I just did a five-parter speculating about one reason why this might be going on: it's always been embarrassing to tell a story from scratch, but at some times we lose our will to do it entirely. ( Click on my name, then click on "Cockeyed Caravan" and scroll down to "The Story Project" Parts 1-5)

All these things are said by critics to be true, but not always. And it is as much a sign of a stagnant culture because it is an art form or type of entertainment, but they are making money and others do not.
Dreambox

I'm not sure it's sequels as much as it is remakes.

The problem is that these producers over estimate how much of a built in audience some of these franchises have.

Take the Buffy the Vampire Slayer remake for example. If anything, it actually alienated and pissed off its built-in audience.

Seems to me the exact OPPOSITE reason to do a remake.

JJ Abrams' Star Trek on the other hand embraced its audience. It was obvious that the creative force behind the remake actually cared about the original content and fanbase.

@James: Ditto. The Buffy remake was guaranteed to anger the fan base, because it's being made by Fran Rubel Kuzui. Her first Buffy film nearly killed the franchise.

I don't think sequels are bad thing. There is a difference between films that are made as art and those that are made purely for business.

The Saw series are business-minded films. Once people get tired of the franchise and it no longer becomes profitable, they'll stop being made.

It should also be kept in mind that profitable sequels bring money in to make more films - not just remakes and sequels.

And I don't think remakes are bad. It's how they're executed that matters: the Battlestar Galactica TV series was a remake, as was Star Trek - both were excellent, although completely different to the source material in terms of tone.

A remake like the Starsky and Hutch movie, is a different story.

I would think a derived property can be just as engaging as original as long as it retains the heart from original and brings in something fresh. That those two requirements seem such a challenge suggests third requirement, folks making it who really care about the property and audience.

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