Up in the sky! Look! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s ... another summer of rehashes.

The peak period for the box office is rarely full of the most original ideas. But even so, this year leaps over the offenses of the past with a single bound. The three biggest movies Hollywood studios have pinned their hopes on in 2025 are the third new take on "Superman" in the last 20 years, the fourth iteration of the "Fantastic Four" and the sixth attempt to recapture the magic of 1993’s "Jurassic Park." The only U.S. film to top $1 billion this year is "Lilo & Stitch," another live-action remake tapping into Gen Z and millennial nostalgia. In 2024, there wasn’t a single original film that broke the U.S. box office top 15.

It’s further evidence that Western culture seems to have reached an impasse — wistful for our youth and unable to come up with any new ideas. The contrast was particularly stark here in Japan, the world’s third-largest cinema market. A week after "Superman" opened, I struggled to find a theater still showing it — with all available screens occupied by the smash "Demon Slayer" movie. In just 10 days, the animated hit grossed ¥12.9 billion ($87 million) and is on track to become Japan’s highest-earning film ever.