The world is not the same place it was in 1986, when “Top Gun” ruled the box office. In Ronald Reagan, America had a movie star for a president, and producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson as its honorary ministers of propaganda. The same year that “Platoon” challenged the United States’ militaristic track record, “Top Gun” sold a thrilling if narrow-minded fantasy of American exceptionalism — of boys and their toys, of no-homo bromance and what it means to be the best. Three years after Tom Cruiseflipped the bird to a Russian MiG fighter plane, the Berlin Wall fell. Two years later, the Soviet Union collapsed.
Kathleen Kennedy confirms that Rian Johnson’s Star Wars trilogy is still happening, but has been “put on the back burner” because of Poker Face and the 2 Benoit Blanc movies commissioned (Murder on the Orient Express isn’t called The Mysterious Affair at Styles 8 and The Hound of The Baskervilles isn’t A Study in Scarlet 3, so I refuse to call them Knives Out 2 and Knives Out 3)
Do we need an Ocean’s prequel? I love a good heist movie and genuinely want to see more of that genre. Surely the Ocean dynasty can’t be the only game in town?
And we certainly don’t need another Pirates of the Caribbean. I’m up form more swashbuckling adventures but this particular franchise has passed its best. The fact that the first one was as good as it was was nothing short of a miracle but they’ve been going downhill ever since.
Oh, we definitely don’t need either. I truly don’t understand the fascination with the Ocean’s films. The first one was good. I will admit that. I saw it in theaters and enjoyed it quite a bit. But the other films. Absolute trash.
The same can be said about the Pirates film. The first one is great. Depp is great in it as well. The rest of them? Not so much. Both franchises are a case of the first film having said everything that needed to be said.
But IP does not equal fanbase, just because people have heard of something doesn’t mean they’re going to turn it and see it. It’s why they keep putting out Robin Hood and King Arthur films despite them not producing a hit in decades, everyone’s heard of them but no one’s really a ‘fan’.
Another one I heard recently (don’t have time to find the link) is that Warner Bros. is developing more content with JK Rowling? This sounds ridiculous, the Fantastic Beasts films aren’t connecting and Rowling herself is alienating her fanbase with her extreme views. There really doesn’t look to be anymore life in the brand but it’s an IP so got to try something.
For a business plan that’s supposed to be about avoiding risk there are a lot of questionable decisions going on.
Content that is somehow already known always beats original new ideas.
Right now, whenever I go in with an original idea the studios even love - they nix it and say “if only it were based on a bestseller or a previous movie, we just cannot sell it, the risk is too big in this marketplace.”
True or false? Doesn´t matter. They don´t want to spend money on originality.
I can honestly see why they might find it to be a bit of a risk in the current marketplace. While the industry is certainly doing better than it has been at any point over the past 2+ years, it’s still a rather tricky marketplace in which to release a film, and they want to do whatever they can to maximize their ability to make a return on their investment. Right now, if they’re presented with a generic superhero movie and a Spiderman film, they’re going with Spiderman. A generic spy film or Bond, they’re going with Bond. Right or wrong, this is how I would expect it to play out until we can get to a point where the pandemic is not the main driving point in most peoples’ decision making.
It is not only the pandemic which has caused that way of thinking.
It is marketing.
Imagine all the stuff that is now remade or rebooted. It was original a few decades ago. Back then, marketing found a way to make people aware. And they did not even have the easy way of social media to flood potential audiences with it.
Marketing people these days go the easiest way. And the studios love it because it seems to be less risky. And less costly.
But is everything a success then? No. And it does not need to be. The tentpoles must bring in the money. The rest is cannon fodder for the accountants.
Now, with all the streaming platforms hungry for content, one might think: hey, they can try out original ideas! And to a degree they do. Mostly, however, and increasingly so they also adapt that method: prepackaged content. Bestsellers. Comic Books. Let’s not… risk anything.
A few decades from now - if we´re still here, that is - we will get remakes of remakes of remakes. Nothing else will be profitable. Because audiences do not want to risk anything either. Give us what we already know.
And this, SAF, explains the over the top backlash to The Last Jedi, a film that took some real risks (which, to me, paid off). And how did “fans” respond? Take a look at Rise of Skywalker, a film whose sole purpose seems to have been to placate the toxic fanbase. Retcon central.
But there are still a few new films in between, like John Wick, Olympus has fallen, Jack Reacher, Atomic Blonde and so on. And that´s just the action genre. Spy, Arrival, Oblivion, Edge of Tomorrow, Passengers, Boss Level, Underwater, Annihilation, Moonfall…