Hollywood reacts to the boredom of biopics
Hollywood is crazy about trends. In an effort to pack opening-night movies and cause a little buzz at the Academy, the film industry quickly realized that audiences were gravitating toward the new genre. Consider the recent whirlwind of superhero spinoffs, crossovers and remakes. Or remember how film companies promised to make an entire movie showcasing our children's toys shortly after the release of "Barbie." Or look at Disney's endless live-action remakes, which have generated much buzz.
Hollywood is crazy about trends. In an effort to pack opening-night movies and cause a little buzz at the Academy, the film industry quickly realized that audiences were gravitating toward the new genre. Consider the recent whirlwind of superhero spinoffs, crossovers and remakes. Or remember how film companies promised to make an entire movie showcasing our children's toys shortly after the release of "Barbie." Or look at Disney's endless live-action remakes, which have generated much buzz.
Although the public complained about the superficiality and futility of these moves, box office ticket numbers kept the movies' profits far exceeding their budgets, and so production companies went with the trend.
There's a trend that has persisted in movie lineups for decades — a trend that isn't as obvious as the superhero multiverse or meta-toy companies, but that has undoubtedly led to a glut of films that repeat themselves by the time they started to diverge from each other. And that trend would be the biopic.
As the saying goes, biopics are biographical films; they follow historical figures and dramatize their lives and futures, their successes and failures. Biopics have existed since the 1920s and seem to have had a similar period of popularity in the 1930s and '40s. But nowadays the genre is more readily associated with films like 2022's "Elvis" or 2019's "Rocketman" or even 2023's hugely successful "Oppenheimer." Each of these films was nominated for or won an Academy Award, which shows its critical appeal.
The biopic that arguably led Hollywood down this path was 2018's "Bohemian Rhapsody," based on the rock band Queen, and although the film received criticism for its portrayal of Freddie Mercury and others, production companies capitalized on the success of the film to get noticed — and it's been imitated ever since. And then stick this same format to dozens of people throughout history.
17 big-budget biopics hit theaters in 2023 alone. Eventually the endless stream of hype for these films began to coalesce into one big amorphous task. Put someone with big dreams but difficult circumstances in a movie and intersperse their rise to fame with moments of emotional difficulty — bonus points if they're a singer, in which case they play their songs in the trailer, and bonus extra points if they've at some point struggled with addiction, just in case the shortcomings really hit home.
Ultimately, this isn't meant to discredit the biopic, as it certainly takes a lot of time and dedication to set up something similar over the course of someone's life. Plus, many of these movies are really good. According to Adam Brannon, founder and editor of the award-winning film blog "Movie Metropolis," "Calling this genre 'lazy' doesn't fully understand the complexity and creative challenges involved in bringing real-life stories to the screen." Filmmakers must engage deeply with the subject's life and context, which often involves extensive research and a nuanced understanding of their personal contributions, struggles and times."
As noted, audiences are beginning to realize the futility of some of those stories. Hollywood's tendency to make the same movie over and over again is reminiscent of a talented chef who only knows one recipe. The industry is constantly trying to replicate the hits of the highest-grossing films, but instead they just copy the film. With the biopic trend, it looks like a pot of boiling water is about to boil over, and the industry knows it. There are only a few historical figures in Hollywood who can be covered in this genre before they die — and they can only hold the audience's attention for so long.
Often, when these trends start to get too intense, films emerge that respond to the basic assault on fashion films. Take, for example, the anti-hero phase that emerged as a response to superhero movies. "Black Adam," "Morbius" Or films like "Joker" focus on the villain of a famous story in a "novel" style, arguing that they follow whatever character begins to establish themselves for them. Even Disney has contributed to this genre, creating films like "Maleficent" and "Cruella" that retell the basic plot of the story.
Biopics seem to be at the pinnacle of this reinvention. Whether parodying the genre or adding a special gimmick, new films based on historical figures seem to be trying to be self-aware and move beyond the boredom shown towards biopics.