Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes topped the box office over the weekend: $58.5 million is a solid domestic opening in unspectacular times. The industry remains shocked that audiences didn’t care about a Barbieless Ken remaking a forgotten TV show. Now the people have spoken — and they want chimps with eagles battling a bonobo.
Planet of the Apes has been a fruitful movie concept since 1968. What explains its endurance? I’ve been rewatching the nine previous films, and every obvious lesson is counterintuitive.
To build a six-decade franchise, it turns out, you should constantly murder your heroes and destroy civilization every couple sequels. Humans — us, our entire whole species, the ones who buy the tickets — make the best ultimate villains. You can invest in new film technology, but keep budgets low. And never write a happy ending.
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