Is creativity too much of a risk? (Opinion)

How Hollywood is only ever constantly remaking and making adaptations

March 1, 2018

While I am excited to see Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, I also want more new original movies in the cinema. A lot of the films coming out this year are reboots, remakes, adaptations, prequels, or sequels, and many of them are action movies. While I love to see a good action movie every now and again, it is far from my favorite genre. I am dying for more variety and Hollywood just isn’t delivering. They are more focused on productions they know will be a success. The reason why movie studios make so many remakes and sequels is because more people will go to see them. Even if someone doesn’t want to see these movies, they are going to be dragged to see them anyway. Hollywood knows that if they keep retreading old ground, they will keep making money. They would rather make what’s popular instead of meeting the demands of every individual consumer. This doesn’t apply to just movies, it applies to TV as well. There are almost as many reboots in TV as there are in film. Everything available to watch seems the same. It all blurs seamlessly together. The reason why I started writing this piece is because I want something new to watch. I want to be excited to go to the movies again and I want a new TV show to binge watch, but my options are limited when it comes to originality. Here is a short list of all of the remakes, adaptations, prequels, and sequels coming out this year:

Black Panther
Tomb Raider
Solo: a Star Wars
Deadpool 2
A Wrinkle in Time
Avengers Infinity War
Sherlock Gnomes
Rampage
Incredibles 2
Jurassic World
Ant Man and the Wasp
Hotel Transylvania 3
Mamma Mia 2
Pacific Rim Uprising
The Equalizer 2
Peter Rabbit
Fifty Shades Freed
Mission Impossible: Fallout
Teen Titans Go! To the Movies
Christopher Robin (I know he’s a real person, but this film is going to have Winnie the Pooh in it)
Slender Man
The Predator
Ready Player One
Robin Hood
Johnny English 3
Vemon
Goosebumps: Horrorland
Halloween
Mowgli
X-Men: Dark Phoenix
Insidious: the Lost Key
Paddington 2
Mulan
Nutcracker and the Four Realms
The Grinch
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Crimes of Grindelwald
Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck It Ralph 2
Sicario 2: Soldado
Creed II
Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse
Aquaman
Bumblebee
Holmes and Watson
Alita: Battle Angel
Mary Poppins Returns

There are 45… 45 different remakes, prequels, sequels, and adaptations are coming out this year alone. This isn’t because originality is dead, but because Hollywood doesn’t take risks anymore. There is probably someone out there with an amazing idea for a film. This movie could possibly end up being the next unlikely success. It could be just successful as ‘Star Wars,’ but it will never be made, because a new idea is too much of a risk for modern Hollywood. We will be the generation without an original film. Unlike the 90s, 80s, 70s, or 60s, there won’t be a new film to define our generation. We don’t have a ‘Toy Story,’ a ‘Back to the Future,’ a ‘Star Wars,’ or a‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.’ We don’t have anything.