Is Hollywood out of Ideas?
I don’t know about you but I get a little frustrated at times reading about Hollywood constantly announcing sequels, reboots and films based on pre-existing Intellectual properties.
I also see people on social media and online sharing my frustrations with this perceived lack of new ideas in the movie industry.
To cut a long story short it’s all our fault.
These movies that are based on comic books and video games. Films that are reboots of old movies and all the endless endless sequels are on average the projects that have made money at the box office over the last 15 years.
Let's look at the top 20 highest-grossing films of all time made from an “original screenplay” a script that is not based on existing material.
- Avatar (2009)
- Avatar: The way of water (2022)
- Titanic (1997)
- Star Wars Ep. VII: The Force Awakens
- Furious 7 (2015)
- Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
- Star Wars Ep. VIII: The Last Jedi
- The Incredibles 2 (2018)
- The Fate of the Furious (2017)
- Toy Story 4 (2019)
- Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
- Toy Story 3 (2010)
- Despicable Me 3 (2017)
- Star Wars Ep. I: The Phantom Menace (1999)
- Finding Dory (2016)
- Jurassic World: Dominion (2016)
- Zootopia (2016)
- The Lion King (1994)
- Despicable Me 2 (2013)
- Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
Ok, so all these films qualify as "Original" but let's remove all sequels and reboots.
Avatar (2009),
Titanic (1997),
Zootopia (2016),
The Lion King (1994).
That is 4 movies!
I would also argue that Avatar is a rehash of “Dances with Wolves” or “Fern Gully”.
“Titanic” is based on and inspired by a real disaster and “The Lion King” is technically a retelling of Shakespeare's Hamlet.
So out of that top 20 highest grossing "Original" films we have one movie that is not a reboot, sequel or adapted from existing material The animated film “Zootopia” (2016)
It was made for $150m and took over $1b worldwide.
So we have one truly "Original" film that made big I.P. movie money.
So that is the state of “Original” films at the box office as far as movie executives are concerned they are non-existent either Disney animation captures lightning in a bottle or James Cameron makes a movie.
So you are better off making a sequel to a property you already have the rights to.
So we live in a world where people say they are fed up with sequels, reboots, comic book and video game movies and there are no original films anymore BUT! Are the same people turning up for what we do get?
Over the last 6ish years, we have had these 25 films which were well received critically a lot of them even nominated for top awards all made with original screenplays that are not based on existing I.P., not a sequel, not even adapted from an existing book or novel.
Sorry to Bother You (2018) $3.9m profit
Hereditary (2018) $26.4m profit (horror movie)
The Lighthouse (2019) $7.4m loss
The Farewell (2019) $7.05m profit
Midsommar (2019) $11m profit (horror)
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) $5.03m loss
Us (2019) $226.1m profit (horror)
Sound of Metal (2020) $7.8m loss
Promising Young Woman (2020) $5.5m loss
Petite Maman (2021) $3.5m loss
Titane (2021) $7.5m loss
Annette (2021) $21.7m loss
Last Night in Soho (2021) $53m loss
Licorice Pizza (2021) $43.3m loss
Nope (2022) $15.8m loss
The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) $3.8m loss
Tar (2022) $22.9m loss
X (2022) $6.05m profit (horror)
The Woman King (2022) $27.9m loss
Triangle of Sadness (2022) $10.3m loss
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022) $1.1m loss
Pearl (2022) $3.5m profit (horror)
The Menu (2022) $5.2m loss
Asteroid City (2023) $10.5m loss
The Creator (2023) $68m loss
**
Some films met my criteria but have not published their production budgets so I could not include them so honourable mentions are Saint Maud (2019), Censor (2021), Pig (2021) and Aftersun (2022).
Look at that list and you can see why executives shun non I.P. projects.
Forget art or kudos think about this as a business. Make money to make more movies to make more money to please a board of directors.
You can lose $43.3m to facilitate the great Paul Thomas Anderson to make Licorice Pizza or make $660m profit making Spider-man: No Way Home.
Or you can make horror movies for 2-10 million dollars and get a good return theatrically then licence the film to streaming services and make ten times your investment back.
What is killing the Original film is people's viewing habits.
If people will only turn up in a cinema in decent numbers for big bombastic movies based on known entities like Barbie or Super Mario Brothers or comic book heroes then that’s what we get.
Due to the success of the Barbie movie, we will now get a series of movies based on toys I know there is a movie based on Hot Wheels and a Polly Pocket movie in production.
Sadly I feel the huge success of Oppenheimer will not lead to a glut of really well-made historical biopics featuring lots of people sitting in rooms talking.
The other main thing that has destroyed truly original film making for the big screen is the shift to streaming and the decline in physical media sales and physical media rentals.
Movies would benefit from a second multi-million dollar release when it came out to rent and then buy on physical media. Now that revenue stream has pretty much gone.
For movies to make money in their theatrical run they need to open big and stay big for a couple of weeks because there is no safety net. Especially for the Studios that have their own streaming service like Disney.
Just as an example look at their movie Haunted Mansion (2023)
It loses $49.5m at the box office then it goes on their streaming service as content in an A-Z list. where is the revenue? Did Haunted Mansion becoming available on Disney+ attract 10 million new subscribers? I find that hard to believe.
I was genuinely upset that “The Creator” (2023) an original sci-fi film made by an extremely talented director lost $68m at the Box Office. It is about to be plonked onto Disney+ and people will think it's great! but future projects by Gareth Edwards are now at risk because people didn’t turn up for it.
I could waffle on... but it is one thing to be critical of Hollywood not making original movies but unless you are showing up for the ones we do get things will never change.
What people need to do is actively seek out original movies and go and see them.
Buy physical media and help revive sales and bring it back to being a viable part of the movie studio's business model re-establishing that second revenue stream.
I will be highlighting original films on my blog so together we can help change cinema for the better.
** Explanation of my financial analysis
Published film production budget then I add 50% of that again for print/advertising and promotional costs (which is conservative due to many studio films spending 100% of the production budget again on promotion)
Then the published Box office total which is the gross ticket sales. The studios only get a percentage of that money back. The general rule of thumb in America the studios get 60% back, In Europe 40% back and 20% back from Asia.
So published production budget + 50% = Budget
Worldwide box office gross - 50% = profit
Profit - budget = net
