{"id":992,"date":"2019-12-15T23:08:17","date_gmt":"2019-12-15T23:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2019\/12\/15\/20191214sequel-syndrome-has-plagued-the-film-industry\/"},"modified":"2020-09-05T19:21:41","modified_gmt":"2020-09-05T19:21:41","slug":"20191214sequel-syndrome-has-plagued-the-film-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2019\/12\/15\/20191214sequel-syndrome-has-plagued-the-film-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Sequel Syndrome Has Plagued the Film Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brent Costantino<\/p>\n

 The new economy of filmmaking has shifted to big business, according to David Atkins, Quinnipiac University film professor and professional screenwriter.<\/p>\n

\u201cStrong brand recognition equals a green light in the new economy of filmmaking.  If there is strong brand recognition of a film, studios will invest in the product,\u201d said Atkins.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Quinnipiac University film professor, David Atkins\u2019 professional headshot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Atkins partnered with \u201cHot Tub Time Machine\u201d director Steve Pink on an independent feature film in 2017.<\/p>\n

The partners were aiming to secure a $12 million budget in order to produce the film, which is relatively small for a feature film in comparison to the consistent $100 million-plus budgets Hollywood has produced over the years.<\/p>\n

The two ended up in serious talks with LuckyChap Entertainment, a Los Angeles based production company that recently produced the 2018 Oscar award winning film, \u201cI, Tonya.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI, Tonya\u2019s\u201d budget was $11 million.<\/p>\n

After nearly securing LuckyChap Entertainment as an investor and producer for Atkin\u2019s independent film, the production company decided to opt out of taking the risk due to the lack of the film\u2019s brand recognition.<\/p>\n

This was a surprise to the pair because Pink has a successful history in the industry as a director, including \u201cHot Tub Time Machine,\u201d which grossed roughly $65 million globally in 2010.  But in the eyes of the Hollywood studio executives, it did not matter.<\/p>\n

This local story depicts one instance which many independent films have faced, the normality of being overlooked by production companies due to their lack of investment into original movie scripts as opposed to investing in previous well-performing and popularly-branded films in Hollywood, according to Stephen Follows, data researcher, film producer, and award winning writer whose work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and countless other major publications.  <\/p>\n

\u201cStudios will pretty much do whatever they think will make money.  So often the reasons why they don\u2019t do x or y is because they don\u2019t think it will make money.  They may be right, they may be biased or they may have never tried it,\u201d said Follows.<\/p>\n

The tendency for Hollywood studios to invest in pre-existing, money making franchises, isn\u2019t a new trend, according to Keith Kasper, former employee of MTV, and current Morris Knolls High School\u2019s TV and film production teacher.  <\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the early days of cinema with Edison to Cecil B. Demille, directors and movie houses wanted guaranteed money makers so they looked to popular books to bring in the crowds,\u201d said Kasper.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Keith Kasper and his family attending a \u201cStar Wars\u201d convention at the Liberty Science Center on February 15, 2016.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Marvel Comics, for example, have had tremendous brand recognition, and the box office numbers prove the previous statement to be true.  The Marvel movie franchise has produced 22 films, which have grossed approximately $18 billion globally. Marvel has profited more than any other movie franchise in the history of cinema, according to the Harvard Business Review<\/span><\/a>.  The \u201cStar Wars\u201d franchise trails behind the Marvel universe with an estimated $9 billion worldwide gross.<\/p>\n

In an opinion piece for the New York Times<\/span><\/a>, critically acclaimed film director, Martin Scorsese, wrote about the Marvel trend, and discussed changes that he has seen in the movie industry since he was a young filmmaker.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was asked a question about Marvel movies.  I answered it. I said that I\u2019ve tried to watch a few of them and that they\u2019re not for me, that they seem to me to be closer to theme parks than they are to movies as I\u2019ve known and loved them throughout my life, and that in the end, I don\u2019t think they\u2019re cinema,\u201d wrote Scorsese.<\/p>\n

In relation to the grouping of different film genres throughout Hollywood, Atkins related the current business model to a garden.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike any type of garden, there should be multiple plants.  If Marvel movies represent one type of flower, there needs to be flowers representing other genres of film.  If there is only one crop, the garden will die,\u201d said Atkins.<\/p>\n

Dr. Robert Thompson, Professor at the Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University referenced the fact that artwork as far back as the late 1500s depicts remakes of other entertainment sources in one form or another.<\/p>\n

\u201cFranchises and sequels go back a very long time.  Even Shakespeare implemented other sources of entertainment into his writing, and about half of Shakespeare\u2019s original seven or eight plays were sequels or prequels to some extent,\u201d said Thompson.<\/p>\n

Sequels, for the most part, have remained a success in modern day cinema.<\/p>\n

Disney Studios has consistently implemented sequels over the years, and their latest installment,\u201cFrozen II,\u201d proved to be a huge success at the box office.<\/p>\n

The animated sequel had a budget of approximately $150 million, and broke domestic box office records by raking in over $130 million opening weekend, with a cumulative worldwide gross of over $920 million, according to IMDB<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u2018Frozen\u2019 sequel would have broken opening weekend records if they had cats playing the piano on it.  The \u2018Frozen\u2019 brand was already so powerful, not just as a film, but clothes, toys and all of the other entities that made it a huge hit,\u201d said Thompson.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrozen\u201d was more than a brand, it was a representation of a generation\u2019s childhood, ultimately granting its inevitable success amongst the youth, according to Thompson.<\/p>\n

Independent films have trouble receiving recognition from a globalized audience due to their lack of brand-recognition, ultimately preventing studios from investing in the projects altogether, according to Atkins.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not guaranteed that an independent film will get recognition.  Studios need the dollars, it\u2019s not about the art of cinema. Production companies do better making fewer films with higher budgets because they perform better globally,\u201d said Atkins.    <\/p>\n

Universal Pictures granted a $250 million budget for the eighth installment of the \u201cFast & Furious\u201d franchise, and the film ended up grossing over $1.2 billion globally, according to IMDB<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cCars appeal to a global audience, and films like \u2018The Shape of Water\u2019 still don\u2019t make as much money as a \u2018Fast & Furious\u2019 even when they win Academy Awards.  For any film to win an academy award is a needle in a haystack. Studios would rather invest their money in higher profiting films,\u201d said Atkins.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Shape of Water\u201d won four Oscars in 2018 including Best Motion Picture of the Year, and cumulated $195 million at the box office globally, according to IMDB<\/span><\/a>.  <\/p>\n