Over the course of the few
years, I have noticed a fairly significant trend from a majority of the major film
studios. It really hit me the other day while I was reviewing my The Hollywood Reporter alert e-mails and
found out that Warner Bros is remaking Flintstones
while Lionsgate has a new Power
Rangers movie in the works. I have often wondered why? Why do they need
to remake these films and not focus more on original ideas and stories? Then, I
reviewed the amount of money these remakes pull in. For instance, the Hollywood
remake of War of the Worlds produced
by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise made over $592 million in the box
office worldwide.
That is stunning when you look at other films, those having original ideas,
turn into flops.
The film business is all about taking risks. Knowing and recognizing a trend seems to be the primary basis behind the reasoning for these major studios to green light certain productions. According to Ross Miller of screenrant.com, “no one can say that remakes and sequels are a new thing – it’s a notion that has been around for almost a hundred years. But lately (perhaps over the last 15 years or so), they have come not only to full fruition and thus extremely noticeable as a trend – but also they seem to be getting made left, right and center.” Out of all of the genres of film, on the other hand, Ross makes a relevant point in the same article that most remakes are within the Horror category. The Amityville Horror, The Hills Have Eyes, The Ring and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre are just some examples of the films we have seen follow this trend again and again.
The film business is all about taking risks. Knowing and recognizing a trend seems to be the primary basis behind the reasoning for these major studios to green light certain productions. According to Ross Miller of screenrant.com, “no one can say that remakes and sequels are a new thing – it’s a notion that has been around for almost a hundred years. But lately (perhaps over the last 15 years or so), they have come not only to full fruition and thus extremely noticeable as a trend – but also they seem to be getting made left, right and center.” Out of all of the genres of film, on the other hand, Ross makes a relevant point in the same article that most remakes are within the Horror category. The Amityville Horror, The Hills Have Eyes, The Ring and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre are just some examples of the films we have seen follow this trend again and again.
Now that we have established the success of film remakes and its impact within the Horror category, does it mean that this trend will spill over into other genres of films? The answer: It already has. Just over the course of the past few years we have seen a major increase in the amount of remakes in other genres. The new updated versions of RoboCop, Batman and Superman seem to state the obvious that the major film studios are now exploring their options to remake adventure, Sci-Fi and superhero films. In the end, it is inevitable that box office breaking films will eventually be remade. However, according to Ben Kendrick, “the time between reboots and remakes has become shorter than ever (with only five years between the release of Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man).” The success of these remakes is ultimately determined by how well they are produced and whether or not they pay homage to the original.
