There’s something about movie sequels that entices us as a society. We’ll throw away money to stand outside a movie theater and wait in line hours to see it first. But it seems that for every good sequel, there is an unnecessary and awful one to counter it.
Take this past summer as an example: While we had some fantastic sequels come out, like “Star Trek: Into Darkness” and “Iron Man 3,” there were critically panned sequels like “The Smurfs 2” and “Grown Ups 2.” How many of these do we really need?
It’s obvious that sequels make a lot of money. Of the all-time worldwide box office numbers, seven of the top 10 movies are sequels like “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2” and “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.” While those sequels are typically great movies, it shows that Hollywood is eager to milk money off its established properties.
In addition, blockbusters are dominating theaters. The biggest movies of the past summer were blockbusters, and that trend doesn’t look like it’s stopping. Next year may keep the pattern going with movies like “Transformers 4: Age of Extinction” and “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.”
And 2015 could be even bigger, with confirmations for “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” the upcoming Superman/Batman movie and the next installment in “Star Wars.”
Let the cash flow.
Sure, many of these sequels are telling more stories with beloved characters and generating eager anticipation. But Hollywood is already talking about movies like “Night at the Museum 3,” “The Smurfs 3” and “Alvin and the Chipmunks 4.” The sad part about these sequels is that they’re strictly a money grab. Is anyone really asking for another “Alvin and the Chipmunks” movie? Probably not. While studios need family flicks, children and their parents deserve movies that aren’t the same thing they saw two years ago.
Unnecessary sequels would be more understandable if companies were willing to take a risk on a new idea. Studios seem reluctant to do so, and it’s confusing. Take “Inception,” for instance. It was almost universally well received. It made a ton of money and was a new, fresh idea that had never been done before. Why hasn’t Hollywood taken any other big chances like this recently?
This summer’s “Pacific Rim” was a big risk with a new idea, but American audiences dismissed it in favor of other movies. It opened the same weekend as “Grown Ups 2” and was largely ignored. It’s possible people dismissed it as a “Transformers” or “Godzilla” rip-off, but because the mainstream blew it off and flocked to the same version of something they’ve seen before, it might not get the sequel it deserves, while studio executives are all ready for “Grown Ups 3” to start shooting.
It isn’t that original ideas are gone. Independent movies are constantly providing fresh ideas. For example, the upcoming film “Escape from Tomorrow” involves a man losing his mind while on vacation in Disney World. The problem revolves around movie budgets. Cheap, redundant sequels are stealing funding from some of these ideas, while blockbusters aren’t doing anything new and groundbreaking. “Iron Man 3” made more than a billion dollars without doing anything revolutionary.
So it seems until Hollywood gets shaken to its foundation, we’ll see endless amounts of pointless sequels. At least the indie-movie scene is somewhat promising.
Rob Kitchen is a 19-year-old mass communication sophomore from Metairie.