8 Ways Star Wars Ruined Cinema

5. Sequels As Big Business

Every year we're inundated with sequels, reboots and other-worded continuations of existing franchises that are produced for hundreds of millions of dollars and wind up consistently top of the box office. And every year people complain about the sorry state of affairs, before flocking to see them because they look kinda cool. It's just a sad fact of life that people are much happier going to see the exact same old thing instead of chancing their hard-earned cash on something new. That wasn't always the case though. Before The Empire Strikes Back, the only sequel that didn't wallow in the shadow of the original was The Godfather Part II, and that's a pretty major exception (you can argue Bond, but that franchise was really its own, unique beast). Sequels never matched the original; that wasn't just a broad statement, it was the rule. They could be prominent releases, sure, but were also made for a fraction of the original's budget (thus ensuring a tidy, if lesser, profit) and made a habit repeatedly jumping the shark (literally in Jaws' case). Then along came Empire. It was bigger than the biggest movie ever. It was better than the best movie ever. It was... almost as profitable as the most successful movie ever. All those undisputed constants of sequels became null and void and Hollywood starting churning them out with more fervour than ever before. Nowadays sequels aren't as cheap cash-ins as they were, which is probably a better, but they're so prominent that we've reached a situation of creative stagnation at its most irritating. Pixar aside, the most high-profile original property this year is freaking Jupiter Ascending. Now that's not great, is it?