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.
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.
This is why: https://youtu.be/OZ28knLt5Rs?si=SddCmwZnETY3n_1R
Edit: I see I’m not the first person to post this video.
Shawshank Redemption was a book. The Godfather was a book. Lord of the Rings, Forrest Gump, Fight Club, Goodfellas, Silence of the Lambs… That’s just from the first 25 of IMDB’S top 250.
The Thing is a remake. The Fly was a remake. Scarface, The Departed, The Mummy… all remakes.
The problem isn’t remakes or adaptations, the problem is they’re shit remakes and adaptations. Nobody cares that The Batman was the 75th adaptation of Batman, because it was good.
You’re not wrong that many of our favs are remakes, but OP does have a point that disproportionately more big box office movies are reboots or sequels than 30 years ago.
Who has suggested that being based on a book makes it unoriginal? Never heard that expressed and definitely not by op.
I’m failing to see how it could be original. You’re taking someone else’s idea and adapting it.
It’s a different medium entirely. Not to mention the book version is normally quite different.
Plus I never said my opinion or presented anything as fact. Just said I’ve never heard this idea. It probably strikes me as odd because perhaps the majority of movies ever made are based on books.
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.
What are these new things you write about? The studios haven’t greenlighted a “new thing” in 20 years.
