Feel Like Hollywood Only Makes Sequels And Reboots These Days? This Chart Shows You're Not Wrong

We like to complain about how movies nowadays seem to be dominated by remakes and franchise films, but has Hollywood really become less original these past decades?

To answer this question, Reddit user rewindturtle created a chart that breaks down the top 25 highest-grossing movies from 1980 to 2018 into three categories: original movies, movies that are based on preexisting fictional works and movies based on non-fictional characters or events. The chart shows the percentage of box office gross contributed by each movie category every year:

Unfortunately, the chart only confirms our suspicions that Hollywood has become less original in the past few years, at least when it comes to the highest-grossing movies. Last year, the box office percentage of original movies fell to the lowest it has been since 1980, which hardly seems surprising considering that the top 10 highest-grossing movies in 2018 — starting with "Black Panther" and ending with "Venom" — are all either franchise movies or are based on existing sources.

By contrast, the year 1984 was a big win for original movies, with the box office gross percentage of original movies coming close to a whopping 75%. It was the year that saw "Beverly Hills Cop," an original action comedy film that propelled Eddie Murphy to international stardom, be crowned the highest-grossing movie of the year. It's hard to imagine original movies having the same level of box office clout these days, considering how much comic book superhero movies dominate our movie scene now and the fact that, according to rewindturtle's chart, the box office gross of original movies has often struggled to exceed 25% since 2010.

[Via Reddit]