Why are there so many pre-sold franchises? For those of you who don’t know, pre-sold franchises are stories that audiences are already sold on. It is so hard to find an original idea anymore. The reason for this is that production companies spend so much money on making films, they want to make sure that these films make money in the box office. Filmmaking, after all, is a business and production companies want to keep audiences interested in their films so they can keep on making money.
There are a number of films that are made from books, televisions shows, video games, foreign films, etc., For example, films that are made from books include, The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit (one book that is being divided into three films), Harry Potter, Twilight, etc., Films that are made from television shows include Sex and the City, Get Smart, 21 Jump Street, etc., Films that are made from video games are Tomb Raider, World of Warcraft (Warcraft coming out in 2015), Super Mario Brothers, etc., and films that are made from foreign films include The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Birdcage, etc.,
Also, based on a comic book, Spiderman was released as a trilogy starting in 2002 (Spider-Man), 2004 (Spider-Man 2), and then 2007 (Spider-Man 3). It was re-released summer of last year as The Amazing Spiderman.
Jack and the Giant Beanstalk was released recently as Jack the Giant Slayer (can we just use the original title and not try to mask our lack of originality with a cheap original title?).
Will there ever be any original ideas in Hollywood, or are we doomed to watch continuous remakes?