Franchise movies have been the dominant currency in Hollywood for years, but, lately, the upside of originality has been hard to miss.
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Ryan Gosling attends the premiere of"Project Hail Mary" at Lincoln Center Plaza on Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in New York. – Franchise movies have been the dominant currency in Hollywood for years, but, lately, the upside of originality has been hard to miss.All of these successes came at considerable expense. “Project Hail Mary,” based on the Andy Weir bestseller, cost close to $200 million to make. But its $80.5 million debut vindicated Amazon MGM’s big bet, and gave the studio its largest box-office hit yet. “They made a tremendous investment and it’s going to pay off,” Lord said in an interview alongside Miller last week. “How exciting to reward the people that took a shot.” “Project Hail Mary,” despite its title, isn’t anyone’s idea of a long shot. It stars one of the most widely liked actors in Ryan Gosling. Its source material, Weir’s novel, is beloved. And it trades on much of the same science-first sci-fi appeal of 2015’s best picture-nominated “The Martian,” from an earlier book by Weir. Lord and Miller, the filmmakers ofBut the recent run for originality — at the Oscars and the multiplex — suggests audiences may be more eager for something different from the same old. At the least, the potentially cascading rewards of an original hit are freshly apparent at a time when a lot of big bets — like the $130 million-plus that Paul Thomas Anderson’s best picture winner “One Battle After Another” cost Warner Bros. to make — have paid off so massively. “People go to the movies to see a new experience,” Miller said. “They don’t go to see a thing they’ve already seen. Originality has value, especially as AI gets into the picture. The value that we can bring as filmmakers is to bring something that can’t be AI because it hasn’t been thought of before.Franchises have hardly been displaced. They will, no doubt, largely control the box office for the rest of year, beginning with Universal's “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” next month, followed by anticipated releases like “Toy Story 5,” “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Dune: Part Three.” Last week, the 11th “Spider-Man” movie this century, Sony Pictures' “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” set a new trailer record with 718.6 million views in its first 24 hours. So, yes, franchises still very much rule the day. But waves upon waves of sequels, reboots and remakes have made the few big-budget originals that manage to get made all the more singular. “If we don’t continue to do originals, we’re going to run out of stuff,” Pete Docter, Pixar chief creative officer, earlier told The Los Angeles Times. Since its founding, Pixar has clung to a belief that original movies are part of its mission, though that quest has grown more arduous in recent years. During the pandemic, “Soul,” “Luca” and “Turning Red” were diverted to Disney+. “Elemental” seemed like a disappointment at first but it just needed time to catch hold, eventually collecting $496 million. “Hoppers,” directed by Daniel Chong, is hoping to follow that trajectory. So far, in three weeks of release, it’s grossed $242.6 million worldwide for The Walt Disney Co. — good business, to be sure, but a far cry from the pace of the 2024 blockbuster sequel “Inside Out 2.” It grossed $1.7 billion. Such economics are tough for original movies to compete with, plus non-franchise films take more effort, and money, to market. For a $200 million movie, marketing costs can come to nearly rival production budgets.with his alien co-star, Rocky. But the movie always rested on the appeal of the comic sensibilities of its filmmakers, Weir’s book and Gosling. “We’re all united by the fact that we’ve spent the last two decades having people ask us: What genre is this?” says Drew Goddard, who scripted both “The Martian” and “Project Hail Mary.” “We’re constantly hard to classify because we love existing in those strange places. We like drama, we like comedy. We like heartbreak, we like terror. We like silliness.”In matching broad-appeal material with the right filmmakers and stars, “Project Hail Mary” relied on not just old-school studio moviemaking butBoth Christopher Nolan's “Oppenheimer” and Greta Gerwig's “Barbie” showed what can happen when the right filmmakers are given free rein on a big canvas. There is a definite downside, though. Warner Bros.'Aside from having Gosling in common, “Project Hail Mary” also shared the producer of “Barbie” in Amy Pascal. Before the studio’s acquisition by Amazon, it was greenlit by then-MGM chiefs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy. They later moved on to Warner Bros., where they made both “One Battle After Another” and Ryan Coogler's much-celebrated “Sinners” . As much as Amazon’s $8.5 billion purchase of MGM was motivated by capturing some of the richest IP in movies, James Bond, it’s also true that studios can establish themselves with homegrown hits. The opening for “Project Hail Mary” was Amazon MGM’s biggest ever.and Amazon with “Project Hail Mary.” For these studios, box-office performance is only part of the win; Netflix didn't even publicly record the chart-topping theatrical weekend of “KPop Demon Hunters.” These companies are sometimes willing to take greater risks because breaking even in theatrical isn’t the end-all-be-all goal. Driving attention to their streaming platforms is just as vital. “KPop” was developed and produced by Sony Pictures, but, sensing the potentially perilous road to opening it theatrically, the company sold it to Netflix. There, it became the streamer's most-watched movie ever. “It shouldn’t be lost on anyone that three of the biggest original hits over the past year have come from the biggest streamers: Netflix, Amazon and Apple,” says Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends for Comscore. “What the streamers are finding is that they can parlay their small-screen successes into the big screen, and vice versa.” As much as franchises will soon take back the multiplex, a number of high-profile movies will try to continue the winning streak for original films, among them Steven Spielberg's “Disclosure Day,” Alejandro G. Iñárritu's “Digger,” J.J. Abrams' “The Great Beyond” and, if you count one of world's oldest stories, “The Odyssey,” by Nolan. But even in the celebration for “Project Hail Mary,” the pull franchises exert on the movie business was implicit. Amazon MGM, in reporting the movie's performance, included a nod to its marquee IP, 007, in the figures: $80,506,007 in 4,007 theaters. Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.Your next beach day find could change someone’s life. 🌊☀️Nights of Lights dates permanently changed in 3 to 2 voteJSO searching for 21-year-old man accused of fatally shooting 2-year-old at apartment complexFamily identifies 2-year-old boy killed during dispute at Westside apartment complexAnother dry day in Northeast Florida. Here's a Monday weather update.Loved ones mourn 'happy baby' after 2-year-old fatally shot during domestic disputeThe Block Jax owner working on solutions to parking chaos that spilled into neighboring lotsBlind Clay County fourth grader finds new world in Braille booksLoved ones gather to remember Melissa Wood one week after she was killed in Walgreens parking lotMan killed in Ponte Vedra double shooting remembered as ‘life of the party’Inside new family-focused venue The Block Jax on city's SouthsideIran internet blackout leaves Jacksonville families anxiously waiting for word from loved ones
Ryan Coogler Phil Lord Pete Docter Mike De Luca Timothee Chalamet Steven Spielberg J. J. Abrams Greta Gerwig Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu Ryan Gosling Pam Abdy Chris Miller Paul Thomas Anderson Maggie Gyllenhaal Daniel Chong Amy Pascal Entertainment Christopher Nolan Business Drew Goddard
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