Hollywood’s Waning Creativity
Have you seen this chart?
Pretty startling, isn’t it? In 1981, 8 of the top 15 movies in terms of domestic B.O. were original stories. In 2011, the total was precisely zero.
Several observations:
* The conventional wisdom in the 80s, born out by the facts, was that sequels could be relied upon to deliver 50% of the B.O. as the original. That number has been turned on its head as nowadays, sequels often generate more revenues than the original. A few examples from 2011:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 [2011]: $381,011,219
Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone [2001]: $317,575,550
Fast Five [2011]: $209,837,675
The Fast and the Furious [2001]: $144,533,925
The other sequels all did near or close to the business of the originals. That is one big reason why Hollywood studios have switched from what we see reflected in 1981 and 2011.
* Consider some of those titles in 2011: Harry Potter 9, The Twilight Saga 4, Pirates of the Caribbean 4, Transformers 3. We are talking not only sequels, but multiple sequels. This is a clear reflection of how focused movie studios are on finding franchises, movie properties they can re-purpose in the way of sequels, prequels, and eventually remakes. William Goldman said of Hollywood, “Nobody knows anything.” That may be true, but if there is something to be known that could come close to being sacrosanct, it’s that franchises can work in ensuring profits and minimizing risk.
* Checking that list from 2011, a few of them at least got high marks from fans and critics. Which is to say not all sequels are bad.
Look, as we have discussed many times before, Hollywood operates on the principles of similar but different. And frankly so do all writers and filmmakers because there are no new stories, everything is a remix.
This was proven in spades last week when the spec script “White House Down”, written by James Vanderbilt, sold to Sony for a cool $3M. It was described in the trades as “Die Hard” meets “Air Force One.” And this on the heels of the sale of another spec script “Olympus Has Fallen”, written by Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt, which was described as “a big action movie set in the White House.” Two action movies involving the President and the White House selling with 2 weeks of each other, both of them reminiscent of Die Hard.
That said, that list of movies in 2011 reflects what was acquired and developed years ago. And with the decrease in domestic ticket sales last year, it’s probably no surprise that the spec script market rebounded, selling exactly twice as many original screenplays last year as 2010. And the spec market continues to stay hot running over 30% ahead this year compared to 2011.
So two summers from now, while there will certainly be some sequels in the top 10 B.O. list, there could very well be at least a few original movies in there as well.
Original ‘similar but different’ movies, that is.
HT to Gopi Sait for forwarding me this link.
UPDATE: I no sooner finish this post offering the tiniest sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe Hollywood will start to focus a bit more attention on original movies when this hit the wires:
“We’re getting set to shoot Dumb And Dumber 2 in September,” revealed Peter Farrelly. “It’s the first sequel we’ve ever done and we’ve got Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels back.”
This on the heels of last week’s announcement about another possible sequel:
Is the world ready for a sequel to Twins?
Universal and Montecito Picture Co. are hoping to develop a doozy of a follow-up to the 1988 hit comedy that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito that would reunite the two stars.
But wait, there’s a twist: In the new scenario, Eddie Murphy would act as a third brother.
Sigh.
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