The motion picture industry, or cinema, has been around since the early 19th century, and has gone through a variety of changes. From the stories that are bring told, to the technology being used, to the techniques, and the number of movies being produced around the globe. And with these changes, there have certainly been trends that have come and gone over the decades.
One of the staples of cinema, that grew particularly in the 70s, is horror films, and with it, came many subgenres. From classic Universal Classic Monsters Films such as Dracula, The Invisible Man, and Creature from the Black Lagoon, to Slasher films like Halloween, Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and Friday the 13th. But one subgenre that really gained traction is the found footage horror genre.
The found footage horror genre gained attention with the 1999 film, The Blair Witch Project. From there, the genre spawned films such as, the Paranormal Activity series, Cloverfield, and Noroi: The Curse. What made the found footage genre so big and trendy was on how profitable the films can be. The first Paranormal Activity was produced on a budget of only $15,000 and made $193.4 million at the worldwide box office. The production can be filmed in mainly one location, and they did not have to hire A list actors, making the film at the very low budget. The franchise then went on to develop 5 sequels, all earning back more than 4 times their budget. However, found footage horror films are nowhere near as popular as they once were, mainly because audience members just stopped caring less about the genre.
Another trend that has specifically been happening a lot in today’s age of cinema, are biographical films, or biopic for short, particularly based on singers and musicians. The film that started the trend is a film that was released more recently, Bohemian Rhapsody, based on the lead singer of Queen, Freddie Mercury. Like with Paranormal Activity with the found footage horror genre, Bohemian Rhapsody was a box office success, grossing over $903 million worldwide, on a production budget of $50 million.
When the box office numbers came out, multiple other studios decided to start developing films about other singers and musicians. Rocketman, a biopic centered on the life of Elton John, was released the following year. Soon to follow are Elvis, a biopic on the life and career of Elvis Presley, and a biopic centered on Leonard Bernstein is in the works. With these projects being in the works, it is safe to assume that we will be getting musician-based biopics for a while.
With trends in Hollywood, it has been clear that the trends are often created and expanded upon, only when the box office results are revealed. Only when the they make back more than enough money, do producers and executives decide to create more, in hopes to keep making money. I am sure that with time, we will see these trends die off completely, possibly resurrected, and new ones will emerge.
Paranormal Activity poster from Paramount Pictures
Bohemian Rhapsody poster from 20th Century Pictures
Matthew Reardon 