Sometimes a certain type of movie becomes trendy. This leads to various film studios creating their own variations in order to cash in on this trend. Some trends last a couple years while others last a generation. In most cases, they have a certain decade in which they peak. Below are just some of the biggest trends that have taken over Hollywood throughout the years and what made them so popular. 

1930s: Creature Features

Creature features are typically horror movies that revolve around a single monstrous creature. There have actually been many creature feature waves throughout cinema history – Hollywood went through a sci-fi alien monster phase in the 1950s with movies like Attack of the 50 Foot Woman and The Blob, while Japan released numerous movies about giant monsters (‘kaiju’) throughout the 1960s including the Godzilla and Gamera movies. However, the peak of creature feature movies was all the way back in the 1930s and included movies like Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, King Kong and The Werewolf of London. Nowadays, creature features are rarer in favor of more supernatural horror movies or more human villains. Recent reboots of Godzilla and King Kong have typically been more action-oriented than horror-based. 

1950s: Westerns

The most iconic movie trend is arguably the ‘western.’ These movies about cowboys and life on the frontier would gain popularity in the 1930s and reach their peak in the 1950s. The Gunfighter, Oklahoma, High Noon and The Searchers are some of the most iconic movies from this period. The success of westerns during this period is thought to be due to the nationalism and need for escapism caused by the Cold War. Ultimately however, the market would become saturated causing individual westerns to earn less money at the box office in the late 1960s, paving the way for a new style of action movies. Of course, the genre would never truly die – there have been many cowboy movies released since and every few years a director like Tarantino or the Coen Brothers will release an epic western blockbuster. 

1960s: Beach party films

In 1963, AIP released a movie titled Beach Party which would spawn a series of beach-themed comedies aimed at teen audiences (although you could argue Gidget in 1959 was the film that truly kickstarted the genre). The 60s was a period of teen rebellion and these movies appealed to the attitudes of the time by being centered around the adventures of teens. By the end of the 60s, beach party films were overdone however and biker movies briefly took over as the new teen-based movie of choice. 

1970s: Disaster movies

The 1970s was the peak of disaster movies. Airport, The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure and Earthquake are just some of the classics produced during this decade. Why were disaster movies so popular in the 1970s? Some critics have suggested that it was a reflection of the political and economic chaos of the time. These movies played to audiences’ fears and made huge amounts of money at the box office, leading to increasingly bigger budget films until they became played out. Disaster movies would make a comeback in the 90s due to the birth of CGI, but became less popular after 9/11.

1990s: Teen ‘gross-out’ comedies

Teen comedies would gradually evolve from the fairly innocent beach party films of the 1960s to more overtly sexual movies (such as the ‘brat pack’ movies in the 1980s) and eventually gross-out comedies in the 1990s. These films relied on shock value and toilet humor to push the boundaries of comedy and included franchises such as Dumb and Dumber, American Pie and Scary Movie. These comedies would continue to remain popular in the 00s but increasingly began being aimed at young adults rather than teens.

2000s: Found footage horror

In 1999, The Blair Witch Project was released – a movie that would kickstart the found footage horror trend. This movie trend aimed to make horror movies feel more realistic by filming them in the style of a camcorder recording. Found footage horror movies peaked in the 00s with the release of films like Paranormal Activity, REC and Cloverfield. Endless sequels and reiterations of the genre have since reduced its novelty and nowadays found footage horror movies – while still continuing to be frequently made – don’t do as well at the box office.

2010s: Superheroes

The most recent notable movie trend has definitely been superhero movies. These movies dominated the 2010s – particularly superhero movies based on Marvel and DC comics. The creation of Marvel studios and its purchase by Disney in 2009 would ultimately lead to superhero movies being churned out at an alarming speed compared to previous decades. Avengers: Endgame in 2019 remains the highest grossing superhero movie and the second highest grossing movie of all time. Since then, superhero movies have been underwhelming at the box office and the likes of Disney have been slowing down releases. Is the superhero movie fad coming to an end?

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