If you went back in time to 2005 and told someone that three of 2025’s biggest movies would be a live-action Lilo & Stitch remake, a Final Destination sequel, and a third Fantastic Four reboot, they would have probably laughed in your face.
Fast forward twenty years, and each of those movies has topped the North American box office this summer.
You’re not wrong to think that big Hollywood blockbusters have become increasingly derivative of existing intellectual properties (IPs). Last year, all fifteen of the highest-grossing movies were either sequels, reboots, or adaptations. This year is looking to be more of the same, with more sequels like Zootopia 2, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, and Avatar: Fire and Ash on the horizon. As movie studios continue to churn out sequels, reboots, “requels,” and adaptations, some fear that Hollywood’s creativity tap is beginning to run dry.
So what exactly is behind Hollywood’s obsession with recycling the same IPs over and over again?
After speaking to some of my cinephile friends and reading some editorials about this issue, I found that they tended to place the blame on moviegoers. Talking points ranged from patronizing to pretentious — how people are ignoring original releases, how declining attention spans are deterring us from focusing on new IPs, and since movies are ultimately a business, studios are simply investing in what they think people want to see: uninspired sequels and reboots.
However, none of these points are true. Many moviegoers have signalled to Hollywood that they are tired of being fed the same IPs year after year. Last year, audiences shunned lazily-made sequels like the The Crow remake and Joker: Folie à Deux. Earlier in 2025, social media users celebrated after Disney announced it would pause production on future live-action remakes. So, if consumers want to watch original movies, why are studios not greenlighting more of them?
Perhaps the key cause behind Hollywood’s creative brain drain is the COVID-19 pandemic. The film industry was decimated by lockdowns and the simultaneous rise of streaming services; it may never soar to pre-pandemic heights again. While theatre attendance has steadily risen since restrictions were lifted, it is still miles below late 2010s levels.
Hollywood needs to get people back into theatres again in order to survive. To do so, studios are relying on bankable, existing IPs to make a quick profit. In business sense, it just isn’t conducive right now for studios to gamble with new, untested ideas. In addition, with the layoff of many screenwriters since the pandemic, it has become more difficult and expensive for studios to conceive new IPs in the first place.
Coincidentally, movie studios have become notoriously bad at promoting new IPs. Consider two Pixar movies: the original Elio and the sequel Inside Out 2. Both were developed with roughly the same budget, released at the same time of year, and received similar reviews. The difference? Inside Out 2 made over 1.5 billion dollars at the box office, while Elio grossed a paltry 150 million.
Why did two similar movies yield such different results? Pixar promoted Inside Out 2 with a massive 55 million dollar PR campaign, consisting of several trailers, a widespread social media presence, and collaborations with brands such as Uber and Bubble Skincare.
Elio’s promotional campaign? Crickets. A friend of mine even joked that people who knew what Elio was only knew what it was because nobody knew what Elio was.
In defence of Hollywood, it is certainly harder to introduce new IPs to audiences in comparison to familiar ones. But with film budgets reaching record highs and social media making advertising easier than ever, it’s becoming harder to excuse studios for failing to promote their new IPs. Hollywood’s push to flood the box office with sequels and remakes may be doing well for studios, but the reduced focus on originality is also reshaping how cinema is still seen as an art form, and not in a good way.
Most people can agree that the art of filmmaking is supposed to be beautiful, inspiring, and above all else, original. Sequels and remakes, which happen to be the most popular movies nowadays, are inherently lacking in originality. Film committees have taken notice of this, and thus fewer high-grossing movies are being nominated for awards. This has led to two issues: award committees increasingly favouring mostly-unknown films derided by some as “Oscar bait,” and moviegoers growing disillusioned and indifferent toward the award process.
The fact that critics and audiences are polarized on what movies constitute art is concerning. Movies considered modern classics, like Parasite and There Will Be Blood, earned their reputations because their artistic appeal was universal. If this division continues, original cinema will be relegated to obscurity while low-quality sequels and remakes will continue to be screened in theatres. Thus, creative, innovative films that would have been praised as modern classics in previous years will be largely ignored. Meanwhile, audiences will have no choice but to keep watching an endless loop of derivative IP slop.
All in all, the market for original movies looks bleak right now, and the implications of that are dire. So, what can movie lovers do about this? Truthfully, there isn’t much we can do to block studios from greenlighting more derivative works, but we can let them know that we want the sequel madness to end and new IPs to come to theatres.
Word of mouth is our best weapon in this fight. Telling others about new, inspired movies creates the audience that Hollywood is struggling to attract. For example, through word of mouth and social media exposure, the Netflix original K-Pop Demon Hunters has become a pop culture phenomenon despite initially receiving little promotion from its distributor.
Additionally, Sinners, a novel horror movie released earlier this year, was a box office hit that swooned both audiences and critics alike. Its distributor, Warner Bros., was instrumental in helping the movie succeed. Unlike most studios, it invested heavily in promoting the movie across North America. Sinners’ success proves that although original blockbusters are becoming rarer, there are still bright spots that should give cinephiles hope.
Ultimately, a future where every popular movie is unoriginal is something we should all loathe. Rather, we should dream of having the privilege of watching great original movies in theatres, just like how people who grew up in the 2000s can now boast about the creative cult classics they once saw.