George Lucas did not invent franchise filmmaking. The first movie sequel, The Fall Of A Nation, came out way back in 1917. King Kong had a sequel. Dracula and Frankensten had a ton of them. Billy Jack, the first sequel to The Born Losers, was the biggest hit of 1971. A few years before Lucas masterminded The Empire…
Source: io9 – Sequels got deeper and more ambitious with The Empire Strikes Back