For decades, Hollywood has produced thousands of movies for entertainment and informative purposes. Numerous studios and producers have thrived from this industry and continue to create new and exciting stories for people everywhere. However, it seems that for the past two or three years, Hollywood has been producing the same movies over and over. Several movies have underdeveloped plots, no new characters, and the same banal stories. Could it be that Hollywood is out of fresh ideas?

Simply by going to the movies, one can notice that nearly all the trailers are a sequel to previous movies. Mary Liu (10) notices that “audiences… should stop paying for the reboots and try to focus their attention to the excellent films that deserve a lot more attention than they have.” In 2017 alone, Hollywood has made or plans to make 43 sequels, reboots, and remakes out of about six hundred movies that it makes a year. Sequels such as a third Cars, yet another Despicable Me, and a new Pirates of the Caribbean are examples of sequels that are not necessary. For movies whose plots have been resolved, it does not make sense for there to be a sequel. For Pirates of the Caribbean, the first movie came out over a decade ago. The first Star Wars movie came out in 1977, yet Hollywood still continues to extend the production of the movies. It is time to move on and start fresh. Prolonging these movies only frustrates the public, and results in dislike for the movie franchise. People want something contemporary rather than see the same old characters. Is it that Hollywood is too lazy to come up with new stories, or that they are stuck? Instead of using the same characters for a story idea, why do they not create an entirely different story? It almost seems that they are afraid to take a risk with something completely new, which is ridiculous. Movies like La La Land or Moonlight or Moana were all huge successes because they were new ideas.

This brings about a new point that now, because of all the remakes, reboots, and sequels, people jump towards movies that show different faces. They are so desperate for an original idea, that even if the movie seems ridiculous, they will watch it just for the sake of escaping the renewals of old ideas. Remakes of movies also pose a problem for the audiences who want modern movies. Beauty and the Beast or all the other twists on fairy tales bore those who prefer modern ideas. They take away from the original classics and pretty much only repeat the original. These movies seem pointless, though it is understandable for movies that were made way back when film technology and makeup were just being developed. It also happens that many times, movies use characters from fairytales for a concept which completely unrelated to that of the original. This makes it confusing as to why the characters are used in the first place.

Not to mention, some adventure movies still have completely ridiculous plots with no character developments, which is a poor attempt to cover up the sequels. Mad Max: Fury Road, for example, solely had explosions and wars with no relatable characters. It is essential for stories to connect to the members in the audience, even a little. Nowadays, adventure movies use the same unvarying story.

Overall, it may be time to bring new, young writers and directors who can provide a novel perspective in movies. At the very least, Hollywood should ditch the sequels, reboots,and remakes, and come up with completely new movie concepts. Christine Ding (10) agrees, “although some of the repeated movies are entertaining, I would like to see more new and interesting movies.” It has become too predictable with its movies, and should find a new way to surprise its audiences. Otherwise, it seems that the same movies are being made constantly.