8 Reasons Hollywood Will Never Stop Making Sequels
3. Modern Audiences Stick With What They Know
One thing that stands out from what's been said so far is that even bad sequels that have looked misjudged from conception still make money (some don't, thank goodness, but even "bombs" like Independence Day: Resurgence regularly make their budget back), while a host of original ideas struggle to break through. Why is this? Better the devil you know, of course.
People are much more likely to go see a movie from an IP they're familiar with than chance a cinema ticket on something untested. The sequel may not be better than something original, but you know exactly what you're in for (something that has begun to infect movies in general, with tones and stories that are rigidly laid out in the first ten minutes and not deviated from throughout the runtime); just look at how The Nice Guys struggled at the box office.
The Nice Guys is an original and entertaining film with an intriguing marketing campaign and strong reviews, yet it came behind Angry Birds, Captain America: Civil War (which had already been out a couple of weeks) and Neighbours 2 at the box office on opening weekend. The latter had the biggest audience overlap with Shane Black's detective noir, and that managed to make double (and a similar percentage on lifetime worldwide gross too), something that is predominantly thanks to that massive great "2" in the title.