Image: Mean Girls: The Musical, Paramount Pictures
Over the past decade, there has been a rise in the production of reboots of older movies and TV shows; some successful and some coming under ridicule from critics. With the release of the new Mean Girls and Amazon Prime’s Roadhouse, we performed a demand analysis of recent reboots. Is there a demand for reboots from previous source materials and is there a particular genre that has more success than others?
With the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Jurassic World in 2015, it made it clear to film and tv production, that there was a market for reboots and sequels, which capitalize on nostalgia of once-loved films. Further to this, there has recently been success for rebooted films that had failed somewhat the first time like James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad.
The success of the rebooted content stemming from a previous IP is expected, due to the presence of an already established fanbase to draw from. The demand for rebooted movies is astounding; 3/10 of the movies in the top ten since the beginning 2024 were rebooted content.
We reviewed reboots within the top 100 most in demand TV shows worldwide, since the beginning of 2024. Longer running reboots such as The Flash and Doctor Who continue to hold long-term success. More recent reboots like Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender and Disney +’s Percy Jackson And The Olympians, have also had outstanding demand compared to the average for a TV show in this market.
The high demand for Avatar: The Last Airbender, was thoroughly expected. The IP draws from a multimedia franchise including three TV series, a live-action movie and several comics, books and video games, dating back to the first animated series in 2005. This immense global success has extended to a peak demand of #3 worldwide since 2024.
The audience composition for the above TV shows vary considerably. Doctor Who has a majority audience of over 30 year olds, which could be attributed to established fans from the classic Doctor Who era of 1963-1989. Furthermore, this could include fans following the long run show of New Who from its original reboot in 2005, explaining the younger age range of 30-39 year olds.
The age range for both Avatar and Percy Jackson can mostly be attributed to the age group that they were aimed for; a younger audience. The Zennial audience that is also prominent in both shows, could be attributed to fans of the original source materials. Percy Jackson has a slightly older age range, possibly owing to the fact that the books were released from 2005-2009 and the films in 2010 (Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightening Thief) and in 2013 (Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters).
Since the beginning of 2024, the demand for Percy Jackson has had weekly pulses, likely due to the weekly releases of the episodes, but these have only reached a peak of #54 worldwide. After the release of the final episode on Disney+ and generally positive reviews emerging on the series as a whole, the demand plateaus at a high rank.
Following the release of Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender, there was a sharp peak in demand that eventually plateaued the same as Percy Jackson. The plateau reached a peak of #3 worldwide during this period, much higher than that of Percy Jackson. This could be because of the larger established fan base of Avatar, since both shows are of the same genre. There is also a lack of pulsing in the data for Avatar, likely due to the fact that the show was released in its entirety at once.
Of the top 100 most in-demand movies in this time range, we examined the movies that were reboots. Over a range of different genres of film, the average demand for these reboots was exceptional and outstanding.
Those in the fantasy genre including Dune and Dune: Part 2, have the most demand since 2024, but this could be attributed to its recent release and the addition of Dune onto Netflix, making it more accessible. The Batman is a good indicator that demand for the superhero genre is still prevalent in cinema, despite a recent drop off, and an average demand of 65.5x the average is exceptional for a movie originally released in 2022. Mean Girls is an example of a reboot in the drama and musical genre that, despite not performing as well as those in the fantasy or action genre, still has a demand that is outstanding compared to the average.
Remakes of previous films with a new outlook, like Dune and Mean Girls have been relatively successful. Dune is supported by a well-loved sci-fi book, as well as an initial film released in 1984. Further to this, the film features much-loved actors in Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya and Florence Pugh, which could have had a great influence on this demand. Similarly, Mean Girls has a plethora of source material to draw from, including the original Mean Girls movie in 2004 and the musical. Because of these previous source materials, there is already an established fan base to build on, that will heavily influence the demand for the movie. An plausible explanation for thelower demand compared to the fantasy and action genres, could be due to the mixed reception to movie musicals in general.
More modern sequels like Indiana Jones And The Dial of Destiny and Jurassic World: Dominion are likely to have drawn some demand based on the success of their original IP, much like Star Wars. They are as much a sequel as a reboot of the original series of films, which is seen as a very safe bet and based on the demand engagement data, this formula seems to work, as fans of the original material are drawn to the possibility of seeing “their favourite characters and stories reimagined or expanded upon”.
The audience composition for Dune, Scream and Indiana Jones all consist of a majority age group of 30 and over. This is likely a result of demand generated from fans of the original source materials. Conversely, Dune and Scream have more mature themes and the demographic demand could be also attributed to the main age group aim of the movie. Indiana Jones, however, is a fun family-aimed film but seems to be 44.6% more popular with those over 30.
The Batman follows the plan to form a new darker DCEU and so was the beginning of the reboot of this series. The audience composition is varied among those 40 years old and younger which is expected for an IP that has spanned films, TV shows, comics, books, merchandising and spin-offs, over many decades worth of entertainment.
In comparing the success of these reboots over a range of different genres including fantasy, superhero, horror and action, we have displayed that there is a clear demand for reboots in the age demographic of those who could have been fans of the original IPs.
Scream 5 and Halloween were sequels with the main aim being to reboot the popularity of the film series’ that were popular in 1996 and 1979 respectively. Both have had amazing domestic and global success at their peaks and have spurned the release of further sequels. There is a definite demand for a resurgence of the horror movies of the 80’s to 90’s along with movies inspired by them like the Fear Street movies. Other rebooted horror films such as IT, has a peak demand of 52.8x the average since release, further demonstrating that there is a firm interest in rebooted horror films.
There is a definite demand for rebooted content across a range of genres, including specifically the horror genre. Fans of the reference material want to see their most-loved characters and worlds return and the demand data reflects this.
