As the excitement for Hollywood’s latest reboot movie “Dune” starts to die down, the complaints still remain. People fret that Hollywood is running out of ideas, that there are no more creative minds left and that we’ll be trapped in seven rings of remakes and remasters for the rest of our lives. But to those who have these worries, there is some good news: Hollywood will never run out of ideas. The problem is that remakes bring a lot of money, and when the goal is to hit the Top Grossing Films of All Time list, filmmakers are obviously going to create the movies that will bring the most money into their pockets. Disney has been capitalizing on millennial nostalgia for the past decade with live-action remakes of every classic film from “Cinderella” to “Mulan,” often with great controversy. Regardless, these movies still make millions at the box office, which, no matter the retractors, indicates to the movie industry that we want to see more. And that leads to the seemingly never-ending cycle of these reboots.
It is more than valid to feel like there is nothing but spin-offs and reboots going on in our entertainment industry. Popular shows from the 1980s like “Voltron” and “She-Ra” have received modern-day reboots. Even previously successful shows from the 1990s, like “Friends” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” have received reunion specials or reboots, respectively. All of these shows have received heightened popularity in recent years because of meme culture and the nostalgia they bring, so of course executives will use that nostalgia to gain a few extra dollars off of adoring fans. Even children’s shows aren’t safe; as the millennial generation have become parents, beloved shows from their childhood such as “Blue’s Clues” and “Dora the Explorer” have been given fresh faces and entire movies. For as long as there are fans of popular franchises or characters such as Batman, the Joker and Spider-Man, Hollywood will continue to try to catch the attention of audiences with reboots.
Surprisingly, music is also guilty of this redo phase. In this instance of course, it is worth mentioning that remasters are not always nostalgia grabs. Remasters of old beloved albums such as Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” can offer a richer sound to the original music that fans will appreciate. Other bands, such as Armor For Sleep, released a remastered version of their album “What To Do When You Are Dead” with demos and songs that didn’t make it onto their original 2005 album, giving an exciting new listening experience. But we certainly don’t need a remaster of every single Top 100 album from the ‘80s and ‘90s unless they’re offering something new for the audience to enjoy.
Audiences can put the power of entertainment back into their hands very easily, and it’s as simple as putting your money in new, unique films that aren’t the same old story rehashed for a new generation. Stellar movies like “Parasite” and “Knives Out” crafted original narratives that gripped audiences so strongly that they made it onto the Oscars shortlist in 2020. This proves that there is still plenty of money and fame to be earned by original screenplays that audiences rave for. Your dollar is your vote, and movie companies will invest more money into fresh and new projects if it notices that it isn’t turning a profit on the big fantastical reboots of movies that have been remade seven different times since the 1950s. We don’t need another “Home Alone,” another “A Star Is Born” or another spinoff of a TV show that ran for 15 years. We, as consumers, have the ability to tell Hollywood what we want to see with our money. Paying to go watch films made by new directors that tell new stories with new eyes will mean seeing more of those types of movies as time goes on. There’s no shame in enjoying a reboot every now and then, but to break the cycle of rehashing, we should refuse to flock to the same story repackaged and vote with our dollars for the creativity that Hollywood is stifling.
