One of the most common gripes you’ll hear from people today about
modern cinema is ‘Sequels, sequels,
sequels! Where are the original films?’
I believe I have an answer: you don’t get them because people don’t
want them.
First to clarify, I’m talking about big blockbuster films. There are
obviously original films out there but what I’m talking about are the next Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones to take the world by storm. Gravity for example is a fine film but not likely to make an impact
on pop-culture any time soon.
Now consider the case of Valerian
and the City of a Thousand Planets. Though not great, it received generally
decent reviews. But the problem it always had was that it was based on a cult
comic series not many people have heard of. Made on an estimated budget of
$178m (and you can generally always add a marketing budget of $50m on top of
these things), it was marketed aggressively and the hope was this would be the
next big franchise. But it flopped. Badly. It made just $17m on its opening
weekend in the US and made just $115m worldwide. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2239822/business?ref_=tt_dt_bus
Compare it to Suicide Squad.
Panned by just about everyone, you don’t need me to tell you how bad it is. Though
it may be a critical failure, Suicide
Squad is a commercial success raking in $750m on a $175m budget. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1386697/business?ref_=tt_dt_bus
All future Valerian projects
have been cancelled and Suicide Squad 2 is
in production.
Why did Suicide Squad succeed
where Valerian and many others have
failed? Established audience base.
Superhero franchises are big right now in films and on TV. Riding the
crest of the wave of the Marvel movies, DC Comics are able to make their own
pitch for that audience who don’t particularly care whether it is Marvel or DC.
Suicide Squad may be a relatively
obscure title to many but it has connections to the established Justice League universe, already well
known to comic fans and being established cinematically. Similar to Guardians of the Galaxy and The Avengers, only GotG was good. Add a villain like The Joker, one of the most well-known
villains in all pop-culture, and you have a commercial hit regardless of how
good or bad it may be.
Film studios are not in the business for the art, they are looking to
make money. That’s not to say they won’t make artistic films but since they
generally aren’t especially profitable they need money to fund them. For that
they need to make the big blockbusters. Expensive to make but potentially far
more profitable. And while that is the case, you can expect to see a lot more Transformers and Pirates of the Caribbean films. In the future, you’ll get Fast & Furious 27: Mobility Scooters of
the Furious. Because these films are proven franchises with a loyal fan base
who will lap up each instalment.
It will also mean studios are more cautious about trying to make any
new franchises. Even the powerhouse that is Disney couldn’t make John Carter of Mars a success so have
switched focus to a dozen new Star Wars
films and live action versions of their well-loved animated movies. Because
they are low-risk and almost guaranteed to be profitable.
This is what you like.
There will be no change to this any time soon. Studio’s react to what
people like to see and what they like to see are sequels and familiar remakes.
If you are waiting for the next Star Wars,
you probably already skipped over it to see the next X-Men movie.
