The 82nd Golden Globe awards marks the beginning of a new year for filmmaking, one filled with highly-anticipated and beloved projects. However, when examining the list of blockbuster movies scheduled to come out in the next year, a lack of originality and new ideas becomes strikingly apparent.
According to Rolling Stone’s list of the 50 most anticipated movies, 34% of the biggest titles for the coming year are either a sequel, remake, reboot, or spin off. One company in particular stands out as a repeat offender in the slew of recycled content.
Disney is known for revolutionizing animated films, with classics dating back to the early 20th century. While the company has expanded in their outreach in other sectors, such as Marvel, and has continued to produce popular movies, most of its new projects recycle their previous concepts.
Over the years, franchises like Toy Story, Cars, with its spin off film series, Planes, Frozen, have raked in millions between the box office and merchandise. This year, Zootopia is poised to join them. These are just a few of the corporation’s recent hit movies, which are followed by countless sequels.
It’s evident that these original movies were wildly successful, prompting sequels to entice its fans, but is this business strategy too frequent?
According to statista.com, Disney’s share of remakes, sequels, and spin offs since 2021 have increased 36% compared to that of 2000-2002, revealing a staggering 67% of its 2025 films as remakes.
These sequels have proven quite lucrative for the company. Inside Out 2, which released in June of 2024, boomed in the box office and became the highest-grossing animated movie of all time. The film passed two other reimagined Disney films, the 2019 live-action remake of The Lion King and 2019’s Frozen 2, to take the top spot.
Even more recently, Moana 2 shattered the Thanksgiving Day weekend box office record, grossing over $400 million in just five days. It’s impossible to deny the economic benefits of these sequels, something that senior Dabi Lee recognizes.
“I think sequels are rarely as good as the originals but I think a lot of franchises would rather build off something that’s already been established,” she reasons.
Lee does acknowledge that some sequels are done in good taste, noting the 2023 Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
She shares, “[It] was interesting because it didn’t mess with the original story but gave a lot of interesting background on the world and depth to the characters.”
Looking ahead, live-action remakes of many beloved movies are set to take the silver screen. Once again, Disney leads the charge with CGI-live-action hybrids in the upcoming Snow White and Lilo and Stitch. Dreamworks, a studio fairly new to the live-action game, will release a remake of How to Train Your Dragon this year.
2025 will see a large share of its upcoming films being remakes or sequels. Action/fantasy films like Jurassic World: Rebirth, Captain America: Brave New World, Superman: Legacy, Avatar 3, and Wicked Part 2 build off their previous stories.
These additions aren’t too surprising since genres like this are usually extensive. However, successful Pixar original movies are becoming film series, previously mentioned Moana, and Zootopia are both getting a sequel.
Some moviegoers are beginning to get tired of the oversaturation of reused ideas in Hollywood. Senior Jasmine Phung wants to see some refreshing concepts on the silver screen.
“I’d rather see new content because lately it feels like we’ve only been getting sequels from big companies,” she opinionates. “I want to see new ideas and stories that are well-crafted. I’d love to see more risks taken with original concepts rather than relying on nostalgia.”
Regardless, there are certainly big-name films, both original and sequels, that are set to make a box office splash in the coming year.
