If adaptations ruled the silver screen last year, they dominated this year. The number of popular original movies fell from last year, and there weren’t many to begin with then. Let’s take a look at the top ten from Box Office Mojo’s domestic grosses list for 2017:
1) Star Wars: The Last Jedi – sequel to Star Wars. The Last Jedi has only been out for a little over two weeks.
2) Beauty and the Beast (2017) – live action remake of an animated adaptation of a fairy tale. Disney is having great success with live action remakes of their animated films.
3) Wonder Woman – adaptation of the DC Comics character.
4) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – sequel of the adaptation of the Marvel comic.
5) Spider-Man: Homecoming – reboot of the film franchise adapted from the Marvel comics.
6) It – adaptation of the Stephen King novel.
7) Thor: Ragnarok – sequel of the adaptation of the Marvel character.
8) Despicable Me 3 – sequel of an original animated feature.
9) Logan – adaptation of the Marvel character and sequel in the X-Men film franchise.
10) Justice League – adaptation of the DC comic.
The first thing that jumps out is that there is no original work in that list. The movies are sequels, adaptations, or sequels of adaptations. The second thing is source of the adaptations; superheroes feature in six of the top ten films. Marvel’s characters are well represented, though spread through three different studios, Marvel, Fox, and Sony. Justice League squeaked into the top ten in the last week of the year, edging out The Fate of the Furious, itself a sequel to 2001’s The Fast and the Furious, an original work sharing its name with a 1955 Roger Corman movie. The first non-sequel, non-adaptation film on Box Office Mojo’s list is number twelve, Dunkirk, which is based on the evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk, France in 1940. To find something completely original, not based on even historical events, one must go to number fourteen, Pixar’s Coco.
Breaking the list down a bit more, there are two sequels, five adaptations, and three sequels of adaptations. One adaptation, Beauty and the Beast, is an adaptation of an adaptation. A second, It, comes from a literary source. The rest of the adaptations and all of the sequels to adaptations ultimately come from comic books. Complaints about adaptations tend to be prompted by what is being adapted. Unlike the Fifties, where the bulk of the popular films were adapted from literary sources, this past year saw more popular forms of entertainment adapted. Even Stephen King gets derided for being popular and, thus, not Literature. Studios, though, won’t adapt something unpopular, though they may take a chance on the unknown.
A quick look at the bottom ten of the films in wide release shows that there were seven original films, one sequel, one biopic, and one adaptation. Of the originals, two, Collide and The Comedian were outright bombs unpopular with critics and audiences; two, Good Time and Free Fire had favourable reactions from critics and audiences but didn’t have the market penetration that the top ten did; one, Spirited Away, was in very limited release for one day; and two, The Resurrection of Gavin Stone and The Stray were aimed at religious audiences, limiting their appeal. The latter is the case for the sequel, Kirk Cameron Revive Us 2, which was also in theatres for two days. The biopic, Professor Moulton and the Wonder Women, was also of limited interest, though with the success of Wonder Woman, should have done better. The adaptation, Casablanca, was a re-release for five days to celebrate the film’s 75th anniversary. Calling Casablanca an adaptation is pushing the definition; it was based on a stage play, Everybody Comes to Rick’s, that was never produced.
People are still going out to see adaptations, despite the complaints about the lack of original works. There are original movies being made. Until one makes the same as The Last Jedi, no one will notice. The time isn’t right yet for such a breakout hit. Risk aversion in Hollywood is still running strong. Studios won’t throw an advertising budget behind an unknown film, not when they can back a sure thing. However, quality is still important. Badly done adaptations aren’t going to break even the top twenty.
This article was originally published at Seventh Sanctum.
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