Is Hollywood out of New Ideas?

Is Hollywood out of New Ideas?

Sequel after sequel, the same movies are churning out with a different plot all the time. Could this be down to the audiences demand being for movies containing well-known characters, or is Hollywood simply out of new ideas?

The following names are known in almost every household around the world- James Bond, The Joker, Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker; the list is endless. References from these movies such as, ‘may the force be with you’ are well-rehearsed, so when films containing the same characters and continued plots, the fan base has already been created. This means that directors know that there are target audiences already there for sequels, making it a safe bet when releasing something ‘new.’

 

The audience are feeding into this idea, with some of the most popular movies of 2013/14 (so far) being-

The Hunger Games- Catching Fire

The Hobbit (linked to the Lord of the Rings)

Man of Steel

Iron Man 3

Despicable Me 2

Fast & Furious 6

Grown Ups 2

Anchorman 2

Monsters University

The Smurfs 2

X-men- Days of Future Past

All sequels in which the target audience will already know the main characters and the past context of the plot. The Hunger Games was the highest grossing film of 2013 at $409.4 million, whilst Iron Man 3 has become the fifth highest grossing movie ever at more than a billion dollars (at the box office.) This is an example of how movie produces have grasped something that they know is certain to make them money, and movies will keep being recycled until there is no longer an audience for them.

Two film genres which are, in my opinion, have the most recycled movies are romance and horror.  The stereotypes of these genres rarely challenged, for example, romance is generally boy meets girl, obstacle, they overcome this and happily ever after. Classic.

Within Horror there are the ‘deformed murderer’ slasher movies, ‘zombie apocalypse’ and ‘demonic villain disturbs a quiet family home’ movies.

Some of the best known Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Saw, Father of the Bride, Sex and the City, Final Destination, Paranormal Activity, The Hangover, Star Wars, Star Trek and X-men. These films all have particularly big fan bases and have all done extremely well. Therefore it seems that the idea of ‘rebooting’ movies has an audience which are loyal, sequel after sequel.

As well as sequels, there have also been remakes of popular movies such as Tarzan, Arthur and the Titanic in 3-D. Again, although not very inventive, it seems to have a popular appeal to those who are familiar with the characters and narrative.

Having said this, there are some new, more inventive films that have been popular in the past year or so including-

Frozen

Her

The Wolf of Wall Street

12 Years a Slave

Gravity

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

22 Jump Street

 

The Wolf of Wallstreet had a gross earning of $300 million whilst Frozen has become the highest-grossing animation of all time with a worldwide gross of over $1.07 billion. From this I think it is clear that whilst the majority are happy settling on familiar film ideas, there are a few more imaginative ideas that have been able to break through and have certainly succeeded.

In conclusion, Hollywood has pretty much run out of ideas. With ’reboots’ of films becoming such regular releases, it is hard to see what productive progress Hollywood seems to be making. Having said this, with the occasional creative new idea and a fairly big risk, there is definitely a market where people are hungry for fresh ideas.