With a decade ending soon, it is thoughtful to look back at the movies from the past ten years and sum up the best for decade-end lists. That also includes movie genres. Thus, it would be appropriate to look forward to the future while acknowledging the genres that gave out their last breath from the last decade.
For this list, only movie genres will be included for this list. So, any filmmaking trends (like cinematic universe starters, Disney remakes, and long-delayed sequels) will not be designated here, though their movies can be specially mentioned.
Parody Movies
One can take a sigh of relief since this decade saw less of the “movies” by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer since they pretty much degrade the term of a “parody movie” with Epic Movie and Disaster Movie. This decade only saw them do Vampires Suck, The Starving Games and Superfast! to varying degrees of success.
With only The Lego Batman Movie as the latest prominent parody movie, it is safe to say that the movie parody genre met its end over a period of meta-humor and the Internet.
Ensemble-Cast Romantic Movies
Because of Love Actually, Hollywood picked up the idea of the all-star romantic comedies. Though the late Garry Marshall was the one to pick up steam with films like Valentine’s Day, New Year’s Eve, and Mother’s Day to, again, varying degrees of success.
With the romantic genre either being relegated to Netflix mediocrity or to diversity-pushed movies, it is apparent that the romantic subgenre had reached its creative limit and may find a new home to streaming platforms or premium television. Let It Snow on Netflix is the latest example.
The Lego Movie Clones
The Lego Movie is undoubtedly one of the best animated films of the last decade. Because of its potential, other film studios wanted to copy its model by purchasing the IP of established toy brands and creating animated films based on them.
Thus came the Lego Movie rip-offs like The Emoji Movie, Uglydolls, and Playmobil the Movie to massively negative reception. Even Lego Movie follow-ups The Lego Ninjago Movie and The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part achieved mild, inferior success. It just proves lightning does not strike twice.
Celebrity-driven Prestige Pictures
Film nowadays witness an evolution from the traditional Hollywood format wherein established stars are the ones that propel a movie’s success. It now settles on the notion that intellectual property held by studios determine a movie’s box office potential.
This was proven from movies like the Reese Witherspoon-dramedy How Do You Know, the Johnny Depp-tragicomedy The Rum Diary, the Ben Affleck-gangster epic Live by Night, and the Brad Pitt-space drama Ad Astra, where Hollywood star power does not always assure or indicate box office success nor positive reception (with the exception of Ad Astra).
Sword-and-sandal Epics
Gone are the days when Gladiator and 300 are surefire box-office winners. With flops from 2014 The Legend of Hercules, Pompeii and Exodus: Gods and Kings, the sword-and-sandal had reached its course, not wanting to sink further under the quicksand. And 2017’s The Mummy remake much signified the genre’s passing.
The only exception to this kind of film is Aladdin, but it is just because of its Disney-remake pedigree. With a genre that had a longevity starting from the silent-film era, it is time to put sword-and-sandal epics to sleep.
Found-Footage Horror Movies
Buoyed by Paranormal Activity’s cult success, every studio tries to mimic its style with envious eyes. For every found footage horror, there are those that stand out like Chronicle and Searching. Yet, the decade saw the release of The Devil Inside, Chernobyl Diaries, Devil’s Due, and The Gallows with much skepticism.
Even the Paranormal Activity felt the franchise bite the dust with The Ghost Dimension, with hopes for the 7th movie to be successful. Whether it may bring back the genre, it is certain that found footage lost its appeal.
Young-adult Fantasy
When the Harry Potter movie series ended in 2011 with Deathly Hallows Part 2, other studios try to slot their own adaptations of best-selling young-adult fantasies to fill its shoes and imitate its massive worldwide success. And not all of them were successful.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was a mild success that led it to be commissioned as a TV series for Netflix. 2013’s Beautiful Creatures and 2015’s Seventh Son were long forgotten, and 2015’s Pan and 2018’s A Wrinkle in Time are notorious flops. Even Harry Potter failed with Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.
Comedian-driven Comedies
It used to be that leading comedians like Steve Carell, Jim Carrey, Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, and Adam Sandler were able to deliver box-office gold in comedies. However, Carell tanked it with Dinner with Schmucks and Welcome to Marwen, Carrey sunk over Dumb and Dumber To, Stiller flopped because of Zoolander No. 2, Ferrell failed with Holmes & Watson, and Sandler suffered a heavy blow with Pixels and Jack and Jill.
The good news is that those guys found a second life in dramas and premium TV, and the genre found its footing again on its second home: streaming services.
Young-adult Dystopian Sci-Fi
Back to the young-adult genre, it seems the teenage market had evolved its entertainment preference with the prominence of Netflix, gaming culture, and Internet fads. This reflected on young-adult movies, especially when in dystopian sci-fi.
While The Hunger Games series solidified its status as one of the most successful films of the last decade, it prompted copycats like the Divergent series (to no appropriate ending), the Maze Runner series (with mild success), The Host (to complete infamy), and The Giver (to disappointing results). And seeing the news about Chaos Walking, it is time to pull the plug on YA dystopia.
Space Opera
Speaking of sci-fi, here is a subgenre that redefined the history of movies. Arguably the notable example of this is Star Wars, which faced a heavy blow on the reception of The Last Jedi and Solo: A Star Wars Story. With no more Star Wars movies lined up after The Rise of Skywalker, the Disney-acquired IP is at risk. The only hope that the franchise can rely on is its pending Disney+ series like the trending The Mandalorian.
The genre, of course, includes the Star Trek movies, which are in mild doubt, seeing the shuffling of cast, crew, and creators.