In recent years, there has been a clear pattern present from many of the largest film studios to push for many sequels of successful movies. This pattern likely has a plethora of reasons as to why, however the most consistent is the simple fact that these sequels keep making a lot of money.
When looking at the highest-grossing films of the year, the top ten are all either sequels or remakes of pre-existing properties. There is a clear correlation between success at the box office and whether or not a film is a sequel or remake. In fact, in 2022 there were similar results for box office success with 9 of the top 10 movies of the year being from preexisting properties.
A survey taken at South asked students what the most recent film they saw in theaters was, with a total of 34 responses from both freshmen and seniors. The survey showed that 56% of students most recently saw a movie from a preexisting movie property, while 26% of students saw an original intellectual property (IP) most recently, with 18% of students giving unclear or inaccurate answers.
With the majority of students seeing either remakes, sequels, or prequels in their last movie-going experience, studios have realized that they do not need to create new IPs in order to sell tickets. In fact, it may actually be better for these studios to continue to release movies from the preexisting properties. Many of the largest studios have properties that are well-known and loved, and when these sequels and remakes are released, many viewers will tend to want to see more from the properties that are so well-liked.
Original IP could be seen as a risk for studios as it is often difficult to tell if audiences are even interested in said IP. Disney, for example, has released many films with original IP in the past few years. Wish was made with a budget of $200 million dollar and barely broke even at a total box office profit of $255 million dollars. Another original IP from Disney, Strange World, cost $197 million dollars to make and made a mere $73.6 million dollars in comparison.
When Disney focused on creating either sequels or remakes, the difference in success became more clear. Moana 2, for example, broke records with the highest 5-day opening in history and currently sits as the third highest-grossing film of 2024.
The film industry is likely going to continue to lean into remakes and sequels with all this success, which will cause massive damage to the creativity of films going forward. This is due to the fact that, like any industry, the creation of film is made for profit by most creatives in the space. There can be a balance between the need for profit and having new original ideas being shown, but with so much profit made from these sequels and remakes, many companies will struggle to find a reason to invest in these new ideas when the old ideas have proven to work.
The creation of new original ideas in film, especially from the largest studios, has a lot of risk. There is a long process these movies take to determine if they are worth investing in by studios. Many studios can not be sure that the idea will be successful, even if they have some confidence that it will. However with sequels or remakes, the ideas have already been proven to be good, and the audience feedback has already been received with the original IP and has a much higher chance of success.
The main issue with this is the fact that studios will become too afraid to create movies that are original and will continually focus on what worked rather than trying to challenge themselves. This will show new creatives that they should only focus on what someone else has already created instead of being innovative and original. Art is meant to show the expression of the creators; it is not meant to continuously replicate itself in order to make a higher profit.
Audiences are currently very accepting of many of the sequels that are being shown in theaters, and whether or not this will change is all up to the studios. If the studios are more willing to take risks and tell new stories with new ideas, they will likely find success. On the other hand, studios can continue to focus on sequels and remakes and will likely continue to see the success that has been seen. The more studios choose to focus on pre-existing IP in order to make as much money as possible, the more that the originality found in the best movies of all time will be lost. The next great movie cannot come from a movie that already exists.
