\n\tWhat do you call a movie that takes place after the events of a previous film, features the same characters and has the same creative team?<\/p>\n
\n\tThat\u2019s not the set-up to a joke; it\u2019s a real question that\u2019s plaguing marketing executives at studios. As audiences grow wary of Hollywood\u2019s tendency to revisit and recycle, words like \u201csequel\u201d and \u201creboot<\/a>\u201d have become taboo.<\/p>\n \n\tIt\u2019s no secret that the entertainment industry relies on remakes, spinoffs and prequels to survive. This month\u2019s \u201cScary Movie,\u201d the sixth installment in the horror-parody franchise, just riffed on this very notion, branding itself a \u201crebootquel.\u201d So why is Hollywood so sensitive to these terms?<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cAudiences have been trained to think \u2018sequel\u2019 means homework. People want something new, so when you put a \u20182,\u2019 \u20183\u2019 or \u20184\u2019 in the title, it gets a groan,\u201d says veteran marketing and distribution executive Marc Weinstock, who recently consulted on A24\u2019s \u201cBackrooms\u201d and executive produced \u201cScary Movie.\u201d \u201c\u2019Reboot\u2019 just sounds like something was underperforming\u00a0so\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0going to redo it. \u2018Remake\u2019 is the same. People think, \u2018Oh, you\u2019re just recycling stuff we\u2019ve seen before.’\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSo when there\u2019s a gray area, studios have been testing out new ways of framing a movie in marketing materials. Sony, for example, is insisting that \u201cThe Social Reckoning<\/a>\u201d isn\u2019t a sequel but rather a \u201ccompanion piece\u201d to \u201cThe Social Network,\u201d the studio\u2019s Oscar-winning 2010 drama about the advent of Facebook. Sure, there\u2019s a new director (Aaron Sorkin, the screenwriter of the original,\u00a0is\u00a0taking over for\u00a0David Fincher) and a new\u00a0actor is playing\u00a0Mark Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong replaces Jesse Eisenberg, who turned down the project). But the film, which opens in October, hails from the same studio, which brought back several behind-the-scenes creatives to tell another chapter in the dark saga of the social media platform. The newly released teaser trailer even ends with the same memorable, haunting theme song from the first film.<\/p>\n Every revolution begins with a reckoning. <\/p>\n The Social Reckoning, a companion piece to The Social Network, is coming exclusively to theatres October 9. pic.twitter.com\/m4V41QaTne<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Sony Pictures (@SonyPictures) June 10, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n \n\tSony isn\u2019t the only studio that\u2019s getting linguistically creative to convince the masses that it isn\u2019t just rehashing what\u2019s worked in the past. Disney has pushed for live-action adaptations of animated classics like\u00a0\u201cAladdin\u201d and \u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d to be called \u201creimaginings.\u201d A24 used the same word to describe \u201cObsession\u201d director Curry Barker\u2019s upcoming take on the 1974 horror classic \u201cThe Texas Chainsaw Massacre.\u201d<\/a> Universal billed 2024\u2019s sequel \u201cTwisters\u201d as a \u201cnew chapter\u201d of the 1996 disaster movie of (nearly) the same name, since the original stars didn\u2019t return to chase more storms.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThere\u2019s a desire to focus on what is fresh and worthy of discovery,\u201d says one marketing executive. \u201cIf something is a \u2018reboot\u2019 or \u2018remake,\u2019 you think \u2018I\u2019ve seen this before.\u2019 If it\u2019s a \u2018reimagining,\u2019 you think, \u2018Oh, I want to see what they\u2019ve done.’\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSome movies are genuinely difficult to categorize. Sony\u2019s 2025 action-comedy \u201cAnaconda\u201d was too meta to be classified as a reboot or a sequel. The movie, starring Jack Black and Paul Rudd, followed best friends who travel to the jungle to pursue their childhood dream of remaking their all-time favorite film, 1997\u2019s \u201cAnaconda.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAttempts to create distance from predecessors don\u2019t always work. Lionsgate tried to pitch the Ana de Armas-led \u201cJohn Wick\u201d spinoff \u201cBallerina\u201d without highlighting the association. But when audience awareness and pre-release box office tracking were low, the studio was forced to tack on a cumbersome addendum \u2014 \u201cFrom the World of John Wick\u201d \u2014 to the title.<\/p>\n \n\tAmazon MGM, on the other hand, is comedically leaning into sequeldom for the follow-up to the Mel Brooks 1987 sci-fi parody \u201cSpaceballs.\u201d Although there was a long-running joke that the sequel would be called \u201cSpaceballs 2: The Search for More Money,\u201d the actual title for the 2027 release<\/a> is \u201cSpaceballs: The New One.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tPart of the aversion to certain words is that studios don\u2019t want audiences to think they have become too safe or too lazy, relying on extending popular properties when they could be investing in new ideas. Brand awareness gets people in the door of multiplexes, but executives feel that \u201creboot\u201d and \u201cremake\u201d don\u2019t always properly reflect the artistic ambitions of movies that take a known story in new directions.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThere are sensitivities around \u2018reboot\u2019\u00a0in particular because\u00a0it implies\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0just reheating the\u00a0property, when\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0an actual differentiation,\u201d says a studio source.<\/p>\n \n\tThat concern has been reinforced by a 2024 study from the <\/a>National Research Group, which found that 75% of Gen Z audiences prefer watching original content over remakes or franchise fare. Noting the tastes of Gen Z is important because they are now the most active group of cinemagoers, attending more films per year than their elders, according to a Fandango report<\/a>. It\u2019s not that younger moviegoers are opposed to familiarity. \u201cBackrooms\u201d was IP, after all. But the demo isn\u2019t showing up for new installments in known properties just because they used to be popular.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cEveryone is working to keep the momentum with younger audiences, who are a little more cynical,\u201d says the marketing executive.\u00a0\u201cThey\u2019re excited about creative risks.\u201d<\/p>\n