Opinion by J1 Reporter Elena Brown

You have probably recognized most of the movies that have come out recently—Wicked, Snow White, A Minecraft Movie—it’s nothing new. A recycled storyline or a familiar twist on a franchise. Hollywood continues to reboot movies in a desperate attempt to cash in on nostalgia. The unnecessary sequel has made recurring appearances at theaters over the last few years that, in my opinion, is getting a little repetitive. 

It feels as though Hollywood keeps cranking out sequels just for cash grabs. I’m going to be honest, I can’t even keep up with all of the Jurrassic World movies, and I think we all lost track of how many Marvel movies have come out in the last decade. It’s becoming a “quantity over quality” situation with those types of movies. Creating three films after the first one dilutes the meaning of the original; it hurts even more when the first was a masterpiece. I think we can all agree that films like The Matrix and Ghostbusters had one to many trailing movies that dragged it on. 

The other day, I was looking online at movies that are set to come out this summer. To my disappointment, virtually none are original stories. Almost all are adaptations of other media, spin-offs, or reboots/remakes. Usually there is some sort of upcoming new movie that the general population looks forward to going into the summer, but nothing piqued my interest in terms of uniqueness. I started to wonder why this was the case. Why are filmmakers turning to safe options like live-action remakes and DC spin-offs? 

It turns out that original movies have proved themselves to be unreliable at the box office while sequels have performed increasingly well overall in recent years. Creating excitement for new films is much harder than doing so for a familiar one. For an original film to reach an audience, it must be backed by a hefty advertising campaign. Many advertisers strategize and opt for the social media path, but these efforts can easily be overlooked, especially if it’s an unknown title. To make it harder, moviegoers are increasingly difficult to pull into theaters. Streaming services often produce their own original movies, eliminating the need for the theatre experience. 

I like a good remake once in a while, but I can’t say another Disney live-action movie will reel me into the theater. But for some, they love to see a familiar favorite come back into the scene, and that’s ok! But for me, I’d like to see more studios taking a risk with an original screenplay that will stick with me for a while. It may not be everyone’s favorite, but at least it’s something new.