Indie filmmakers tend to disregard any Hollywood practice as shallow and never look into it further. Hollywood does a lot of things indie filmmakers should disregard but that doesn't mean they should not dig deeper to see what the intent is and whether it is something they might want to pursue in their own way. Hollywood remakes movies, independent movie makers condemn it and move on without considering why they do that. Everyone assumes it is just because it is easy to make money, but there are many underlying reasons why an audience would want to see a remake and some lessons for you as a filmmaker.

Familiar and Unfamiliar

People do not like complete surprises, they like pleasant surprises. A pleasant surprise is breakfast in bed, a bad surprise is a breakfast of bran muffins when you are used to eggs and bacon. By patronizing these movie remakes audiences are telling us that they want things to be familiar and at the same time new. They are not able to justify gambling on an unknown quantity with all the sure-bet entertainment options these days. This does not mean you have to make remakes, but maybe you ought help audiences get familiar with your storyworld instead releasing the movie to them cold.

A Mini-Genre

It is clear people like genres, that is why they are around. People like movies that are nearly guaranteed to have certain values in them. A remake is like a genre of two. If they have seen the original they will have in their head a notion that the best parts will also be in the new one but in a new form. They know that the story will be similar but different in a way that should be entertaining. You could mimic the building of positive expectations for your movie by releasing additional material that has a similar tone, similar character emphasis, and stories that are close to what will be in the movie.

Story Does Not Matter As Much

These remake movies are often not as good as the original and everyone knows that. Still people flock to see the remakes because they enjoy being with the characters and in the world. The story becomes secondary to the event that it becomes. So critics may sneer at the weak plot and lack of logic but people might still have a great time. They like being in that world and will forgive a poor story as long as they get to spend more time there. This can work in your favor if you create a storyworld before releasing your film to help your fans build a taste for the world and characters so that they are more lenient with other elements. I do not mean this as an excuse or reason to make bad movies, it just gives you more room to experiment and creates an better overall experience for audience and filmmaker alike.

Audiences Want More Of Favorite Characters

Along with remakes are the seemingly ubiquitous sequels and sequels of sequels. Movie franchises and remakes show the extent to which audiences love and want to be with familiar characters. It shows they want to not only be around them more often but want to get to know them better. Compelling characters hold your attention and make you want to know what makes them tick. So one movie is never enough if it is full of truly great characters. The lesson for you is that if your movie has great characters people are going to want to see more of them and you should deliver. You can do it before the movie is released, you can do it with sequels or a remake, or you can do it with an episodic series after the movie is already out. People want more and if you make truly compelling characters you owe it to them to give as much as you can.

Remakes are not just an indication that Hollywood is greedy, it tells you something about audiences. Audiences want more of the same and that does not have to be a creatively bankrupt proposition. It is your task to feed this hunger for more of the same (only different) and if you do it right it can even work in a promotional capacity to market the film.