2015 Juggernauts: The Secret Sauce

2015 saw box office records shattered not once, but twice. First, "Jurassic World" broke the opening record in grand fashion with a $208M opening weekend take and pulled into third place with it's $652M theatrical gross. Then came "Star Wars, The Force Awakens" with it's stunning $238M opening weekend, unprecedented $1M in IMax pre-sales, and incredible $651M two-week run in 2015. The "Star Wars" reboot sits just $400K shy of "Jurassic World's" total gross as of New Year's Eve and is positioned to quickly overtake "Titanic" in total sales before it leaves theaters in 2016.
     So, what's the secret? Rising ticket prices? Amazing CGI? Rich 3D experiences?
     Nope.
     What Spielberg and Abrams have figured out is how to crack the code of true mass appeal without selling the soul of the story.
      Both films have two critical factors in common - They're both great, simple stories and they appeal to all ages. Where films like the much panned "Pan" (yeah, bad pun intended) and the excruciatingly gross "Pixels" failed is to take a story that appeals to children and slap on a layer of adult-only language, themes and violence. They alienated their adult audience with the kid-attractive story and hobbled sales to families with inappropriate sexual content and foul language or adult-level violence and themes. ("Pan" was far too violent for the elementary school set and "Pixels" was way too high school locker-room.)
     We don't want to ignore the importance of savvy marketing leading up to the releases of both films. Jurassic World teased us with a barrage of trailers and plenty of press well-ahead of the film. Star Chris Pratt was a natural draw because he was just rolling off the massive success of "Guardians of the Galaxy," making casting a critical part of the marketing effort. Disney has been building momentum toward the franchise reboot since purchasing the rights from Lucas in 2013. Not only did they build loyalty among the 8-12 year old set through their animated tie-ins and merchandising, but restored parents' loyalties with adult-targeted merchandising and Star Wars-themed attractions at their parks. By attaching their name to the project, parents could feel good that the latest film would appeal to their kids just like it did for them when first released in 1977.
      Juggernauts like 2015's big winners enjoy the wise choices made by screenwriters who are able to tell a great story without any of the sex, language and graphic violence that terrorizes those 10-12 year olds most likely to convince their parents to make multiple trips to the cinema. By the way, those kids buy tie-in merchandise like crazy, so the studio wins on every front.
     The almost unprecedented success of these two films just goes to prove that America has moved beyond the Tarantino generation. Sex is no longer a big box office draw. Foul language may be ubiquitous in Hollywood, but still repels most families. Bloody, graphic violence is no longer shocking to those old enough to watch it and is at risk of becoming blasé. Audiences are tired of reboots that are nothing more than a rehashing of an already well-told story with better effects.
     The predecessors to both of these franchise reboots were both major successes in their time, and were long-time favorites of my generation as well as my parents' generation. Now my generation has kids of our own and long for the chance to show our kids the kind of epic stories that we remember changed our whole perception of movies and filled our childhood fantasies. As George Lucas proved with the somewhat maligned prequels to "Star Wars," when you start dinking around with childhood favorites, you need to keep the magic intact but tell a new story.
     "Jurassic World" may be a transparent update to the original story told by "Jurassic Park," but layers on the excess and conceit of our modern, capitalistic society along with a healthy dose of fun and comedy relief, subtly poking fun at Hollywood's tendency to remake a story to death. Rather than being yet another lame remake, though,  it sets out to prove that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it without shoving that lesson down our throats. Thankfully, the filmmakers chose to keep it clean and 10+ friendly so that the group most likely to want to watch a movie about dinosaurs could do so without torturing mom or dad in the process. You never see a body spurt blood or gratuitous private parts throughout the entire film, despite the romantic side story and voracious dinos. Instead, Treverrow pulls a page from Hitchcock's play book and lets the audience imagine the carnage rather than throwing it in our faces.
     "The Force Awakens" will trample most box office records not because of it's amazing acting or novel concepts, but because it takes a familiar, favorite story, holds true to the world it constructed while advancing the fantasy. It pays homage to what we already loved by bringing back our favorite characters in a way that makes sense, gives us new believable characters to attach to and a new story line to invest in. Plus, it does an amazing job of expanding the "Star Wars" universe to appeal to girls without being obvious or cheesy about it. Rey isn't some video game heroine who's basically a guy with boobs - she's a believable, real girl with the innate soul of a hero. Oh, and she gets to live the fantasy of every little 70's era girl who dreamed of being Han Solo instead of the somewhat boring Princess Leia.
      What Hollywood is only just beginning to understand about modern audiences is that girls want to be a part of the action but don't want to be treated like boys. Parents want to take their kids to the movies but remain kids in the process. Audiences in general are bored with overused shock & awe formulas and dying just to be told a great story. In short, we just want to be entertained, and we'll spend more money if we can bring our kids and their grandparents with us.