The Age of Reboots and Remakes

Photo from here.

For our entire lives, all the best movies have come from Hollywood; we’ve relied on Hollywood for decades for all the top quality content. But nowadays, it seems like we can’t take a deep, fresh breath—only old, recycled ones. In other words, the Hollywood industry is getting repetitive and unoriginal: the complete opposite of what it once was.

Out of the past few decades, we’ve gotten tons of iconic movies that have made some people’s childhoods, that have made even the toughest crowds cry or laugh, and that have made even the most fearless tremble in their seats.
But in our day and age, everything seems bland and just a simple a carbon copy of “the iconics.”
This year, for example, a lot of reboots and remakes have come out of the classics, like The Lion King, Dumbo, Alladin, Charlie’s Angels, The Addams Family, and Child’s Play. But why is Hollywood so adamant on spending millions on these recycled movies rather than on writers and other creators who can make new ideas and thus movies?
The answer might be very simple: People don’t want to let go of these movies.
It’s all a matter of appealing to the audience to Hollywood producers, and if the audience seems to like something a lot, they will do anything in their power to milk that product to the last drop, which is why we are getting a remake every other day.
People like things that feel familiar and close to them, so when a person who saw The Dark Night sees, for example, Batman action figures and new movies coming out when they’re an adult, they’ll stop to reminisce and want to share the character with their children or at least go rewatch it by themselves.
That’s what makes reboots and remakes so popular: the revenue from milking old products that older people will enjoy rewatching and that younger people have never seen before.
But in the talk of remakes, we also have to take into account another reason why they are so abundant: synergy.
Synergy is, essentially, when two companies or organizations collaborate on a product to increase its value. Take for example the Dumbo movie that came out in March this year. The movie was produced through a collaboration of Walt Disney Pictures and Tim Burton Productions.
But these two companies haven’t only collaborated on Dumbo: they’ve produced together hits like James and the Giant Peach (1996), Alice in Wonderland (2010), Frankenweenie (2012), and Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016).
These companies are old partners that have leaned on one another for decades to better market their products to the masses—because it works.
Hollywood is never going to stop making remakes and reboots as long as their audience loves it regardless of its repetitiveness. So when another one comes out, just think about why it is that they’re being made and roll with it.