Take movies, for example. In the essay, I observed that the share of Hollywood blockbusters that are sequels, adaptations, or reboots has increased steadily this century. But is this evidence that today’s screenwriters are “running out of ideas”? Not really, and suggesting that they are innately less capable of conceiving of non-sequels than they used to be is kind of absurd. (And I’m a little embarrassed that I implicitly made that suggestion!)
What’s changed isn’t minds but markets—namely the international market for blockbusters. In the 1990s and early 2000s, the box office globalized around the same time that cable TV (and, eventually, streaming) came around to gobble up tens of billions of dollars’ worth of Hollywood stories. Studios responded by focusing on hits with worldwide appeal—it’s just a matter of fact that CGI is a more superior cinematic export than talky dramas—even as the talky-drama writers got plenty of opportunities to write for TV. Simultaneously, the rising cost of producing and marketing blockbusters encouraged the major studios to place their bets on safe projects.
These market shifts have created a self-perpetuating cycle: American moviegoers (criminally!) ignore well-reviewed original movies without CGI, since many of them reserve their few annual movie tickets for stories they already know. Movie studios both respond to this audience behavior and drive it, by investing more heavily in action-packed franchises, validating and deepening the audience desire for explosive sequels. Thus, the box office has been transformed by market dynamics from a showcase of original storytelling to a destination for new installments in familiar franchises.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member