Every few years, Hollywood puts out new remakes of popular stories that are fan favorites. Even though the audience knows the storyline, these new adaptations spark excitement to see what Hollywood will do next, how much will they keep the same, and how they’ll make the new adaptations more modern.

The most recent adaptation, “Wicked,” was first produced as a musical in 2003 and was very popular in musical theatre, then Hollywood reproduced it as a movie on in 2024. The movie was highly anticipated even though people already know about the storyline, grossing over $700 million worldwide. The movie version allowed for more special effects and with larger sets and more character development since the medium gives more freedom on how to portray these elements.

Most of the time the idea of the adaptation starts with the popularity of the original piece. “Harry Potter” was the best-selling book series of all time. The “Harry Potter” series started as a book series and was later adapted as a movie series. For many book to screen adaptations, like “Harry Potter,” the movies allow a story to continue developing, offering an extended life to the characters and themes in the story.

The story of “Cinderella” began hundreds of years ago and has been told through print, stage productions, and movies. Adaptations have been remade time and time again caters to the generation and culture that is watching it. Without these adaptations, many people would miss out on the story. Hollywood takes these big stories and turns them into something that is unique to each generation or culture, but they still share the knowledge of the storyline. 

“Mean Girls,” another highly renowned film from 2004, was transformed into a musical in 2017 and then released on the big screen as a musical film in 2024. Not all the time, the new adaptations will be as popular or will let the fans down. This is true with “Mean Girls.” The original film’s fans were excited to watch the new film since it was a mix of the musical from 2017 and the original film, but fans were let down by the performance level and music. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the original adaptation was rated 84% while the new adaptation was rated 69%. 

The reason why these adaptations are so popular is because they allow new creativity to be used on films or musicals. If Hollywood or other film industries were to stop putting out new adaptations as time goes on, the old ones would become outdated and people would lose the story all together. There are many movies that are best when they aren’t remade, but many new adaptations show growth and cater to the new generation. Without new adaptations, society will be using outdated ways to tell meaningful stories and miss out on the lessons they have to teach.