Why is everything a sequel, reboot or remake?

So I thought The Creator was brilliant. I watched it in the cinema, thoroughly enjoyed it and was gobsmacked when I learned it's budget was only $79 million. It looks better than some films I've seen that cost three times that.

But apparently, while it may make that back, it's unlikely to even earn $100 million globally.

So the answer to the question of why Hollywood churns out the same shite over and over is that, currently, tragically, that is what the masses want to spend their money on.

And that makes me sad.

HubertManne,
@HubertManne@kbin.social avatar

Part of it for me is im not paying for anything anymore. Avengers endgame was like the last thing I bought and that was mostly just wanting to finish off the story. To much rehashing and to much individual little streaming fifedoms and such.

kandoh,

People want the familiar. That’s why mom & pop stores lost out to chain retailers, why your dad just wants to go to chilies again instead of trying out that new place that just opened.

BeigeAgenda,
@BeigeAgenda@lemmy.ca avatar

For various reasons I have mainly moved from watching movies/series to audio books, one plus is that there are way more books available than movies, and most of the time the book is better than the movie. Its also much easier to read a book in many parts, compared to watching a movie in parts.

shakcked,

It’s always been lowest common denominator content that’s made the most money. I always ask people about movie preferences and an ever increasing common theme “Life is already tough, I don’t want a serious movie, I just want mindless entertainment.” Sequels provide that, you know the characters, you know the stakes, sprinkle in jokes and you have a mindless money maker.

M500,

Just the other night I watched San Andreas with my wife.

It’s a mindless action movie, but I loved that moment. It was great just watching some over the top movie and laugh about it/ comment on it.

Serious movies need attention and silence. There is time for that, but nothing is better than joking around with my wife about some movie.

TheMongoose,

And I say... is it too much to ask for both?

Look, I don't want to give the impression that I'm a film snob with my head up my ass or anything. I enjoy a good comic book movie, a mindless action film, all sorts of stuff. Hell, depending on what day you ask, I'd say Rogue One is the best Star Wars film (on the other days, it's Empire). Unpopular opinion - I think 2001 is overrated. It might be art, but I don't find it entertaining. And I agree with M500 - I loved San Andreas. It knew what it was, I could switch my brain off for a couple of hours and quietly snark at it with a friend. Good times.

I just don't want that to be all there is. And the more films like this fail to make hundreds of billions of dollars, the less the lawyers in charge of the studios are going to risk on them in the future. That's the tragedy for me.

uphillbothways, (edited )
@uphillbothways@kbin.social avatar

There's the corporate side of it, which other comments have covered, but consumer mentality is a big piece, too. Seems like we're so awash in content there's a widespread jaded expert mentality that's taken hold. A lack of naive willingness to try new things, possibly paired with or caused by a feeling of being overtaxed financially from all sides and having too many things demanding our time.
A lack of willingness to spend time or money on something we don't already identify with as being good, on both the sides of consumers and producers.

Late stage capitalism has changed us all. Feels like there's a lot less room for experimentality in this huge carefully curated experience. We've all seen too much.

edit to add: Maybe the popularity of reboots are us yearning for simpler times. We can't reboot society so we reboot our movies, music, shows, etc. Meanwhile, constantly rehashing old plots prevents the renewal we really want.

demesisx,
@demesisx@infosec.pub avatar

What are these new things you write about? The studios haven’t greenlighted a “new thing” in 20 years.

demesisx,
@demesisx@infosec.pub avatar

This is why: youtu.be/OZ28knLt5Rs?si=SddCmwZnETY3n_1R

Edit: I see I’m not the first person to post this video.

Zellith,

Did they remove the footage of the Beirut explosion?

Granite,
@Granite@kbin.social avatar

Yeah, saw that on corridor crew. Bad taste.

vettnerk,

As much as I was fed up with “Batman: Hulks Revenge - Infinity Multiverse Edition, a Groot and Thanos Love Story” ten years ago, I can’t deny that they’re popular titles. I just hope that movie makers will shift back to originality at some point.

But for now, due to the shift in how media is consumed, they’re unlikely to go for anything that is not a safe choice, which sadly means that they’ll stick to sequels or renoots of established brands.

anonionfinelyminced,
@anonionfinelyminced@kbin.social avatar

Simpsons/Star Wars crossover-plus-reboot when?

Finkler,
@Finkler@lemmy.world avatar

Hollywood ran out unique ideas years ago for the most part. Reboots etc just easier .

BruceTwarzen,

I don't think they ran out of ideas. The thing that i hate about modern movies or the industry behind it is that they make a movie, let's take op's movie for example, which cost 80million to make, everything included. It made 100million dollars and is considered a failure. Any normal ass company is glad to pay their workers and make some money. Just imagine joe's plumber shop working for 9 month on a project that cost him 80k in labour and materials and he makes 100k, which means 20 k profits and he's like: oh no, what a shitshow, i didn't even make half a million.

mrbubblesort,
@mrbubblesort@kbin.social avatar

I get your point, but 20k USD profit for a 9 month project could be an absolute shit show. Businesses need enough to cover costs during the bad times as well as the good, so 20% profit wouldn't cover for very long if projects dried up the next year.

smallaubergine,

Nah it's not that they ran out of ideas. It's that the market has changed and there's no room for risky mid-budget or high budget movies. Back in the day they could make a substantial chunk off of home video sales rather than just the theatrical release. Now streaming is not nearly as lucrative and they have to compete with a ton more forms of media. So when you're dropping hundreds of millions to make a movie you have to be damn sure it's gonna draw people to the theaters. So you take fewer risks and make things as wide as possible to appeal to everyone worldwide.

There was a really good 1 hour long YouTube video posted recently that broke it down

HeartyBeast,
@HeartyBeast@kbin.social avatar

It’s low risk - or, it’s at least a more quantifiable risk. It’s easier for studios to be able to estimate the returns on investment

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Cody Johnson put it very well when he talked about how movie executives saw that Barbie was a smart and funny movie with a good message and decided that meant they needed to make more movies about Mattel toys.

Executives don’t even like movies very much. They just want to make money and they do whatever they think will make money, not make good movies.

z3rOR0ne,
@z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml avatar

Was gonna point to this exact video. Thanks!

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

I always love Cody’s Showdy.

SuckMyWang,

I think it’s also similar to the reason all the bands from the 70’s and 80’s have taken up touring again. When these bands started their audience was in the prime of their youth so they were interested in new sounds and experiences. Now that they’re all old and comfortable they don’t want to venture too far from what they know. They also acquired the bulk of the wealth and power and this group of people is also the ones running these companies

snekerpimp,

It’s easier to extract profit for the shareholders from an established IP, rather than trying to build value through building your own IP. Catching lightning in a bottle is difficult, so it’s easier to just sell replicas of the bottle.

AceQuorthon,

It’s simple, money!

banana_meccanica,

Because the human being is habitual and prefers something that is always familiar to him. So the same things will be produced with the same actors, Tom Hanks will be forced to make films up to 90 years and if he dies he will be simulated by the IA until the end of time.

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