The 21st century may seem like the age of creation and innovation, but in reality it’s anything but, especially with films. Lack of original thoughts are evident within films in the past decade, as remakes and adaptations make up the majority of filmography taking place in Hollywood. And if they aren’t adaptations, they are spinoffs or movies that are “based on a true story.” Only a small percentage of movies today are actually original content.

Producers are simply remaking the same movie over and over again and in the process of it, making an enormous profit. For instance, take “Beauty and the Beast,” the original disney classic. In 2017, the animated picture was transformed into a live-action piece with the same characters, the same story, and the same music. However, the adaptation grossed enormously and earned a spot as the eleventh highest-grossing movie. There was no reason for the film to be remade, but it did and earned a lot of money in the process: This is the case with many other films.

Studios know their audience. They know that they can attract their audience based on movies they released before. Their ideology is that if one movie does well, it’s sequel should do just as well, if not better. Take the Spiderman film series. Since 2002, there have been three different Spiderman’s for no reason. As soon as one actor is done with their contract, the studio just remakes the same movie with another character and easily doubles their profits.

This wouldn’t have been the case 20 years ago. Movies didn’t have a sequel every time they had partial success. Films that had success remained successful because they didn’t have a sequel ruining it. Just imagine it: Saving Private Ryan 2: Ryan gets hurt again. Movies that do well do not need a sequel. In most cases, sequels gain less of a liking than their predecessor.

Hollywood isn’t acting with creativity and original thoughts anymore, all it cares about is profits. The movie industry has tried to sequelize every financially successful movie it makes, and statistically shown in 2011, the eight top grossing movies were sequels: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 ($1.3 Billion), Transformers: Dark of the Moon ($1.1 Billion), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides ($1 Billion), Kung Fu Panda 2 ($663 million), The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 ($648 million), Fast Five ($626 million), The Hangover Part 2 ($581 million), Cars 2 ($551.9 million). Many movies are getting sequels unnecessarily.

This has been the case for quite some time, but now audiences seem to get mixed feelings about sequels. Recent movies that had adaptations or sequels have been flopping. To name a few, let’s look at the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes: Justice League earned a 40%, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword earned a 29%, and Baywatch earned a very disappointing 18%. Studios may make enormous profits, as all the movies listed about have, but are indeed disappointing their fans.

Comprised below are some notable film remakes and adaptations.
Some notable film adaptations from Books:

The Shining (1980)
Schindler’s List (1993)
The Godfather (1972)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
The Hobbit (2012)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001(
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Fight Club (1999)
The Hunger Games (2012)
Divergent (2014)
Harry Potter (2001)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010)
True Grit (2010)

Some notable film remakes:

Annie (1982) to Annie (2014)
Around the World in Eighty Days (1919) to Around the World in 80 Days (2004)
Beauty and the Beast (1991) to Beauty and the Beast (2017)
Cinderella (1950) to Cinderella (2015)
Dawn of the Dead (1978) to Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Internal Affairs (2002) to The Departed (2006)
Footloose (1984) to Footloose (2011)
Freaky Friday (1976) to Freaky Friday (1995) to Freaky Friday (2003)
Friday the 13th (1980) to Friday the 13th (2009)
Ghostbusters (1984) to Ghostbusters (2016)
Gojira (1954) to Godzilla (1998) to Godzilla (2014)
The Mighty Barnum (1934) to The Greatest Showman (2017)
The Italian Job (1969) to The Italian Job (2003)
It (1990) to It (2017)
The Jungle Book (1967) to The Jungle Book (2016)
The Karate Kid (1984) to The Karate Kid (2010)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) to A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
Ocean’s 11 (1960) to Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
The Parent Trap (1961) to The Parent Trap (1998)
Planet of the Apes (1968) to Planet of the Apes (2001)
Point Break (1991) to Point Break (2015)
Poltergeist (1982) to Poltergeist (2015)
Psycho (1960) to Psycho (1998)
Spider-man (2002) to The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) to Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
For a more comprehensive list visit:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_film_remakes_(N–Z)