Sure, Snake Plissken may be an obscure character compared to James Bond, but it’s still a name recognised by millions of people (read, potential customers). That will be taken very seriously by any investors.
To be fair to Hollywood, making movies is a financially risky business. Witness MGM’s recent problems, to the point where they are having trouble getting sure-fire hits like The Hobbit and the new Bond made.
There is an idea. Remake The Player.
This.
I think it’s pretty clear that they want a safe bet since they are investing a lot of money, so the main question is: why are remakes a safer bet than using one of the thousands of new scripts written each year?
And I think the answer to that is what I mention in post #2, namely that, despite all the experts with years of experience, nobody really knows people’s behavior well enough to tell for sure which scripts can become blockbusters.
If people could recognize scripts with blockbuster potential with good enough accuracy, there are enough new scripts written every year that surely they could find among them the 10-20 blockbusters per year that Hollywood seems to aim for, and remakes would not be nearly as common.
It’s not that they have evidence that remakes have a higher probability of success – it’s that if you go the safe route and do a remake or another installation of a franchise series, you are less likely to get the blame for screwing up if it fails. Above all, the people who decide what movies will be made want to avoid taking a chance on a new thing and taking the blame if it bombs.
The answer to this isn’t a lack of imagination from Hollywood but rather a way for a title to stand out from all of the other choices we have so we’ll actually pay to see it.
Today we have the internet. We have hundreds (and some have thousands) of TV stations so there’s always something on TV. We have Tivo, video on demand, and Hulu so we can always find exactly what we want to watch, when we want to watch it. If you have Netflix odds are good you already have some movies at your house just waiting to be watched. Within 10 miles of my house I have at least 5 movie theaters with more than 10 screens. With so many choices I cannot possibly be aware of all of the new movies that are coming out.
In years past it was very easy for Hollywood to market its movies. With fewer TV stations advertisement trailers were practical and almost guaranteed to be seen. Before the internet, most of us consulted newspapers for showtimes so that was another easy place for production companies to place ads. And with no video on demand most of us watched TV in real time so we’d talk more about what we watched on TV or at the movies so word of mouth was more effective.
Now with such an overload of media it’s much harder for Hollywood to let us know what movies are coming out. I can’t remember the last time I saw a movie trailer on TV (I know they exist, but they’re just on channels I no longer watch). Hollywood knows that the only way to get a title to rise above the chaos is to attach it to a series that is already recognizable. This creates buzz and gets people talking about it so more people are aware of the title and thus, more likely to seek out the movie to see it in theaters.
At some point, advertising will change. But until that happens, expect more and more remakes because it’s one of the last ways to get people to actually notice what’s coming out.
The problem is, they’re doing it wrong. What they should actually be doing is investing less money so the safe bet is less crucial. Eliminate the creative accounting and the overpaid cast, bring it back to reasonable levels across the board, and then creativity can come to the fore again.
Unfortunately that will never happen, but it would solve half the problems and open things up for real talent to shine.