The shock of the new is history in Hollywood — as more than half of next year's movies from major studios are expected to be sequels, prequels or remakes.
The 2025 calendar shows 50% to 70% of the feature films from Universal, Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, Sony and Lionsgate will be based on existing characters and other intellectual property, CNBC reported Sunday.
"There's been a recognition by studios that the known commodities are what most audiences gravitate toward," Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian told the network.
The planned releases include "Jurassic World: Rebirth," "Avatar: Fire and Ash," "Mission: Impossible 8," "Mortal Kombat 2" and sequels to "Dirty Dancing" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer," according to CNBC.
This year's box office results would seem to justify the industry's reliance on past products, with all of the 10 top-grossing movies based on existing intellectual property.
That list is topped by "Inside Out 2," which sold nearly $1.7 billion worth of tickets worldwide, followed by "Deadpool & Wolverine," with more than $1.3 billion in ticket sales.
Next year's offereing will "again be emblematic of the IP-and-nostalgia-driven status quo for Hollywood, but those aren't necessarily dirty words," Box Office Theory founder and owner Shawn Robbins said. "Some of the most well-received box office hits in recent memory have been sequels or films based on existing brands."
But Robbins noted that next year would also bring "new original films from filmmakers like Jordan Peele, Paul Thomas Anderson, J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot production company, and Ryan Coogler, which could stand out in between a variety of franchise films."
