Are Year-Round Blockbusters a Good Thing?

Were seeing big cinema releases almost every weekend now.

But is this a good thing?

This article originally appeared onDen of Geek UK.

So is this just a problem of perception?

And its not like years past didnt have lots of action flicks.

Which is great, if you like gorging on this feast of spectacle.

But cheaper stuff without the prospect of sequels or reboots is harder to come by these days.

So year-round blockbusters dont mean we have a year-round summer season either.

Money cant buy interest, and audiences wont see all the big films out.

They have to choose, and thus not everything can hit.

Hence situations like last autumn, where a fairly original slate faltered in a big winners wake.

It didnt work, and a paltry$74 millionwas the return.

Yet all of these box office failures arent as shocking as what happened toThe Walk.

Thats where the franchise reliance comes in.

Because, Hey, I liked this thing before!

Why not go for it again, Im sure itll be fine.

And so they go for it.

Theyll generally pick the biggest, most established franchises.

See, everything could be a multi-movie franchise!

Now, it is certainly true that geeks get more excited for some sequels/reboots than others.

Now hes off doing threeAvatarsequels at once, but still.

Even so, the current dearth of originality is worrying.

And the most original entries we do get, i.e.

those with the least connection to a known property such as Brad BirdsTomorrowland, tend to bomb badly.

Which is probably part of why fans love him.

Almost three years on, were still relying on delToros insistencethat the Kaiju-battering sequel isnt dead yet.

And Pixar wont be a stranger to sequels these next few years, starting with this summersFinding Dory.

Some ideas from young filmmakers are too fringe-y for the movies.

Thats the big danger, and theres eventually going to be an implosion or a big meltdown.

So where does cinema go from here?

Does our collective obsession with blockbusters only accelerate further?

Take it too far, and people could just stay home.

They also couldnt have bet that computer animation would have caught on like it did twenty years ago withToyStory.

And it starts with the Coen brothers latest,Hail, Caesar!, in February.

Hurrah for that, we say.

After all, if all the studios made were tentpoles, they wouldnt be using the tent very much.