If you’re a screenwriter, most likely you’ve heard the advice: Don’t follow trends. Write the story that impassions you! Trends will change. If there’s interest in your script, it’s because it’s a good story!
But, let’s face it. Trends get greenlit, or so we’re told! Of course, we’re talking prior to the pandemic and recent writers’ strike. And who knows how AI will continue to alter the entertainment landscape? Right now, ChatGPT, although more than a trend, dominates discussions in all modes of writing. Even so, I find any dependence on AI for writing kind of alarming, whether it’s a screenplay, novel or college essay! And it’s not because I resent or fear technology. Yes, I drag my feet with embracing the latest technology. Yet, I somehow managed to build two websites and stay somewhat plugged in to my social media platforms. But I am, at the moment, far removed from employing AI for my writing projects.
So, if movie trends still exist, what are they now and how do they affect the film industry? Once again, the elephant in any room, so to speak, is the AI machinery. As stated in a cursory Google search, the increased use of technology such as “virtual and augmented reality” is pervasive and will continue the battle over rights to and recognition of source materials.
But seriously, photographic trickery wasn’t invented with more recent CGI advances. Films have always been unreal! Isn’t that the whole idea? Technology may change but not the principles employing it. As a film theory student in college, I loved learning about the first filmmakers. I marveled at the “stop trick” mastered by the likes of Georges Melies who developed over five hundred short films between 1896 and 1914 using dissolves, time-lapse photography. multiple exposures, and hand coloring at times. His most famous film, “Le Voyage dan La Iune (1962), depicted Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon and combines live action, animation. and other timely innovations. Technology has always played an integral part in filmmaking. It’s an artificial world from the get go. Even the cinéma vérité movement, popularized in documentaries, isn’t really real, right?
In my estimation, trends are more akin to genres popularity. I’ve heard many, many times that horror sells. Okay, that’s a given. So, I checked online studies and reports for accurate feedback. On cloudwards.net I found an article entitled, “What the World is Watching by Genre in 2023.” The report is verified by a writer, chief editor, and lead fact-checking editor, and the article was last updated on January 19, 2024. Also, I like their qualifying statement, “All our content is written fully by humans; we do not publish AI writing.”
For a comprehensive survey, the writer and editors reviewed seven major platforms — Netflix, Hulu, Max, Amazon, Disney+, Google and iTunes, and to quote the article, “crunched the numbers across 18 genres.”
The findings are not what I expected. Drama was number one! In my screenwriting days in LA, while learning the craft, drama was considered the least saleable for new writers. “No one wants dramas from unknowns. Write horror to get noticed.” Also, the death knell had already sounded for romantic comedies in a dearth of offerings between Julia Roberts flashing smiles and Judd Apatow’s in-your-face humor. The results of the 2023 survey indicated the most popular streaming genres, in order, are: (1) Drama, a preference in 28 countries; (2) Animation, especially in the Caribbean and South America; (3) Comedy, quite surprising but popular in a variety of countries; (4) Action, hugely popular in India; and, wait, (5) Westerns, a big hit in Canada. Notably missing from the top genre preferences are romance, thrillers and documentaries. No mention of horror in the report.
Okay, but what about the end-of-year megahit Five Nights at Freddies’s of the horror genre as adapted from the video game? The movie was a record-setting box office debut and holds the title for the most-watched entertainment Peacock title (film or TV series) of all time in the first five days of its release. Granted one hit doesn’t make a trend but it gives credence to my takeaway: Don’t worry about trends, write the story that impassions you! So, we’ve come full circle and there’s a story and audience for every and any story that’s well told! Happy writing!