Nostalgia: Warm, fuzzy, good.
Monica Pagano
Marketing Executive
My Nan once told me — “as the years tick on, you’ll look back at moments in time with a deep fondness; a fondness that despite your best efforts, you sometimes can’t always pinpoint exactly where it came from.” She was talking about the power of nostalgia.
Nostalgia is more than simply a memory. It’s a sentimental longing and affection for moments and experiences passed.
Movies hold that nostalgic power like no other medium. Fully immersive, they have the ability to sweep you into an escapist utopia and cultivate that warm, fuzzy feeling of safety and comfort that we as humans innately crave.
When Warner Bros. animated family flick, Tom and Jerry hit U.S. theatres in February – alongside a streaming option on HBO Max – it debuted at $13.7 million at US box office, delivering the most robust three-day total since pre-COVID times. Australia followed suit, with the film amassing over 250,000 in the opening week.
Much of this success can be owed to nostalgia. Tom and Jerry is not just a children’s film, it’s one with sentimental characters that a generation of parents — and now grandparents — were raised on. Harking back to their childhood, the film draws in a nostalgic audience and fosters a special connection between generations of content-lovers.
Tom and Jerry - a nostalgic hit.
Similarly, Godzilla Vs. Kong not only returns audiences to familiar characters but returned audiences to their cinema seats. Over 920,000 Aussies have enjoyed the monster battle since its opening on 25th March.
We can expect a similar trend for much of the 2021 content slate, which includes the origin story of Disney super-villain Cruella, LeBron James’ modernised spin on the 1996 power-packed Space Jam, in Space Jam: A New Legacy, and a 21st-century refresh of our favourite ghoul-hunting gang in Ghostbusters: Afterlife. All nostalgic characters and plots. All forecast for audience success.
We also see highly successful movie franchises which span decades, continuing to captivate audiences over time as they hark back to comfortable storylines and tropes.
For me, it was the Harry Potter franchise. I was immersed in the curious wizarding world at the age of six when Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone hit the big screen. Not only was I captivated by the story, but at last, I felt like one of the ‘big kids’, granted the luxury and thrill of attending a darker, “PG” movie!
That sense of pride and wonder never left me, as I came back time and time again over the next 10 years to re-immerse myself in the magical story; each return met with the memory of that first cinema experience.
In 2021, it’s Fast and Furious 9 (yes, nine!), Top Gun: Maverick and No Time to Die which will draw on the familiarity of the franchise and are expected to yield stellar audience results.