It is no secret that Hollywood has been relying on sequels, reboots, and “requels” to drive interest and power the box office. Even the occasional new story is evaluated closely for its franchise potential, with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake.
But when the original spawns a new installment, studios are faced with the challenge of coming up with a title that balances originality with name recognition. In the end, the options are somewhat limited. In January, Paramount released “Scream” (a.k.a. “Scream 5”) 25 years after the original “Scream” launched the franchise. Fans didn’t seem to mind the derivative nature of this year’s edition, which has earned $140M at the box office worldwide, one of the highest-grossing movies of 2022.