If the box office failures of 2023 have taught the film industry anything, it’s that audiences will not support a new film purely out of obligation to a previously existing franchise. In fact, the success of Barbie and Oppenheimer suggested that original films are just as likely to become blockbusters as sequels. 2023 offered no shortage of movie sequels, but only some of them justified their existence. Disappointments like Fast X, Transformer: Rise of the Beasts, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Qunatumania, The Marvels, The Flash, and Shazam! Fury of the Gods indicated that audiences are sick of films that don’t change up the formula.