While it may not be entirely true to say that Hollywood is completely out of fresh ideas, the well is certainly running dry. With so much money being pumped into their summer blockbusters (often at the expense of more interesting sounding projects), the studios have been playing it increasingly safe and relying on a stable diet of sequels, prequels, remakes, reboots and comic book movies in order to generate the majority of their profits. The phrase 'if you can't beat em, join em' also applies to this method of film-making. If a unique-sounding project turns out to be a massive critical or commercial success, then the chances are high that a number of similar-sounding yet ultimately inferior movies will be rushed into production. Think of the number of poor imitators that followed in the wake of Jaws, Star Wars and Gladiator to name but three, hoping that simply repeating a successful formula would yield similar results. There has been more than enough evidence over the years to prove that Hollywood will attempt to replicate success by jumping on a bandwagon and creating an industry-wide trend, and this article will look at ten such instances. Spanning decades of Hollywood history, numerous genres and budgets that range from a few thousand to hundreds of millions, this list will look at ten cinematic trends that the movie business tried their hardest to run into the ground. Do you agree with the choices in the article? Are there any other trends that you would have included? As always, sign off in the comments below.
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