Go to any movie theater in America these days and you can pick from a wide variety of films, ranging in genre from action and adventure to romance and comedy. Thousands of people visit the movies each day to catch the latest thriller or mystery unleashed upon the modern battlefield that is the cinema. Some make it to blockbuster status while others whither away to obscurity, living their fifteen minutes of fame and then being forgotten. But these days go to any theater and you’ll see One particular type of movie more than any other: sequels.
In the modern film industry, there is an unpleasant accumulation of sequels, threequels and now many movies are coming out with four and fives. This staggering lack of originality even continues over to the titles, most movies only adding it a ‘2’ or ‘3’ to the original title instead of a fresh, new title. There used to be a day, and some still continue with the tradition, where sequels were of the same caliber, even sometimes better, than the originals, such as The Godfather, Alien, etc. Classics.
But the problem isn’t a lack of quality. The problem lies in a lack of new material. Instead of going with the tried and true as directors are wont to do, there needs to be an influx of rule breakers. Idea people. That might be the only thing that can save the slowly dying film industry.
With new at-home streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and now even Amazon, fewer and fewer people are going out to see a new film because they know that they can just wait a handful of months, weeks on some occasions, and the movie will be out for viewing at home. Redbox also adds to this phenomenon as those who don't use streaming services cancheck out newly released DVD versions of movies for a much cheaper price than theater prices. Not that the movie industry itself is failing, just the theater aspect.
The constant need to rehash old ideas and add new elements and twists to the same old characters in a way represents what life has become on a whole in America. Instead of going out and trying new things, too many people are content to just continue with what they’ve been doing for years and fall into a rut, just like the films they watch. Adults aren’t the only ones affected by this either; young children watch the same movies over and over, eagerly awaiting the next instalment in the franchise. Children’s movies are, in a way, becoming longer television shows, designed to never introduce anything new, for fear of it being rejected.
If someone out there, new to the industry, were to come along and never make a second film in a series, the same way the great Michael Chricton did (The Lost World: Jurassic Park was the only sequel he ever wrote), it would be a complete game-changer and perhaps the cinema’s saving grace. But then, and only then, will we know for certain. How the public reacts to an injection of raw, new material would be a complete unknown. Who knows? Maybe America is happy with the humdrum of movies like Open Season 3 and My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2.
