This city is abuzz today about the mediocre debut of Furiosa, the latest installment of the Mad Max franchise. Much angst over the girl-boss fatigue, special effects overdoses, even marketing strategies gone awry.
But that’s not what pulled Max over. Hollywood’s biggest adversary isn’t the rise of streaming, the impact of COVID, or the alleged shortening of our attention spans. It’s the death grip of repetition, squeezing the life out of creativity.
A quick glance at the industry’s box office titans reveals an industry mired in sequels, prequels, spinoffs and reissues.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe, with its $11.8 billion gross, stands as a monument to this cycle of regurgitation. Thirty-eight releases. Avengers: Endgame might have been a spectacular finale, but it was also the culmination of years of iterative storytelling. We’ve seen these characters evolve, but have we seen anything truly new?
Even the wizarding world of J.K. Rowling couldn’t escape the sequel curse. Thirty-five releases, nearly $2.9 billion in gross, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 still looms large. It’s not magic; it’s a formula.
Imagine naming sequels like The Godfather did, with simple numerals. We’d be on James Bond 26. We’ve been through 25 films of the suave spy, yet somehow, we’re still shaking and stirring the same cocktail.
Star Wars. Twenty-four films, and a gross over $5 billion. Yet, The Force Awakens was nothing but a rehash of A New Hope. Nostalgia is the crutch on which these franchises lean, hobbling forward with recycled plots.
Batman and the DC Extended Universe boast 45 releases between them. Their combined gross? Over $5.5 billion. But every reboot, every retelling, only underscores the paucity of fresh ideas. The Dark Knight was brilliant, but how many times can we see Gotham saved?
Middle Earth, once a realm of wonder, now feels like a factory line. Eighteen films, close to $1.9 billion. The Lord of the Rings was epic, but The Hobbit stretched a single book into a trilogy of diminishing returns.
Spider-Man swings between studios and styles, yet remains tethered to the same origin story. Seventeen releases, over $3.3 billion. Spider-Man: No Way Home might break records, but it’s still the same web of familiarity.
Repetition isn’t just a strategy; it’s a plague. Hollywood churns out these sequels because they’re safe bets. Audiences flock to familiar worlds, driven by a blend of loyalty and nostalgia. It’s a comfortable cycle, but it’s also a creatively bankrupt one.
Streaming, COVID, and attention spans aren’t killing cinema. Hollywood is doing a fine job on its own, suffocating under the weight of its own sequels.
Repetition is the true enemy, and until we break free from this loop, we’ll never see the golden age of originality return.
