It’s hard not to feel like we’re living in the Golden Age of the Reboot. Spider-Man and James Bond are among the countless big screen characters and franchises that have gotten rebooted installments, and TV is giving us plenty of examples as well these days. Which got the folks at The Hollywood Reporter curious — they decided to ask moviegoers what’s an existing movie franchise that they’d most want to see a new movie from?
The answer? Great Scott! We all apparently want to go back. To the future!
Per the magazine, 71 percent of respondents to the THR/Morning Consult poll said they’d prefer to see a new Back to the Future story ahead of many other popular movie franchises. From the magazine’s piece about the findings: “Of the 2,201 adults surveyed between Nov. 8 and 11, 71 percent said that they’d be likely to watch another outing for Marty McFly and Doc Brown ahead of other franchises like Pixar’s Toy Story (69 percent), Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones (68 percent) and Universal’s Jurassic Park (67 percent).
In a statement, Morning Consult vice president Tyler Sinclair said the findings point to a robust appetite among movie fans for revisiting the past. “There’s a strong consumer demand for movie reboots and sequels,” he said, “which spells good news for movie studios looking to capitalize on that nostalgic feeling. Our polling finds half of Americans say they are much more likely to watch throwbacks and revivals.”
Ranked solely on favorability, the poll’s findings showed Toy Story as the runaway winner, with an 82 percent favorability rating. The James Bond franchise, with 74 percent, also posted a strong number in that category.
Also worth nothing is the fact that audiences don’t apparently want to see reboots for reboots’ sake. Seventy-one percent of respondents to this poll said they’d be more likely to watch a new movie in a franchise only if they liked the earlier releases. Another 63 percent said they’d be most likely to watch a new installment if members of the original cast return.
