These days, you’ll hear a lot of people complaining that “all Hollywood makes these days are superhero movies or IP cash-ins” and whatnot. That’s not quite true, though. We’re living in a world where Warner Bros. pumped $90 million into Sinners, after all.
However, certain types of movies that Hollywood used to put out in theaters like clockwork have definitely been put on the back burner recently, which might be contributing to the sense that all big blockbusters are the same. These four categories have either been left to the indies, relegated to television, or more or less abandoned altogether.
1. Repeat Offender Rom-Coms
‘Runaway Bride’ (1999)Credit: Paramount Pictures
Practically since the birth of cinema, Hollywood has paired the same two A-listers together in multiple romantic comedies. This “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach to the genre draws a straight line between Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (Top Hat, Swing Time, Shall We Dance) and pairs like Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan (Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, Joe Versus the Volcano), Julia Roberts and Richard Gere (Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride), and Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore (The Wedding Singer, 50 First Dates, Blended).
However, we haven’t been seeing this approach to rom-com casting quite as frequently in the past decade (the only example I can even think of is Ticket to Paradise, which reunites Julia Roberts with her Ocean’s Eleven co-star George Clooney, though Ticket was their first proper rom-com). One reason for this, of course, is the fact that the theatrical romantic comedy is more or less extinct. However, that still doesn’t explain why, for instance, the blockbuster success of 2023’s Anyone But You didn’t lead to Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney starring together in another movie immediately. While director Will Gluck got another rom-com out of the deal, that movie - 2026’s One Night Only - only features Powell and Sweeney in cameo appearances and instead stars Callum Turner and Monica Barbaro.
2. Quick-Turnaround Sequels
‘Wayne’s World 2’ (1993)Credit: Paramount Pictures
Starting in about the 1980s, it was pretty much a given that an original movie that became a huge hit would get a sequel within two or three years. Heck, Scream 2 arrived in theaters just 357 days after Scream debuted. We can’t expect every sequel to come that fast, but Wayne’s World 2 took 22 months. Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde took 24. Sequels that followed the originals in under three years include X2: X-Men United, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Batman Returns, High School Musical 2, Saw II, Friday the 13th Part 2, Die Hard 2, Cheaper by the Dozen 2, Short Circuit 2, Rush Hour 2, Spider-Man 2, and… well, you get the point.
This type of turnaround simply isn’t happening that regularly these days. Two major culprits could be the COVID-19 pandemic (which shut down productions globally in 2020) and the 2023 Hollywood strikes (during which there were major delays as both actors and writers fought for fair pay). However, that didn’t stop movies like Sonic the Hedgehog 2 or Smile 2 from proving that it was possible. So what’s the holdup?
I’m not talking about belated legacy sequels like Top Gun: Maverick or Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. I’m talking about normal, regular-degular sequels. Think about it. It’s 2026. We should be getting all the sequels to hit 2023 movies by now. Plenty have been promised, but we’ve only gotten a few (The Super Mario Galaxy Movie being the most prominent, which is impressive because animated movies take forever to make, so that should have taken longer). Where’s Talk 2 Me? Wonka 2? Thanksgiving 2, The Pope’s Exorcist 2, and The Blackening 2?
If we zoom back to 2022 and 2021, we’re still missing out on the sequels to The Batman and Cruella. Meanwhile, Nobody 2, Violent Night 2, and Fall 2: Deadpoint all took four years or more. Mortal Kombat II took five. Maybe the long hiatuses between streaming television seasons have trained audiences to be more patient. But don’t even get me started on that.
3. Heist Movies
‘Ocean’s Eleven’ (2001)Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures
Hollywood used to churn out heist movies like there was no tomorrow, especially in the 1960s (Ocean’s 11, How to Steal a Million, Gambit, The Thomas Crown Affair) and the 2000s (the Ocean’s Eleven remake, the Italian Job remake, 3000 Miles to Graceland, The Bank Job, Catch That Kid, The Perfect Score). It makes sense. Audiences love movies about slick, capable criminals, and the ensemble nature heist movie is a good excuse to assemble a star-studded cast on-screen.
Maybe superhero movies really are sucking the oxygen out of the room in this case, stealing all the A-list ensembles. Or maybe packing in a bunch of stars feels too risky for an adult-oriented project that isn’t already a trusted IP. Whatever the case, heist movies used to hit the ground thick and fast, and they’re much thinner and slower these days. They haven’t vanished, as evidenced by titles like Ocean’s Eight (there’s always room for a legacy sequel!), Now You See Me: Now You Don’t (oops, another legacy sequel), and Red Notice.
However, we really should be getting another splashy heist movie every six months or so. It’s only fair! It’s possible that theatrical heist titles are also suffering because the genre is doing so well on streaming with titles like the hit Spanish franchise Money Heist and Netflix’s out-of-order narrative experiment Kaleidoscope.
4. Zombie Movies
‘Zombieland’ (2009)Credit: Sony Pictures Releasing
Of all the genres and subgenres that have fallen off of Hollywood’s radar (Westerns, found footage, fantasy for the most part, etc.), the one that feels like it has fallen off the quickest is the zombie genre. Ever since George A. Romero basically single-handedly invented the modern understanding of zombies with 1968’s Night of the Living Dead, there have been major titles that have resurrected the genre every time it hit a lull.
1978’s Dawn of the Dead begat Zombie, The Return of the Living Dead, and Re-Animator. 2002’s 28 Days Later begat [REC], 2004’s Dawn of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, Dead Snow, and Pontypool. Alongside those titles, Romero’s continuing Dead franchise and the Resident Evil movies made it seem like zombies would truly live forever.
If you don’t count sequels like Zombieland 2 and 28 Years Later, the major Hollywood zombie movies we’ve gotten in the past 10 years are basically just Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the Disney Channel original musical Z-O-M-B-I-E-S, and… what, Overlord? If we go international, we can add a few great titles like Train to Busan, One Cut of the Dead, The Sadness, and Anna and the Apocalypse, but that’s pretty much it.
This is another genre that seems to have fallen against the might of television. The Walking Dead becoming a smash hit in 2010 basically changed the game, spawning endless spinoffs alongside other popular zombie series like All of Us Are Dead and The Last of Us. Theatrical zombies didn’t stand a chance.
Are there any categories of movies that you miss that didn’t make the list? Sound off in the comments below!
