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Last year’s article comparing the rather universal similarities between the 2004 Summer movie season and the one that preceeded it by two years is still one of my favourites. Leading into the peak of the Summer Movie Season (July long weekend), I noticed another trend this year, and thought I’d cover it here.

Let’s categorize the movies for the summer, shall we?

Legend:
(R) = Remake
(S) = Sequel
(A) = Adaptation of a book, comic book, television series, radio drama, or a combination of those.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (A)
Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (S)
Batman Begins (this qualifies for all three, but for the count I’ll say ‘A’)
Bewitched (A)
Land of the Dead (S)
Herbie: Fully Loaded (S)
War of the Worlds (A)
The Honeymooners (A)
Lords of Dogtown (R of the documentary “Dogtown and the Z-Boys”, now with teen-attainable ‘plot’)
The Longest Yard (R)
Fantastic Four (A)
Dark Water (R)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (A)
Bad News Bears (R)
The Pink Panther (R)
Dukes of Hazzard (A)
Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (S) - Safe money that this won’t be the sleeper hit of the Summer

That makes four sequels, five remakes, and eight adaptations. Allowing one movie to qualify for more than one label brings the totals to five sequels, nine remakes, and eight adaptations.

The list of big movies that don’t fall into one or more of these three categories is limited to six: Madagascar, Cinderella Man, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, The Island, The Brothers Grimm, and The Cave.

Not every year has such a glut of sequels, remakes and adaptations… but about two years ago, we had:
X-Men 2
Matrix Reloaded
2 Fast 2 Furious
Rugrats Go Wild
Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle
Legally Blonde 2
Bad Boys II
The Italian Job, and
S.W.A.T.

Again, some of those films quality for as many as two of the categories. Does that mean that the summer movies have a two-year cycle?

The 2001 Summer Movie season brought us:
Mummy Returns
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Tomb Raider
Jurassic Park III
Planet of the Apes
Scary Movie II
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Rush Hour 2
Apocalypse Now Redux, and
Jason X

There were still a lot of one-offs, like A.I., Evolution, The Score, Moulin Rouge, Atlantis, Pearl Harbor, not to mention the lead-ins to sequels, Fast and the Furious and Legally Blonde 1.

There seems to be some support for my theory. But first, we have to ensure that this doesn’t happen every year. First, I’ll look at 2004:

Van Helsing
Shrek 2
Harry Potter 3
Chronicles of Riddick
Spider-man 2
I, Robot
Garfield
The Bourne Supremacy
Alien vs. Predator
The Manchurian Candidate
Catwoman
Exorcist: The Beginning, and
Anacondas

Again, there were the collections of films that were not sequels nor adaptations, but the list seems to support the idea that Hollywood simply likes sequels, adaptations and remakes for every year of summer months. While this isn’t likely to change soon, without new stories to extend to the Blockbuster season following the rampant success of Reality TV, perhaps we’re already seeing an end to society’s brief renaissance initiated by the technological advancements of the 20th century.

…or maybe THAT could be a movie!