10 Oddly Specific Genres That Were Briefly Hugely Popular
Remember when rebooted fairy tales didn't roll exclusively off the Disney production line?
The movie business has always been regarded as something of a cannibalistic industry, in the sense that many studios operate under the idea that something that turns out to be a success for one of their competitors will more than likely work for them too.
This is one of the reasons why recent history is littered with the remains of failed cinematic universes, dark and gritty reboots and splitting the final installment of a franchise into two movies, because more often than not familiarity will always eventually breed contempt from audiences.
Of course, we're now 20 years deep into the comic book movie boom and that shows no signs of slowing down anytime in the near future, but Hollywood is always on the lookout for their next big cash-cow just in case the well of superheroes and spandex eventually runs dry.
Sometimes, this leads to a raft of projects that seem to be cut from a very similar and also highly specific cloth, as the boardroom laser-focuses their efforts on trying to replicate a successful formula as closely as possible. Obviously it doesn't work every time, but when you look a little closer a lot of very similar movies were all given the opportunity to shine in a relatively short window.
10. Action Movies Where Everyone Wears Leather
Blade, The Matrix and Bryan Singer's X-Men have a lot to answer for here. When those three very different but still hugely influential blockbusters arrived at the turn of the millennium, it was suddenly decided that virtually every action movie to come out of Hollywood over the next several years was obligated to include at least one character that was clad head-to-toe in leather.
The movie business has a habit of jumping on whatever ended up working for one of their competitors, and before we knew it everyone was throwing fists and jumping through the air in slow motion in a material that has never been particularly well-regarded for practicality.
A lot of these movies turned out to be as uncomfortable to watch as they no doubt were to shoot, with the cowhide-clad action genre spawning movies like Ben Affleck's Daredevil, McG's Charlie's Angels franchise, Underworld, Equilibrium, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Uma Thurman in The Avengers and the risible Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever. Give us John McClane's tattered white vest any day of the week, thank you very much.