In today’s market, sometimes it feels like the only movies that ever come out are sequels or adaptations. All the whisperings about IP and existing titles can be daunting. I mean, look at this week’s top box office numbers.
- F1: The Movie
- How to Train Your Dragon
- Elio
- M3GAN 2.0
- 28 Years Later
- Lilo & Stitch
- Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
- Materialists
- Ballerina
- Karate Kid: Legends
There’s two original movies in that list (counting F1 as IP), and one is a Pixar movie that has an automatic audience because it’s Pixar.
So that just leaves Materialists. How do they do it? How do they stand as the most original movie on this list? By casting A-List stars. Romance involving Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal bring people to the theater, and for cinephiles, Celine Song’s name also helps.
When I was an intern, I was told that when an actor is attached to a project, they have to be famous enough that a 55-year-old mom in the middle of Kansas who only watches one movie a year would go and watch because that person was in it (Sorry if you fit that description but love movies, I didn’t make the example up).
But it’s annoying, isn’t it? Maybe you find this post annoying too because it’s something that everyone has already talked about and I’m just beating a dead horse. I get it. You get it.
I don’t want anyone to take this as a deterrent or something that bums them out. We had amazing original films this year!
Sinners has quickly become one of my favorite movies. It’s so sure of what it is and is so clearly Ryan Coogler’s voice. It’s amazing and I wish I lived closer to an IMAX theater.
Novacaine had fun fight scenes, some good comedy, and it’s always a plus when Jack Quaid is in anything.
Companion, not just for Jack Quaid, but for the drama and the sprinkle of comedy. It’s produced by Zach Cregger, the director and writer of Barbarian (a movie that I love), and there’s a cut in there that reminded me of that cut in Barbarian.
And there’s so many others this year, too, that I didn’t put on this list. I know it can seem grim, but with this era, where there’s less original movies coming out, the quality of those movies are usually amazing. And you likely have a story like that. Don’t be afraid of it. Keep writing 🙂
And if you’d like to support the creation of an original short film, Cody and I are making one! Learn more about it here, and if you’d like to donate we’d appreciate it!
https://seedandspark.com/fund/paper-monsters#story
-Kait
How We Write 
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