Whether you’ve been holding space for the lyrics of “Defying Gravity” or crying to Inside Out 2, the past year has been a marker for the tidal wave of new film remakes, sequels, and adaptations. Over the past few years, annual film releases include familiar names and storylines we have grown to know and love.
Every new Disney movie’s title seems to end with the number ‘2’ or ‘3.’ Classic musicals like Mean Girls and Wicked have traded Broadway stages for Hollywood movie lots. Sometimes, it’s exciting to learn that your favorite childhood movie is making a comeback with new twists and turns. Other times, seeing trailers for yet another release in an established film franchise makes you want to scream.
Is Hollywood running out of ideas? Or are consumers too nostalgic to embrace new stories like we did in the past?
Get in Cinephiles, we’re going to the movies!
THIS CONCEPT IS NOT NEW TO HOLLYWOOD.
The truth is that Hollywood has been recycling old stories and ideas for decades for various reasons. The financial incentive that movie remakes, sequels, and adaptations offer to Hollywood executives is at the heart of this lucrative business model, according to Medium. A majority of the highest-grossing films of 2024 are sequels, adaptations, and remakes.
Your simple trip to the movie theater might cost you just $15—plus a few extra bucks for your favorite snacks—but your favorite reimagined stories like Dune: Part Two, and Twisters earned a whopping $714 million and $371 million at the box office, according to IMDb. That’s an enormous profit for film studios and a major incentive for them to release variations of old stories that moviegoers are familiar with.
However, the economic factor isn’t the only reason for Hollywood’s recycling obsession. Sometimes, just like us, film executives get nostalgic (aw) and need a safety net when reworking older ideas into new projects.
Dr. Lauren Rosewarne, from the School of Social and Political Sciences at Melbourne University, said in an ABC News article, “Remakes are something already proven successful in the marketplace.”
She also noted that remakes are successful across genres, stating, “It could be a thing that was successful on Broadway, a comic book or a novel, or a documentary or a film version.”
The film industry was built on the success of stories presented in other mediums.
Take Wonka (2023), starring Timothée Chalamet. This film graced movie theater screens and streaming platforms 18 years after the release of a childhood favorite film with the same whimsical origins, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005). The live-action musical film starring Johnny Depp was inspired by the classic 1971 film, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, starring Gene Wilder. The original story, however, comes from Ronald Dahl’s children’s novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
The long and twisty line of reboots and adaptations is a cornerstone of the Hollywood cinematic landscape.
ORIGINAL FANBASES LOVE DOUBLE AND SOMETIMES, TRIPLE-DIPPING.
Do you remember how comforting it felt to watch your favorite film for the first time? No matter how many times you’ve rewatched it, you could never recapture the boundless scope of magic and emotion it cultivated from your first-ever viewing.
Today’s cultural emphasis on nostalgia allows you to feel that first-time magic created by your favorite characters and original storylines, but with new actors and plot twists. In other words, film revivals and sequels/prequels are the ready-to-wear staples on Hollywood’s garment rack—with built-in fan bases reaching for these pieces again and again.
Easter eggs and allusions to the original story are a clever way to reignite an infatuation with the past. An example of this is the appearance of Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth—the original Broadway actors for Elphaba and Glinda in Wicked—in the 2024 film adaptation, along with various references to the 1939 movie, The Wizard of Oz.
OLD STORIES TAKE ON NEW TWISTS.
Even if you’re tired of film remakes or pre-ordering your ticket to the next one, you can’t deny that Hollywood producers are still creating new stories. Even with iterations of classics like The Lion King (1994), writers and directors use their creative license to fit original stories into today’s cultural zeitgeist.
Tina Fey’s revolutionary Mean Girls (2024) made an illustrious return in January as a musical adaptation based on the 2004 film. The story swapped burn books and word-of-mouth gossip for Instagram stories, TikTok beef, and hashtags—turning its original storyline into something more familiar to Gen Z viewers.
Additionally, some film remakes have evolved to spotlight more diversity in their casting and the stories they reimagine. For instance, the casting of Halle Bailey as Ariel in Disney’s 2023 live-action remake of The Little Mermaid made a splash in the media, sparking discourse regarding the future of racial inclusivity in Hollywood remakes.
In the end, the remake, sequel/prequel phenomenon is a game of chance. Hollywood faces fewer economic risks by reproducing tried and true classics, but executives also risk low public reception from audiences disappointed with reimagined stories. Moviegoers take a leap of faith each time we see our favorite story get retold, as we’re not sure it maintains the same “It” factor it once had.
Still, creative recycling is an essential part of our cultural landscape, feeding our appetites for nostalgia and allowing original stories to blossom into new ideas for future generations.
Because who doesn’t want to see their favorite movie again and again (and again, and again)?
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