Streaming has meant it has never been easier for Hollywood to measure the power of nostalgia. They watch what we’re watching and rewatching and it means they bring back, to varying degrees of success: The Matrix, Scream, Top Gun, Indiana Jones, Mad Max, Hocus Pocus, Legally Blonde, Ghostbusters, Home Alone, Blade Runner, Kung Fu Panda, Jurassic Park, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Beetlejuice and many, many more. At this very moment, Twisters, Kung Fu Panda 4, Despicable Me 4, and Furiosa are in cinemas. In the very near future we are getting more Alien films, more Frozens, more Lord of the Rings, a Mufasa origin story, even more attempts at making Snow White, Jurassic Park and Fantastic Four movies, a bewildering number of Avatar films and, somehow, another Tron. Occasionally, an Ice Age film suddenly appears like a jump scare.
Hollywood is not nimble at the best of times, let alone when dealing with a backlog caused by the pandemic then two industry-halting strikes. Right now, it is on the ropes, in a fight with foes they created. They created a landscape in which no films end any more because they’re all The Empire Strikes Back in a never-ending story – which has eroded goodwill among casual moviegoers, who were asked too often to watch TV shows or read comics just to understand what is happening in a film. An investment banker’s approach to film-making that has left us hungry for more original, mid-budget films when they’ve put all their money in intellectual properties (IPs). And an overreliance on franchises that are loved for being familiar, not because they are strong enough to warrant more instalments.
Some will argue that sequel or franchise fatigue is not really a thing, in that it is immediately disproved when a hit like Bad Boys: Ride or Die comes along. But it’s hard not to feel fatigued when original films are just croutons in a Hollywood buzzword salad: made entirely of sequels and prequels and existing IPs and brands and reboots and remakes. Some of their decisions have even started feeling a bit insulting. Did we seem like we wanted a Pop-Tarts origin story? We didn’t mean to.
In the end, we vote with our wallets. If people don’t want to see certain types of films (franchises seem to be the focus of most ire) then go an see something else.
Just looking at my local multiplex, there are 4 sequels and 4 original movies playing today, so plenty of options. I’m now booked in for Kali 2898 AD as it finish its run there today. I hope to fit Kill in next week.
What I will do is try and post more on here about smaller and/or non-English language films. Blockbusters will still get mentioned to but, if that irritates anyone then they can just skate over them.
That’s very true i wasn’t nit picking your post at all please keep it up, I actively avoid trailers so if I don’t see the movie popup on letterboxd or IMDb or here then I won’t hear about it.
I was more voicing frustrations with most comments I see on these posts always complaining about sequels.
This weekend and next week I’m hoping to see Maxxxine, Kinds of Kindness and Longlegs to vote with my wallet with what I want to keep seeing. I did also go see In a Violent Nature at my Alamo drafthouse and it was… An experience but glad I supported that small indie project for the first time director.