Cinema doesn’t have to be stuck in a loop

If you’ve recently been to the cinema or turned on your streaming platform of choice, no doubt you’ll have been offered ‘new’ stories that are fundamentally familiar. From Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, to Dune: Part Two, and now Bridget Jones 4 – the film industry is being driven by franchises and sequels.

Of the top 10 highest-grossing films released in Britain in 2024, franchises and sequels accounted for nine. The exception, Wicked, was a prequel. Despite innumerable creative possibilities, studios are flogging offshoots of things we’ve either already watched or already rejected.

The trend is driven by one thing: money. Hollywood likes to present itself as an artistic community, underwritten by great ideas and talent, but really it’s a cold-hearted corporate industry. New films – where prospective viewers don’t know the characters or the ‘world’ – can be a financial risk. They require a large marketing budget, and the public’s response is sometimes hard to foresee.