I have repeated time and time that Hollywood has run out of ideas. This is why we have sequels (many that shouldn’t have been made), prequels, reboots, remakes (there are FIVE versions of “A Star is Born”), spinoffs, adaptations and spoofs. Regarding sequels, we also have seen Hollywood resurrect movies from years ago and extend their storylines, including “Bill and Ted,” “Top Gun” and “The Matrix.”
As much as I despise Hollywood for doing this, I know it’s for making money using a customer retention strategy. See, it’s less risky for a studio to produce a movie or TV series with which the public has some familiarity and that has an existing fan base than it is to produce a movie or TV series without either of these things.
For example, HBO created a prequel to “Game of Thrones” while Amazon created a prequel to “Lord of the Rings.” In each case, the studios likely knew those shows would be easier to draw viewers than “new” shows like “The Flight Attendant” (HBO) and “The Boys” (Amazon).
Acquiring a new customer from scratch is often costly and time-intensive for any business (here’s an explanation of the evaluation stage). This is why, for example, your Internet or cable provider will offer you a discount when you threaten to cancel your service. At the same time, once a business has you as a customer, it will upsell you products or services since you’re an easier sell compared to a stranger to the brand.
So next time you see an announcement for “Fast and Furious 20” or the 12th reboot of “Batman,” you’ll know it’s because Hollywood is lazy using a customer retention strategy.