Movie Sequels – Milking The Cash Cow to Death?

As I was growing up, I loved going to the cinema.  I was very lucky as there were so many original and ground breaking movies to choose from, I was spoilt for choice.  I loved the thrill and anticipation as the lights started to dim, and my long awaited movie started to flicker before my eyes on the big screen.

However, as I have grown older, I am finding less and less original movies at the cinema.  Classic movies, which were box office hits, have been re-hashed, repackaged and resold purely for profit, rather than artistic integrity.

A prime example is Jaws, released in 1975, based on Peter Benchley’s novel.  Jaws was a highly original film, which left me with a profound fear of water – so much so, I was scared of jumping into a swimming pool, for fear of being attacked by a shark!  Due to the popularity of the film, they decided to release a further 3 Jaws movies, but none could ever recapture the essence of the original.

Another example is Alien, released in 1979.  This was another truly original (and terrifying) movie.  So successful that it spawned (pardon the pun) a further 3 movies, and 2 spin off movies (Alien v Predator & AVP Reqium).  Again, each of the sequels, never quite hit the mark of the original.

Just when you think your favourite movies cannot possibly be sullied, you are then bombarded with the sneaky sequel – the prequel.  Star Wars, Batman, Star Trek have already become victims – are any of our favourite films safe anymore?

Finally, you have the movie sequels boarding on the ridiculous..  Rambo (4 movies), Death Wish (5 movies), Rocky (6 movies),   Police Academy (7 movies) and the Saw franchise (6 movies and rumoured to be a further 2).

What has happened to all of the talented screenwriters?  Surely there has got to be somebody out there who has a new concept which can be converted into a film?  Out of all the hundreds of thousands of novels that are in the book shops – there must be at least one new idea just screaming to be made into a film?

The cash cow’s teats are getting very sore now, so won’t one brave film studio take the lead with producing a new and original movie?