This wasn’t a one-time fluke either. Pixar itself has been struggling with its original films. Elemental opened to $29.5 million and, despite clawing its way up to nearly $500 million globally, was considered a disappointment. Meanwhile, other recent originals like Lightyear, Strange World, and Wish all underperformed. At the same time, sequels like Inside Out 2 and Moana 2 are tracking toward billion-dollar success stories. The message is loud and clear: original equals risky, franchise equals safe bet.
It gets even more telling. How to Train Your Dragon didn’t just outdo Pixar, it also beat a zombie sequel. 28 Years Later brought in a solid $30 million over the same weekend. So it wasn’t just dragons versus aliens. It was dragons versus zombies too. And dragons won. Scratch that - the sequels won!
Because here’s the truth: we say we want originality. But when it comes time to pick a movie, we default to what we know. It's just like searching for something new to watch on Netflix, only to end up watching the same thing we always do. We crave comfort. We crave familiarity. We don’t actually want brand new, we want brand new versions of the old stuff we already like.
And that’s dangerous. Because when creators finally decide to bring something fresh to the table, they’re met with the cold, hard numbers. Studios look at the returns and say, “Why take a risk on something new when a remake of a ten-year-old cartoon will double our money?”
Even if audiences claim to be desperate for originality, they keep proving the opposite. And studios are paying attention. They’ll greenlight Toy Story 5 (even though the story clearly ended in Toy Story 3) before they even read the pitch for your original story. Safe is king.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t enjoy remakes. I’ll probably watch that new dragon movie too. But maybe don’t yell about how Hollywood never tries anything original when you’re not showing up for the movies that do.
If you really want more original stories, vote with your wallet. Support the weird ones. Show up for the films that don’t have a theme park ride or action figure line already mapped out. Otherwise, we’ll keep getting the same five stories, told in slightly glossier packaging.
Eight-year-old me would have bet everything on Pixar’s next idea. Grown-up me sees the math. Until that changes, we’re going to keep paying for old dragons to give us our cinematic fix. And the industry will keep serving them to us, over and over.
