Stepping into a new era, the entertainment industry is no stranger to change. Nor does the industry play its cards well when it comes to originality. Two truths can exist at once, but in the name of profit, neither seems to matter anymore.
If you are frequent consumers of film & television, you should be quite acquainted with the trendsetting culture of Hollywood’s nonstop obsession with remaking projects.
This popular tactic has caused quite the conversations amongst audiences. The fatigue has grown: the media deliberately chooses to tire consumers with the lack of the imaginative elements that makes the entertainment industry endearing.
From the Golden Age of Hollywood, to the reign of Gen Z and its powerful stamp on today’s pop culture, the entertainment industry has always paid keen attention to what’s in demand. And by demand, how to strategically execute and deliver when it comes to new releases in media.
With that being said, the papertrail that is lucrative profit is no fool. Entertainment executives have studied the plain fields as to what specific things audiences are choosing to draw their attention towards.
Remakes of past projects have demonstrated a promising hallmark in which film feigns and binge-watchers perhaps simply can’t get enough of regurgitated projects. Projects that evidently have served pivotal moments in film & television.
Thus, the demand continues… The monetization of nostalgia goes back into the last decade, which has echoed the traditions of commercialized aesthetics that plays into the neverending demand for reboots.
With the popularity of the Duffer Brothers’ 1980s-set original science fiction horror mystery drama, Stranger Things (2016), public interest in nostalgic media transcended the writer’s room.
The show’s inevitable success ignited a refreshed interest in 80s culture, as it also notably plays strongly into its vibrant atmosphere reminiscent of E.T The Extra Terrestrial (1982) and The Goonies (1985), amongst many other predecessors.
It is shows like Stranger Things that tapped into the influence of nostalgia, while also pushing the envelope.
By the Duffer Brothers crafting a unique story of misguided youths and supernatural alienesque forces, the show’s success was set in stone, even now in 2025 as the series’ final season nears.
With the show’s cult following, Hollywood couldn’t help but notice the show’s generational impact. It is not always likely for industry executives to gamble lightly by measuring the potential of a developing project’s outreach. Very few times, films & television shows with daring, original concepts have proven to successfully usher in a wave of much needed nuance to the industry.
However when it comes to profit, the principle of gain tends to override the artistic sacredness of our media. During the beginning of this summer, I stumbled across the trailer for Nisha Ganatra’s Freakier Friday, scheduled to be released August 8th, 2025.
Serving as an obvious sequel to Freaky Friday (2003), the film’s essential plotline rehashes its forebearer’s, of course stripping away an opportunity to fully divest from the original film beside a few tweaks, as insinuated by the trailer.
After watching it, nothing significant stood out from Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis’s iconic morning scream upon switching bodies piqued a refreshed interest. I can’t help but assume that consumers of Disney, and other audiences must be slightly exhausted at this point.
In the aftermath of the heavily panned reception of Marc Webb’s Disney live action remake, Snow White (2025), juxtaposed with the moderate commercial success of Dean Fleischer Camp’s live action remake Lilo & Stitch (also released in 2025), all of my sentiments stated before objectively remain clear.
The question that lingers beyond this line, remains: when will Hollywood realize we have actually had enough with the reboots? Suppose we observe the culture of the writer’s rooms. How much power can we observe, as it seems to appear that writers exercise less of it in comparison to the wallets that allow their stories to come to fruition.
During the run of the 2023 SAG-AFTRA Strike, film & television writers vocalized their grievances over labor disputes in the time in which the industry prioritized monopolizing streaming.
This also trickled down into conversations on writer’s pay, residuals, as well as the introduced practice of AI generated writing. Hollywood has always been built on exploitation.
How the practice itself has seeped into the soils of creativity, and the integrity of those who aim to wield it rightfully, requires layers to be pulled back. With rebooted projects being announced every few weeks, when will the line be finally drawn?
With the initiation of James Gunn’s reboot, Superman (2025), starring newcomer David Corenswet as the titular Man of Steel, the film has achieved skyrocketing success, garnering an estimated $299.7 million in the US box office, and earning $527.7 million dollars worldwide.
Gunn, who aims to spearhead a new cinematic era in the DC Universe followed by Matt Reeves’ success with The Batman (2022), more superhero projects are presumed to be well on their way to the big screen, mirrored to the MCU’s canon profit with the Avenger’s Saga.
Again, money has to be made. Film & television executives have played the game well, and mastered tactics to ensure a steady cashflow. The aesthetic of nostalgia, cult followings, and obsessive fandoms have fueled their pockets.
But they are not the only ones who have learned to shuffle to their cards right. Independent film studios such as A24 have helped pioneer a new threshold of filmmaking, marketing creative freedom into a bankable rebrand.
Many of A24’s original films have earned numerous accolades and became Oscar-winning treasures, such as 2022’s Everything Everywhere All At Once.
Propelling up directors and correctively platforming their genre bending projects has helped repair the veins of repeated stories that have bled out media as an intrinsic art form. The industry has redesigned the program, but what audiences want is simply, newness.
What can be defined as original through an artistic lens is subjective, opening loopholes to what is preferred versus what can be moving forward. I for once desire and advocate for the possibility that things can change. That is, if Hollywood wants to change itself.
Featured Image: (L-R) Max Huang as “Kung Lao”, and Ludi Lin as “Liu Kang” in New Line Cinema’s “Mortal Kombat 2,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures
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