Hollywood’s Creative Crisis: Why Nostalgia Now Rules the Box Office
The film industry is increasingly reliant on reboots, remakes, and sequels, a trend driven by risk aversion and a desire to tap into established fanbases. This summer’s cinematic landscape is dominated by familiar titles and concepts, prompting questions about the future of original storytelling in Hollywood.
As of Monday, the director of the new Jurassic Park movie revealed his approach to the seventh installment in the franchise: not innovation, but “karaoke.” Gareth Edwards explained to BBC’s Front Row that he deliberately aimed for a nostalgic feel, immersing himself in Steven Spielberg’s work to achieve “genre cloning.” “I was trying,” he said, “to make it feel nostalgic. The goal was that it should feel like Universal Studios went into their vaults and found a reel of film, brushed the dust off and it said: Jurassic World: Rebirth. And they’re like: ‘What’s this? We don’t remember doing this!’ I wanted it to feel like a film they’d discovered from the early 90s.”
This embrace of the past extends beyond Jurassic Park. Filmgoers transported back to the 1990s might question the integrity of their time machine, as Britpop hits from Oasis and Pulp soundtrack the summer alongside a wave of reboots. The upcoming release of I Know What You Did Last Summer – a direct continuation of the 1997 slasher film starring Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. – exemplifies this trend. The 2025 film will ignore the 2006 sequel, I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, a decision one observer noted highlights a selective approach to canon.
August brings further evidence of this trend, with Liam Neeson taking on the role of the bumbling police lieutenant previously played by Leslie Nielsen in The Naked Gun, and a remake of The War of the Roses titled The Roses, starring Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch. Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan are reprising their roles in a sequel to their 2003 body-swap comedy, Freakier Friday, while Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later revives the zombie horror series he began in 2002. Even Final Destination: Bloodlines represents a return to a beloved franchise, marking the first new installment in 14 years.
Anniversary reissues are also contributing to the nostalgic wave, with screenings planned for The Goonies (40th anniversary), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (20th anniversary), Human Traffic (26th anniversary), Sense and Sensibility (30th anniversary), and Spinal Tap (41st anniversary). A reboot of Superman and a new Fantastic Four movie are also on the horizon.
According to one industry analyst, Hollywood appears “stuck on repeat,” caught in a “death cycle of creative bankruptcy” masked as comfort food. This strategy’s success is partially attributed to the current state of the world, with audiences seeking escapism. As a veteran film journalist, Steven Gaydos, quoted Gil Scott Heron: “‘Americans want to go back as far as they can, even if it turns out to be only last week. Not to face now or the future, but to face backwards.’”
The prevalence of 1994-era reboots is particularly striking, coinciding with the formative years of many current Hollywood decision-makers. These individuals, approaching 50, are keen to relive a pre-smartphone era and introduce it to a new generation. This isn’t a new phenomenon; George Lucas’s American Graffiti (1973) and Spielberg’s Back to the Future (1985) both successfully tapped into nostalgia. However, those films emerged from a more ambitious and innovative entertainment landscape.
Bob Gale, writer of Back to the Future, stated on Thursday that a film like Back to the Future would be impossible to make today, citing not only the cost and physics involved but also the potential for modern studios to overanalyze and misinterpret the story. “We’d go into the studio and they’d say, what’s the deal with this relationship between Marty and Doc? They’d start interpreting paedophilia or something. There would be a lot of things they have problems with.”
This risk aversion is understandable given the industry’s current instability. The closure of approximately 8,000 screens worldwide due to Covid-19, coupled with the 2023 strikes, created a content drought that benefited streaming services. Robert Mitchell, director of theatrical insights at Gower Street Analytics, explained that “playing safe is simply good business sense,” pointing to the success of sequels and established intellectual property like Ne Zha 2, Lilo & Stitch, and A Minecraft Movie.
Andrew Cripps, head of theatrical distribution at Disney, acknowledged at CineEurope that the top 15 US releases of last year – including Inside Out 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, Moana 2, and Despicable Me 4 – reflected “the market reality of what consumers are looking for.” However, he also emphasized the need to launch original content to generate new franchises.
The challenge lies in the scarcity of truly original concepts. Of the 15 top-grossing films of all time, only Titanic and Avatar – both directed by James Cameron – are not sequels. One industry insider noted that both films would be “unthinkable to finance” today. Studios are in a bind, needing fresh stories but struggling to “land that plane.” The recent underperformance of Pixar’s Elio, recouping only half of its $150 million budget, and other original films like Black Bag and Mickey 17, have reinforced this sentiment.
However, recent successes like Brad Pitt’s F1: The Movie and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners offer a glimmer of hope, demonstrating a potential audience appetite for original stories. These films earned $167 million and $365 million respectively. Yet, another observer cautioned that labeling these films “original” is misleading, as Sinners leveraged the popularity of the Black Panther and Creed franchises and drew parallels to From Dusk Till Dawn and Crossroads.
Both F1 and Sinners ultimately conform to established blockbuster formulas, resembling Mission: Impossible and Avengers more than truly groundbreaking cinema. The shift towards original content has largely occurred in television, with series like Adolescence, Baby Reindeer, The White Lotus, Severance, and Black Mirror pushing boundaries. As one analyst pointed out, “Once upon a time, Adolescence would have been a hit movie. But imagine pitching it today: ‘It’s about the penal system and the desensitisation of kids.’ The sound of crickets would be deafening.”
The streaming model, insulated from weekly box office pressures, allows for greater creative risk-taking. Jesse Armstrong’s Mountainhead, a film-length satire, found a home on HBO and Sky, bypassing traditional theatrical release. One commentator lamented that “there is nothing called film culture left in Hollywood.”
Despite the overall trend, some genuinely original films are still reaching cinemas, such as Celine Song’s Materialists and Ari Aster’s Eddington. Sequels aren’t always creatively bankrupt, as evidenced by The Godfather Part II.
Twenty years ago, Gaydos believed Hollywood was becoming akin to the packaged goods industry, and he maintains that assessment remains valid. This perception even aligns with Donald Trump’s views on the industry, as outlined in his tariffs plan.
By the end of the weekend, Jurassic World: Rebirth is projected to have grossed approximately $260 million across 82 territories. However, the film’s financial success extends beyond ticket sales, encompassing Nintendo games, Lego kits, toys, and branded merchandise. As one observer wryly noted, “The future of cinema isn’t just the sequels. It’s the Slurpees, stupid.”
