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 stand-alone films based on known novels, the success of that film led to further adaptations such as Frankenstein (1931). The film was made with plans to have its characters potentially reappearing in sequels for Universal. The studio would create further horror film characters such as The Wolf Man in the next two decades. The studio made their first transmedia properties in the 1940s and 1950s with the films Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), House of Frankenstein (1944) and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), 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 starting appearing in the 1960s. In the 1990s, it became priority for Universal to promote their back catalogue with packaging that presented the film as a series. This led to releasing VHS editions of their older horror film properties between 1991 and 1995 as a themed-line. These releases were the first time the characters were officially marketed together as the "Classic Monster" banner. These released of the line was followed by new films based singular monsters such as Stephen Sommers' The Mummy (1999) and others featuring various Universal 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.^[1]