It is no secret to anyone that live-action remakes have been on the rise since Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland” in 2010, and all of the remakes afterwards further cemented their place. Today, movie studios don’t want to make original movies as much as they used to, viewing them more as a financial risk than as simply adapting something that’s already beloved.
While studios like Disney and Netflix are mainly at fault for producing such films, the blame also falls on the consumer. The fact of the matter is this: studios are businesses. If a film does well, they’re bound to repeat that formula. High engagement signals success, and that success triggers FOMO, pulling in more viewers who don’t want to miss out on the hype.
Live-action adaptations fatigue both moviegoers and theaters by flooding them, coercing them to open their wallets. Additionally, the number of live-action adaptations since the 2010’s alone is a pretty big number and more are expected to be on the way.
A large concern with adaptations is the ‘soul’ of the movie being lost. Instead of heart and care, viewers are consuming easy-to-digest media. Often, certain aspects of the source are ignored or completely changed. Book adaptations often have this problem where studios have to change things to fit a certain time frame. This has been prevalent since the first book-to-movie adaptation of Cinderella in 1950.
However, sometimes the change is unnecessary and adds nothing, at times going as far as being controversial. Production companies have a new habit of inserting modern themes like random diversity and “empowered” women. They’re portrayed as more male than female in their personality and role. The majority of the time, there is significant backlash when this happens. But instead of accepting the criticism and taking the time to create new movies/characters to correctly represent these groups, companies ignore their fans.
That isn’t to say all live-action adaptations are bad; some are subjectively good, like the Harry Potter movies and How to Train Your Dragon. What makes them good films is that one can tell that they were made with genuine appreciation and care. Studios like Warner Bros., Paramount and Disney are smart and know how to drive moviegoers to theatres.
Yet, now more than ever, greed is being put above good original films, which is slowly killing movie entertainment. There was a time when the franchises that are now being bled dry were original films that studios had to take a risk on, without the luxury of knowing whether people would love them.
Based on the direction adaptations have been taking lately, it can be expected that the film industry will continue to rely on established franchises and CGI. Even as of early 2026, there are few original movies in theatres, and most are sequels or continuations of successful movies. Live action is simply the new normal…or at least that’s what studios are trying to do.
