10 Movies That Tried To Exploit Nostalgia (And Won)

2. Star Wars: The Force Awakens

To return to 2015's peak of movie nostalgia exploitation, no movie repurposed fan goodwill more aggressively or more successfully than Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Arriving a decade after George Lucas' divisive prequel trilogy wrapped up, fans were whipped into a frenzy by a terrific marketing campaign that said and showed all the right things.

And though The Force Awakens was an undeniably riveting spectacle that returned the Star Wars franchise to firm ground, it was also safe to the point of frustration, with so much of the narrative simply rehashing plot elements, tropes, and visuals from A New Hope.

For most fans, however, an unambitious retelling of A New Hope was an acceptable palate cleanser following the prequels, and it ultimately grossed a stonking $2.068 billion worldwide off the back of a nostalgia-heavy marketing campaign.

That the film ultimately had little new to offer and baited the hell out of audiences with that Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) tease might partially explain why The Last Jedi subsequently grossed markedly less, raking in "only" $1.333 billion.

Still, director J.J. Abrams and producer Kathleen Kennedy perfectly positioned The Force Awakens as a familiar, warm blanket of a movie, selling your childhood back to you with a glossy new coat of paint on it.

And going by the marketing for The Rise of Skywalker, the "finale" to the Skywalker saga will most likely be the most blatantly fan-serving film in the entire franchise.