Our Film Industry: Reboots, Sequels & Prequels.

 Written By: Brad Preston

Currently the top three grossing films of the year (as of 15/7/13) are Iron Man 3, Fast & Furious 6 and Man Of Steel, what do these blockbuster movies have in common? Yep, you guessed it each one is a sequel or a reboot. I am not going to pretend that this wave of reboots dominating the movie charts is something new, for instance in 2012 the top three grossing movies were The Avengers, Skyfall and The Dark Knight Rises, in fact for the past decade ‘unoriginal’ movies have been taking our well earned money.

What I find most gruelling about the current state of the film industry is when a new, original movie is released for instance ‘Pacific Rim’ – it has a fresh original story, a brilliant cast such as British actor Idris Elba and it matches the special effects of Avengers, so why didn’t it gross the $1.511 billion that The Avengers managed? Well Pacific Rim opened to a poor $38.3 million at the box office – a disappointing figure seeing as the critical reception for the film was been extremely favourable.

Is the problem due to the economic downturn? With millions upon millions of people unemployed it limits their entertainment, cinemas goers could once enjoy a film a week, this film on more than one occasion would have been an original movie. Look at all the successful films of the 80’s classics such as Jaws, ET, The Lost Boys and The Goonies were not sequels or remakes these were unique films with new actors – film lovers in the 1980’s got behind their sequels, they got behind their numerous Rocky movies and numerous Nightmare On Elm Street slashers however they still supported new films that were being released.

What’s changed? Well cinema tickets in the 80’s and 90’s were around £3-4 in comparison tickets for a film in today’s age is around £8-12 depending on whether you are paying extra to experience a 3D film. With rising ticket prices you can understand why people would be put off by going to the cinema every week and perhaps they would rather only watch films they know they will enjoy – the sequels/the remakes so they get their hard earn money’s worth.

Another issue is how many cinemas decide not to show new films – my local cinema in Cheshire wasn’t showing Pacific Rim, in fact it rarely shows any new film that isn’t in the sequel/remake/prequel category. This annoys the heck out of me – Yes I will go and see Iron Man 3 and after paying £10 to watch something I feel like I’m watching the same old recycled garbage. When I go and watch an original film (usually involving traveling to a different location) I feel like I’ve experienced something new.

A time will come when all the major production companies will of run out of reboots/sequels/prequels and will have to revert back to the way things worked in the 80’s – create an original movie and inspire a generation.