Filmmaking is an art, but that art survives on the business side of the craft. So, the box office is quite important for the art to survive. However, while securing a solid box office, modern Hollywood is lacking some originality in films, at least in terms of creativity.
What do we mean by this?
In recent times, though the industry is booming, there is one big ‘if.’ We are seeing too many sequels and prequels of already existing films. We are not accusing the makers, as some of these are extremely necessary, like Dune Part Two, where the story needs to be completed.
But it is like a symbiotic relationship where both the makers and the viewers are surviving and thriving on these sequels, prequels, and remakes.
If you take a glance at the top 10 highest-grossing films of this year, you will notice the lack of creativity that studios are putting into pushing a film. The modern lifestyle is getting more OTT-oriented, so it is quite hard to pull the audience to see a new movie that features a new director or a new cast. That kind of material often becomes content for OTT.
And studios want to play it safe too; they need and want the big names to pull audiences to the big screens. But they need to remember that the future is as important as the present. The studios need to build some big names down the line too, and if they lose it to OTT, theaters will suffer.
Just talking about the top 10 highest-grossing films, only IF and Bob Marley: One Love are the two films that are fresh down the pipeline. And where do they stand? In 9th and 10th place. The rest of the films are either part of a franchise, a reboot, or have the prequel-sequel tag, which is somewhat disappointing for fans too.