Ever since audiences flocked to see a train arriving at a station in 1896, Film has gripped audiences around the world. Since then, it has taken many forms, covered multiple subjects, and spanned across almost every country in the world.
Though cinema is still evolving and indeed growing, with IMAX being one of many inventions captivating audiences in the 21st century, many argue that Hollywood is losing steam, relying instead on remakes, sequels and reboots to generate money at the box-office.
A World Full of Sequels
The last decade has been dominated by sequels, namely ones based on popular literary characters.
Films such as "The Dark Knight", "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2", "The Avengers" and "Transformers: The Revenge of the Fallen" have dominated the Box Office. The only film that isn’t, being James Cameron’s "Avatar" in 2009.
It could be argued that the film studios are catering to audiences, and this may be true. But when it comes to original content, there hasn’t been much to rival the top earners.
It has been reported that39% of the movies released between 2005-2014 were original releases, meaning not adaptations, remakes, sequels or reboots. In both 2013 and 2014, none of the top 10 grossing films were original, and the budget for ‘original films’ is much lower than that of ‘existing material’.
It is also suggested that within the last decade, the number of highest grossing films that are sequels has risen from 9% to 22% within the 2005-2014 period.
2016 is no different, the top 10 highest grossing films so far are dominated by sequels, including "Finding Dory", "Captain America: Civil War", "Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice" and "The Jungle Book".
"The Secret Life of Pets" and "Zootopia" make up the rest of the list.
Disney Comes to Life
"The Jungle Book" isn’t the only Disney film to get a live-action treatment. There are more scheduled to hit our screens over the next several years. The likes of "Beauty and the Beast", and the recently revealed "Aladdin" and "The Lion King" are also due to come back in live-action form.
If that wasn’t bad enough, movies from the 80s and 90s are now getting a makeover too. The likes of "Ghostbusters" and "Vacation" having already been rebooted in the last few years, whilst the Robin Williams centred "Jumanji" is currently in the middle of it’s own reboot/sequel, starring Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and Kevin Hart, slated for a 2017 release.
Star Wars, James Bond and the current comic book craze also show no signs of slowing down. Not that they have much reason to anyway. Each of the three are currently enjoying a boom at the Box-office, grossing billions each time, despite being part of cinema since the 60s and 70s.
It’s easy to see why film studios are sticking to this formula though.
In this day and age money is everything, so gambling isn’t something at the top of their priority list. They are also producing the films that a large chunk of audiences want to see, whether that pleases the rest or not.
