Why is Hollywood so Obsessed with IP?
Why does it seem like everything is a remake these days? What drives studios and streamers to focus so heavily on IP (Intellectual Property)?
A common complaint I hear about the entertainment industry is that "everything is a remake these days," and that “no one is buying original ideas anymore.”
I don’t think this is true.
Take a look at the films that were released last year, and you will find plenty of original stories that came from screenplays.
But yes, at least half the movies with theatrical releases (and many TV shows) are:
sequels
remakes
based on books, short stories, video games, or other products
based on real life events or people
You could complain about the fact that no one will read your script because executives are only interested in IP.
Or you could understand the reason behind this outsized focus on intellectual property, get off the sidelines, and find the opportunity in this trend.
Reason #1: It comes with a built in audience.
Hollywood is a business of art.
Business and Art are always going to be in tension with one another in every creative decision that gets made: From which scripts are sold to how a film is marketed, and everything that happens in between.
It is called the “Entertainment Industry” because the product needs to entertain, and it needs to bring money to investors. Investors demand reliable, predictable growth, something that is generally incompatible with artistic innovation and risk (for more brilliant analysis on this topic, subscriptions to The Ankler and/or Entertainment Strategy Guy are well worth the investment).
It’s impossible to predict whether a movie or TV show will be a hit.
But in the interest of protecting their own jobs, executives at all levels are going to make the least risky decision possible.
If they greenlight a TV show or movie based on a beloved IP with a large fanbase, they can guarantee at the very least that those fans will show up. At least out of curiosity, if nothing else.
In addition, those fans will talk about the upcoming project, giving the studio free advertising, which leads to larger awareness, which leads to new fans.
All extra momentum they don’t get if they’re building a property from the ground up.
Reason #2: The story is already there.
Writing is hard.
No matter how creative or successful a writer might be, they can still get things wrong.
Stories are much more easily adaptable when you have the plot already all laid out in the book itself. All the screenwriter has to do is mold it into a form that fits the on-screen format. If you’re adapting a comic book, you even get a visual storyboard laid out for you to use as a shot list.
Sometimes, as was the case with Game of Thrones, this results in a dramatic drop-off in quality when the writers run out of source material.
But it also worked incredibly well in the recent hit Shogun, which the lauded creators largely credit to the beautifully woven story they had to work with.
Reason #3: Idea Generation is a rare skillset.
As a literary manager, I talk to writers in all kinds of different contexts.
Many aspiring TV writers are mostly focused on “learning.”
They want to show up on someone else’s show and get paid to write. Or they have one idea and want to spend years tweaking it and perfecting it until it’s something that they can get the world to make.
This tendency to neglect Idea Generation is a result of one of three mindsets:
Laziness
Fear
Insecurity
Production companies and studios are hungry for original ideas.
There is a Venn Diagram of writers who:
Come up with strong, unique original ideas.
Can execute solid scripts.
The middle section of that diagram, where the two overlap, is shockingly thin.
Reason #4: Audiences keep showing up for it.
Whenever movie fans criticize Hollywood for focusing too much on IP, remakes, sequels, and prequels, I want to shake them.
Despite the criticisms leveled at it, Hollywood does not have an “agenda.”
Hollywood, as we discussed, is an industry. Its agenda is to make money. If a trend didn’t make money, if a type of movie did not attract an audience, then those movies would quickly vanish from the scene.
If you want to keep seeing movies and TV shows made from IP, keep watching them!
And if you want to see Hollywood take big swings on original stories as movies and TV shows, show up, buy a ticket, and watch those too.
Reason #5: It’s less of a risk to develop what you already have.
The switch to a streaming system has resulted in what many are referring to as a library arms race.
We talked in Reason #1 about how a studio is risking less when they acquire a book with a fanbase.
But if you’re talking monetary upside, there is even less of a risk when you already own that original property. You don’t have to spend extra money or negotiate with a writer. You already have all that locked up. All the studio needs to do is look into their library of past movies and reimagine them as TV shows. Or look into their library of past TV shows and reimagine them as movies.
You don’t need writers to come up with original ideas, and you already know what audiences will show up for because they have been talking about these characters and worlds for years (maybe even decades).
All you need is a writer with credits to show up and pitch a take.
Are you an author looking to adapt your book into a screenplay? Or a screenwriter who wants to adapt a book? Get instant access to my IP webinar with a media rights expert, producer, and former literary manager-turned-studio-executive!
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I hope that as a screenwriter and a published author this is one of those things I can *maybe* turn to my advantage.
Five good reasons. Thanks again, Audrey, for all your excellent guidance! script based on a true story, SHAOLIN WOLFMAN, was optioned a few times, with interest for the Chinese market. A producer mentioned, in addition to a US copyright, it would be great if it had other IP attached. That’s why I’m working with an illustrator to create a graphic novel.