reason they are prevalent is their ability to provide a stable revenue stream in a volatile market. Building on an existing brand with an established fan base, sequels are perceived as safer investments than new
intellectual properties (IP). They allow companies to capitalize on previous successes, ensuring a built-in audience and reducing the financial risk associated with launching a new and unproven concept. Additionally, sequels of a formula that players already enjoy, balancing familiarity with new features or improvements, can increase player retention and positive reception. ==Media franchises==