Movie makers revert to old favorites after Moonfall flop

Scified EditorialsBy Chris Jul 28, 2022Comments

The movie studios have discovered that big-budget reboots represent a successful formula when it comes to sci-fi movies. It comes as Jurassic World Dominion, the sixth movie in the Jurassic Park franchise, tops $1 billion at the box office worldwide.

A big budget flop

The success of Jurassic World Dominion is in stark contrast to Moonfall, which had a budget of around $146 million. But the sci-fi movie, which was directed by Roland Emmerich and starred Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, and John Bradley, bombed at the box office, earning just $18.9 million in North America and worldwide gross earnings of $39.4 million.

Emmerich has enjoyed great success in the sci-fi genre with box office hits including Independence Day in 1996, the sequel Independence Day: Resurgence in 2016, and the 2004 movie The Day after Tomorrow. Despite the failure of Moonfall, the sci-fi movie genre remains immensely popular with moviegoers.

This has also been helped by the universality of sci-fi video games, including the Jurassic Park video game series that has accompanied the movie releases, as well as original games such as Fallout 4, which includes many of the conventions you would expect to find in a sci-fi movie. It has also inspired sci-fi game titles in the online casino industry, where players have the opportunity to play online casino games such as the CyberPunk City sci-fi slot. These slot titles are popular with players as there is an already existing audience of sci-fi fans who are eager to play the games.

Scope for experimentation

However, while the success of films by major movie studios is measured via box office success, the streaming service Netflix has more scope to experiment with the sci-fi genre. The platform has made sci-fi TV shows like Stranger Things, which is now in its fourth season and is second only to Squid Games for total hours viewed on the platform, along with the series Resident Evil.

While there are also big-budget movies such as The Adam Project, the nature of the subscription service means that Netflix can also experiment with foreign language sci-fi movies. The platform offers movies such as the French science fiction comedy Bigbug, which was written and directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and Captain Nova, a Dutch movie about a fighter pilot who travels back in time.

As Netflix looks to make content to satisfy its 220 million worldwide subscribers, there is an opportunity for the streaming service to increase this audience and make up for a recent loss in subscribers, while simultaneously giving foreign language moviemakers a platform to promote their talents.

While the big movie studios always have the option to fall back on tried and trusted big-budget franchises, streaming services have more freedom to experiment with the sci-fi genre. This phenomenon is likely to continue in the future as movie studios put their faith in movies that guarantee box office success, while Netflix looks to expand its offering of foreign language sci-fi movies in order to increase its worldwide subscriptions.