I'm Confused. Does anybody own the Amityville Franchise Rights? There are a ton of movies coming out from different Production Companies and they're all "Official" Sequels to the Amityville Horror. Can anyone with a Camera make an Amityville "Official" Sequel?
shareAmityville is the name of city. How could anyone have private rights to a city name?
shareI wouldn't say they're official. Amityville and the famous house are real places, and I suppose because it's claimed to be a true story, there's no legal ownership over a haunted house story involving the town name or house design. Just so long as the people involved with those supposed true events are avoided unless permission is granted.
I suppose in a way the only truly official films are the original, its remake, and AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION, since they're technically all inspired by true events. The Lutz's account is debatable, but the Defeo shootings did happen.
If I recall correctly AMITYVILLE 3D even comes with a disclaimer saying it's not affiliated with the previous two films, but it has pretty much be labeled as the third entry. AMITYVILLE IV: THE EVIL ESCAPES, AMITYVILLE: IT'S ABOUT TIME, AMITYVILLE: A NEW GENERATION, and AMITYVILLE: DOLLHOUSE all seem to be loosely inspired by the John Jones novel "Amityville: The Evil Escapes," which was openly a work of fiction.
I haven't seen any of the recent films, like the ones from The Asylum, but I'm pretty sure they're only haunted house films that used the Amityville name as a promotional gimmick.
http://www.freewebs.com/demonictoys/
In 2024, it's just about become an official rule that almost EVERY horror movie MUST become a franchise. These things are cash cows for the movie industry because every 5 years, a new group of kids comes along that needs to prove that they can take anything the filmmakers dish out. The number of sequels/prequels/reboots/updates (especially in this franchise, which seemed dated when the first movie came out) has become laughable.
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