In recent years, Hollywood has increasingly relied on remakes that mirror their original films. Movies like Mean Girls (2004) and its remake Mean Girls (2024, She's All That (1999) and its reboot He's All That (2021), and Lilo & Stitch (2002) alongside its live-action remake (2025) show this growing pattern of prioritizing familiarity over innovation in storytelling. This trend closely aligns with the concerns raised by Frankfurt School theorists, Adorno and Horkheimer about mass-produced pop culture. They believed that popular culture is not about creative expression and more a system designed to conform society. Rather than challenging audiences, modern pop culture reinforces dominant ideologies.
The release of Mean Girls (2024) shows how a culturally iconic film from 2004 can be redone for a new generation without any changing of the narrative. Even with updated casting, the addition of musical numbers, and current references, the storyline is identical to the original. I remember being excited to see the 2024 film in theatres and being very disappointed when I found it was just a copy and paste of the original with less known actors. While marketed as modern, the film sticks to the same message about social hierarchies and high school.
Another example of this can be found in the reboot of She's All That (1999), He's All That (2021). Both films are focused on the same makeover, romantic bet, and focus on the social structure of high school. The remake gives viewers familiarity instead of pushing boundaries. This ensured its commercial success.
The animated film, Lilo & Stich (2002) and its 2025 live action remake show how companies like Disney profit off of nostalgia. The remake features the latest in visual effects and editing. However, the lessons taught in the movie remain the exact same. Adorno and Horkheimer would agree, that nostalgia is a tool that guarantees audiences will want to see a movie. By remaking a film, Disney takes on hardly any of the financial risk that often comes with making a movie.
The remakes of these movies support the Frankfurt School's critique of popular culture. These films show an industry that is driven by repetition instead of creativity. As the pop culture industry continues to prioritize conformity over imagination, the patterns these theorists warned us about become especially prominent. At what point does familiarity in entertainment shift from comfort to stagnation?
I used a similar topic for my post as well, relating to Frankfurt school’s critique of popular culture and a lot of my points were somewhat similar. Industries are not only killing imagination by remaking films, but they’re also doing so by creating sequels for films that feel as if they have a complete ending or spinning off completed TV shows instead of creating new ones. Familiarity in entertainment, I feel, shifts from comfort to stagnation when these remakes, sequels, and spinoffs appear unnecessary or make no true change. In your example with Mean Girls, yes there was a change of music being incorporated, but there was no attempt to address a new theme or address a current issue by altering the story in some way. It was purely used for the industry to gain profit, something that won’t work in the long run.
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