Hollywood’s current game plan: it’s the IP and not the actor

Abstract

ABSTRACT Ever since the success of Star Wars in the 1970s, Hollywood’s obsession with blockbusters and their sequels (prequels) has been evident. The exploitations of successful intellectual properties (IP) have, in many instances, served the studios well, with many going on to reap hundreds of millions at the box-office. However, in recent times, such strategies have gone to new levels, to the extent that studios’ annual portfolio of movies is now virtually dominated by IP-related projects hence the endless list of sequels, prequels and so on. The implication of such phenomenon is that the key resource to success in the industry no longer resides with human capital (i.e. movie stars) but instead the IPs. One should expect fewer standout original standalone movies should this practice continue.