You walk into a movie theater and wonder what to watch. When you look at the list of movies you see: “Mufasa: The Lion King,” “Captain America: Brave New World,” and “Paddington in Peru” – all sequels. You decide to go home and buy a movie on Prime Video and see “Moana 2,” “Sonic 3,” “Venom: The Last Dance,” and “Gladiator 2” – all sequels.
This storm has overcome all major movie studios making remakes, sequels and prequels. It has made it easy for them to make money, but fans like me are over it.
Movie studios know that these movie franchises have established market bases and story lines which makes those studios know they could do an incremental development of storylines and characters in order to bring new films to the market.
Seven of the top ten grossing movies of all-time are sequels. Thirteen of the top twenty movies of all-time are also sequels. Seventeen of the top twenty grossing movies of 2024 are, you guessed it, sequels. All three of the non-sequel movies in 2024’s top twenty are based on already successful novels, so this intellectual property is new to films but not new to audiences.
One of the main reasons the box office has seen more sequels is economic. Studios are taking less risks with new ideas so that they do not lose millions in the box office.
“Movie studios are businesses,” said film teacher Patrick Ayers, “and they’re in the business of returning money to stockholders.”
Studios are having problems with getting people to the theaters. They know they will have a fanbase for their continuation of the story they want.
“They know that if they’re gonna spend x-millions of dollars on a project,” said Ayers, “it’s a lot safer for them to invest that money in a known entity.”
For example, at the D23 expo, Disney’s ultimate fan event that happened in August 2024, Disney announced sequels “Moana 2,” “Ice Age 6,” “Mufasa: The Lion King,” “Zootopia 2,” “Avatar: Fire & Ash,” and “Toy Story 5.”
Story certainly isn’t the reason for all these sequels. Toy Story 3 provided a perfect ending to the saga of Woody and Buzz Lightyear, yet they have been dragged out of the toy box for two additional movies.
Marvel has made a lot of movies within their cinematic universe. They keep making movies because they know they have a fanbase, but their recent movies have not been the greatest. 2023’s Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania, for example, was nominated for four Razzie Awards, “awards” for the worst movies released every year. “Captain America: Brave New World” just released to tepid reviews.
Originality needs to be prioritized in movies. Viewers want to experience something new instead of watching the same characters in the same stories.
