The movie making industry has been around for a long time, and moviemaking and showmaking has changed with the times. But movie making companies have recently stumbled on a gold mine: Nostalgia and Cuteness.
While not the main focus of this article, we believe it needs some mentioning. Star Wars, for example. When you think of Star Wars, you think of the movie. Let’s say you are a parent (or a Star Wars enthusiast). You buy a bit more than $20 worth of tickets on a star wars movie. One for you, one for your kid. Then a few weeks after the movie, you buy your kid a $30 star wars toy. You just spent more money on the toy then the actual movie! That is a part of Star Wars (and several other franchises) business model. Make a decent movie with a decent or sometimes straight up terrible plot, then market it using toys. Furthermore this model has worked as Star Wars has made billions more in merchandising then movies.
While the Toy Selling model is genius, you need to find a way to keep the buzz alive. Here’s where the nostalgia factor comes in. Let’s think about Star Wars again. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker made more than one billion dollars. Was this because of a good plot? Not really. Critics didn’t like it and it remains very controversial among the fan base. The reason it did well was because of Nostalgia. People wanted to see Darth Sidious on the big screen again. Furthermore Jurassic World: Dominion has a good change of following in Rise of Skywalkers footsteps because of getting the original cast back, which means the film is banking on Nostalgia to carry it to the box office. Let’s take a break from Star Wars. For example The Lion King a few years ago. This was a pretty smart to make money, because in terms of plot they didn’t have to do much work. Basically they just had to hire voice actors (which is not that hard) and create the animation which likely accounted for most of the budget.
There’s one more important thing in a show (or movies) business model. And it’s undoubtedly cuteness. Lets face it, cuteness is the number one thing. You probably wouldn’t have watched the Mandalorian if Grogu or Baby Yoda wasn’t there. The same could be said with Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy and the Porgs from Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Cuteness works because a cute character will get more people to watch the show or movie, buy products, and get hyped up.