Universal Classic Monsters

Universal Classic Monsters
Official franchise logo as displayed on home video releases
Production company	Universal Pictures
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Country	United States

Universal Classic Monsters (also known as Universal Monsters and Universal Studios Monsters) is a media franchise based on a series of horror films primarily produced by Universal Pictures from the 1930s to the 1950s.

While the early films such as Dracula (1931) were created as a stand-alone films based on known novels, their success led to Frankenstein. The film was made with plans to have its characters potentially reappearing in sequels. Universal would create more horror film characters such as The Wolf Man in the next two decades. The studio made their first transmedia property in the 1940s and 1950s with the films Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), House of Frankenstein (1944) and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, which united several characters together.

Following screenings of the films on television in the 1950s, several household products and toys were made based on the likeness of the Universal characters likeness, starting in the 1960s. Louis Feola was tasked in the early 1990s by Universal to make the series of Universal films "look like a line".^[1] Between 1991 and 1995, Universal released home video VHS editions of many of its horror films. This was the first time the characters were packed together as the "Classic Monster" line, with the addition of a newly designed logo. The home video release was followed by the release of Stephen Sommers' The Mummy (1999) and other films featuring various monster characters, such as Van Helsing (2004).

Steve Jones of USA Today described Universal's most famous monsters as "pop culture icons", specifically Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy, and the Wolf Man.^[2]