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.
2 comments:
Will, I think you make an interesting point that Americans tend to like the classics rather than movies that with lesser known stories and actors. I think that is very true. Because movie producers are in the business of making money, they are often not willing to make too many changes which might make a movie less popular. I think one could relate this to tokenism in that tv shows are often reluctant to feature too many minority characters because they fear losing advertisers' support.
I agree with Josh in that the decisions that producers make is based on how much money they think they will earn. If producers create sequels or remakes, Americans are so tempted to see how the new movies compare to the older ones. I also think that it's important that we look at who the audience is for these top 10 movies. Most of the movies on the list, especially #5 and up, are targeting children and teens. It's interesting how the younger generation has a big say in what movies are rising on the charts.
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