8 Reasons Hollywood Will Never Stop Making Sequels

The reason sequels used to be cr*p is because they rarely tried to be anything more. They were quick-and-run attempts to get a little more money from a hit before letting it disappear from public memory. You only need to look at the direct correlation between the drop in budget, quality and audience interest over the likes of Planet Of The Apes and Superman. You had exceptions, like Godfather and Empire, but what was holding them back was the money.

The handful of times a filmmaker convinced a studio to make a sequel with serious backing and vision (see James Cameron) began to show that there was expanded potential here, however, and gradually Hollywood began to push for more. Now series like Planet Of The Apes are treated with real care, with state-of-the-art CGI instead of cheap fancy dress shop masks.

It's a self-fulfilling loop. There's higher investment in sequels, and that's led to a greater care in their production, in turn giving better movies and thus increasing audience expectations, which gives studios a reason to put more into sequels. There's still the same old dreck to sully this, of course, but this has all meant that default expectation of a sequel being sh*t no longer exists.

But why not make original movies with the same care? What makes follow-ups so special? Let's look at that next...