American's Passion for Repeat Movies

           IMDB recently released their rankings for the highest grossing movies of the year, which basically means the movies that the most people attend. I chose to write about this topic in part because it is the end of the year, and as a movie lover, the best movies of the year are being voted on and rated. I also chose to convey my thoughts because after seeing the list, I was blown away by something not many people picked up on. Here is the link to IMDB's list from the past year and the picture located below with the year released and its rating from IMDB movie critics.

Now take a second to look at the list and see if you can draw any conclusions for yourself. Ill give you some time to think...

             Ok, starting with me, the first thing I picked up on was the insane amount of movies (I count 8/10) which are either sequels or involve identical sets of characters from past movies. The two movies that do not fit the list are "World War Z" and "Gravity", both fantastic movies that I would recommend. So that got me thinking to both what Americans like myself enjoy from movies and what movie companies have learned from certain successes in the past.
             To start off with the movie companies themselves, this data directly shows that they aren't willing to experiment with new types of movies (new plots, characters, settings etc.) and are much more comfortable making either remakes of old movies, clever spin-offs, or sequels to beloved classics. It really is stunning that 80% of movies in the top ten grossing happen to be movies in which there isn't a new storyline or character group and rather a repeat cast just so that movie producers can feel like they are making a safe bet when creating and filming movies.
              What this tells us about the average American, including me is that we don't like change in our entertainment at all. We are much more willing to watch movies that include casts we are both familiar with and enjoy watching for extended periods of time. Of the two movies that aren't sequels or remakes, both bolster a huge movie star in George Clooney and Brad Pitt, the reasons many people decide to go and see movies in the first place. American media seems to be very predictable in a sense that people don't really seem to enjoy watching new types of movies with lesser known actors and directors.

Americans saving money

Who doesn't like saving money right? If you can get a deal on something you really desire you get a large sense of satisfaction by be able to say, "I got it on sale". The thing is that, our desire for money only seems to be exponentially growing to the point of a semi-national-practice-informal "holiday"

This holiday I speak of is called Black Friday and it occurred roughly a week ago. Named in part because it lands on the Friday after Thanksgiving, and also, because in the past, traffic lights supposedly went black due to people speeding to stores and getting in accidents (source: here).

To me, a core American value seems to be the obsession with saving money. PBS was quoted in an article saying that, "America has definitely become a money obsessed culture". I couldn't agree more. If you aren't quite following, i'll provide a couple of examples. First, as I have already stated before, black friday has become an event so popular that people are now spending time on Thanksgiving, the national day of giving thanks, to go to stores and wait in line for midnight releases of deals. Another reason why Americans are obsessed with saving money can be seen in our interests in entertainment.I mean, we have a television show on TLC called, "Extreme Couponing" where the main goal is to get the most food items for the least amount of stuff. If America isn't obsessed with saving, who is? If America is obsessed with saving, is that a good or bad thing?

Do we really show what we are thankful for?

On Thanksgiving it's common to give thanks for whatever you want to be thankful for. Wether it be; having a healthy family, food on the table or the ability to chit chat with relatives who are rarely seen.  

Sadly instead of gathering around a table, sharing stories and telling jokes, statistically more people are heading to stores and waiting in lines for electronics and other consumer merchandise for some ok deals. Lets be honest, stores are still trying to make money and by the time you leave the store they will have most likely have made money off of you.

Sadly Thanksgiving shopping has become a new norm and seems like it wont go away. Tim Parry for the Multi Channel Merchant said “Thanksgiving Day shopping has evolved into something that’s more than just a fad, it’s become a tradition for some shoppers”. As hard as it is to accept this is becoming a new American tradition. This most definitely is a "fad" as over 50 million people went to stores on Thanksgiving according to the same article. (Here is the article link: Article)

Honestly this is terrible. Without getting into the roots of the first Thanksgivings', modern turkey days are supposed to be about sitting around the table with family and enjoying ones company. It should not have to do anything with saving money or shopping or spending the whole deal "deal searching" when someone could be with their family. Many reports have shown shopping on Thanksgiving rising in the past 10 years and it shows no signs of halting. It really saddens me that people would rather spend money on something that they most likely could live without than rather with the people that they love.

With this new American "tradition", are people really more interested in saving money than spending time with family?

Thanks!