Go up to a crowd of people and ask them what upcoming movies they are excited for. Go ahead, do it. Chances are, they responded with Star Wars, Jurassic Park or whatever the next installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is. These franchises have proliferated to the point where they seem almost suffocating to the general public. Who’s not tired of the sheer amount of the same three movies every year? The strangest part: everyone seems to build up each movie as if it were the best movie to be created. So, is hype culture good for the industry, or is it slowly killing it?
Possibly the most telling example of this rapid cultural deterioration would be Star Wars, in particular The Force Awakens. When that movie was announced, the entire Star Wars fanbase erupted into a ball of sheer, unadulterated hype that is still burning to this day. The movie was pretty good and deserves much of the praise it received, but there is no telling when the train is going to stop. From now until who knows when, there will be at least one Star Wars movie per year. It is doubtful that the franchise is strong enough to carry the audience through what could potentially be decades of movies.
It seems as if this is just how pop culture is going to be, at least for the next couple of years – nothing but rehashes and continuations of stories that were popular enough to warrant it. It is not just comic books and sci-fi anymore; there are currently plans for a Hanna-Barbera cinematic universe. Massive plots spanning dozens of movies are the way to go now, and nearly all of Hollywood is dedicating most of its time to writing these behemoths of narrative. Few are the movies that bring a unique idea to the table.

The only way out of this future is to stop buying into the hype culture that film producers have created. Marvel movies are decent films, but honestly, it is just the same three movies over and over again. The same will go for any franchise that follows the same plot structure. They are nice at first, but they get old quickly. The whole idea of “cinematic universes” is good, but it will soon become the only type of plot out there, and no one should want that.