Chucky (also known as Child's Play, from 1988-1991) is a horror film franchise created by Don Mancini that consists of six slasher films, starring Academy Award nominee Brad Dourif. The first installment, Child's Play, was released on November 9, 1988. The film has spawned five sequels and has gone into other media, such as comic books. The films are all centered on Charles Lee Ray (played by Dourif) aka Chucky, a notorious serial killer known as the "Lakeshore Strangler" whose soul is trapped inside a Good Guy doll following a voodoo ritual to avoid the afterlife and possibly going to hell. The first, second, and fourth films were box office successes with all of the films earning over $182 million worldwide. Including revenues from sales of videos, DVDs, VOD and merchandise, the franchise has generated over $250 million.

The series originally started out as straight horror with the first installment Child's Play, which appears to have more psychological horror elements while its successors are straightforward slasher films with elements of humor. As the films progressed, they became satirical and campy, until the series briefly became a horror comedy, beginning with 1998's Bride of Chucky and 2004's Seed of Chucky. On June 23, 2012, it was confirmed that a new sequel to Child's Play would be made under the title Curse of Chucky and be released direct-to-video. Unlike Bride and Seed, Curse of Chucky is a full-fledged horror film much like the original three installments. However, it does maintain the campy humor to a small degree. Since 1998's Bride of Chucky, titles been have no longer been released under the Child's Play name brand and now use the Chucky brand name and still continue to do so with future installments. Chucky has also appeared in TV commercials. It also won a Saturn Award for the Best Horror Franchise.

Franchise may refer to:

Franchising is the practice of the right to use a firm's business model and brand for a prescribed period of time. The word "franchise" is of Anglo-French derivation—from franc, meaning free—and is used both as a noun and as a (transitive) verb. For the franchisor, the franchise is an alternative to building "chain stores" to distribute goods that avoids the investments and liability of a chain. The franchisor's success depends on the success of the franchisees. The franchisee is said to have a greater incentive than a direct employee because he or she has a direct stake in the business.

Thirty three countries—including the United States and Australia—have laws that explicitly regulate franchising, with the majority of all other countries having laws which have a direct or indirect impact on franchising. Franchising is also used as a foreign market entry mode.

Largest franchised chains

The following U.S. listing tabulates the early 2010 ranking of major franchises along with the number of sub-franchisees (or partners) from data available for 2004. The United States is a leader in franchising, a position it has held since the 1930s when it used the approach for fast-food restaurants, food inns and, slightly later, motels at the time of the Great Depression. As of 2005, there were 909,253 established franchised businesses, generating $880.9 billion of output and accounting for 8.1 percent of all private, non-farm jobs. This amounts to 11 million jobs, and 4.4 percent of all private sector output.

In Anglo-Saxon law, an exclusive right is a de facto, non-tangible prerogative existing in law (that is, the power or, in a wider sense, right) to perform an action or acquire a benefit and to permit or deny others the right to perform the same action or to acquire the same benefit. A "prerogative" is in effect an exclusive right. The term is restricted for use for official state or sovereign (i.e., constitutional) powers. Exclusive rights are a form of monopoly.

Exclusive rights can be established by law or by contractual obligation, but the scope of enforceability will depend upon the extent to which others are bound by the instrument establishing the exclusive right; thus in the case of contractual rights, only persons that are parties to a contract will be affected by the exclusivity.

Exclusive rights may be granted in property law, copyright law, patent law, in relation to public utilities, or, in some jurisdictions, in other sui generis legislation. Many scholars argue that such rights form the basis for the concepts of property and ownership.

Chucky also written Chuckie, an English slang for a loved one or close friend. It's also a diminutive of "Charles".

Chucky is also an English-language pronunciation spelling of "tiocfaidh"

Chucky or Chuckie may refer to:

People

Fictional characters

Charles Lee Ray (also known as "The Lakeshore Strangler", and nicknamed "Chucky") is a fictional character and the titular antagonist of the Child's Play horror film series. Chucky is portrayed as a notorious serial killer whose spirit inhabits a fictional "Good Guy" doll and continuously tries to transfer his soul from the doll to a human body. The character has become one of the most recognizable horror icons, often mentioned alongside Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Ghostface, Regan MacNeil and Michael Myers, and has been referenced numerous times in pop culture. In 1999, the Chucky character was nominated for the MTV Movie Award for Best Villain for the film Bride of Chucky. He was created by Don Mancini and is portrayed and voiced by Brad Dourif in both live-action and voice-over. He was modeled after the story of Robert the Doll.

History

Child's Play (1988)

Charles Lee Ray (born March 9, 1950), known as the "Lakeshore Strangler," is a serial killer obsessed with voodoo who is on the run from the police in 1988 Chicago. After his driver and partner Eddie Caputo abandons him in his van to escape the police, Ray takes refuge in a toy shop. Here, he is shot by homicide detective Mike Norris. Aware he is mortally wounded, Ray swears revenge on Mike and Eddie before transferring his soul into a Good Guy doll via a voodoo ritual. Thunder and lightning destroy the store due to the ritual. Mike finds Ray's body in the aftermath, believing him to be dead.