While the early installments were initially created as stand-alone films based on published novels, their financial and critical success resulted in various cross-over releases.
[11][12] De Bruin-Molé wrote that this approach from Universal was for commercial marketing terms, as it would establish the company as the "real" home of horror.
[16] Several products based on the characters from Universal's film series were released, ranging from plastic model kits, Halloween masks, figures, plush dolls, toys, drinking glasses, coloring books and postage stamps.
[18] Louis Feol, the head of Worldwide Home Video for Universal Studios, said that the most important thing was the packaging of their sales.
He added that it was "probably our single biggest priority and has been for a number of years", and that it was key to make the series of films "look like a line".
[113][114][better source needed] By July 2014, the studio officially hired Chris Morgan to replace Orci and work alongside Kurtzman in overseeing development of an interconnected series of films based around rebooted versions of the Universal Monster characters.
The studio announced the franchise with a press release, that debuted the official logo, website, trailer, and score that would be prominantly used in the films.
[124][125] Prior to the film's release, additional cast officially joined the franchise as announced by Universal Pictures.
[133][134] After previously expressing interest in working with Universal Pictures on relaunching the characters for modern audiences,[135][136][137] Jason Blum officially signed on to collaborate on a number of the projects in development.
[211][better source needed][212] Created by Stephen Sommers in collaboration with Thomas Pugsley and Greg Klein, the show is an animated adaptation of the film series which had starred Brendan Fraser.
Featuring the voices of Jim Cummings, John Schneider, Chris Marquette, Grey DeLisle, and an ensemble of supporting cast, the show was marketed towards younger audiences through Universal Cartoon Studios.
Continuing the trend with previous installments where Bud Abbott and Lou Costello meet the Universal Monsters, the short follows a plot where the two actors explore the studio's prop room which references some of their previous interactions with the various characters, while encountering the Invisible Man, Frankenstein's Monster (Glenn Strange), and the Gill-Man (Ben Chapman).
[215][216][217] Developed as an anime-styled prologue to the 2004 feature-length film, the short was directed by Sharon Bridgeman from a script written by Garfield and Judith Reeves-Stevens.
The plot takes place chronologically immediately before the live-action film and follows Gabriel Van Helsing's investigation in the grisly murders plaguing Victorian era London, and his discovery of a monstrous killer named Mr. Hyde.
Dan Watters The Universal Monsters have been attributed with directly influencing the horror genre and its filmmakers in the decades that followed,[354] as well as also retroactively adding additional depth to the source material for the characters.
[355][356] The popularity of the franchise inspired decades of horror films that followed,[357] including leading to various unrelated media based on the characters and adapting in a variety of means.