History Main / GenreRelaunch

* Specific to UsefulNotes/{{France}}: Adaptations of FrenchLiterature classics and HistoricalFiction had gone moribund on French TV since the 1972 adaptation of ''Literature/TheAccursedKings''. The big success of the miniseries ''Series/{{The Count of Monte Cristo|1998}}'' in 1998 caused a revitalization of the genre on TV, and Creator/GerardDepardieu himself went on to lead more adaptations, such as a Creator/HonoreDeBalzac biopic in 1999 and ''Literature/LesMiserables'' in 2000. 2002's ''[[Series/Napoleon2002 Napoléon]]'' was also part of that trend.

* Specific to UsefulNotes/{{France}}: Adaptations of FrenchLiterature classics and HistoricalFiction had gone moribund on French TV since the 1972 adaptation of ''Literature/TheAccursedKings''. The big success of the miniseries ''Series/{{The Count of Monte Cristo|1998}}'' in 1998 caused a revitalization of the genre on TV, and Creator/GerardDepardieu himself went on to lead more adaptations, such as a Creator/HonoreDeBalzac biopic in 1999 and ''Franchise/LesMiserables'' in 2000. 2002's ''[[Series/Napoleon2002 Napoléon]]'' was also part of that trend.

* Specific to UsefulNotes/{{France}}: Adaptations of French literature and HistoricalFiction had gone moribund on French TV since the 1972 adaptation of ''Literature/TheAccursedKings''. The big success of the miniseries ''Series/{{The Count of Monte Cristo|1998}}'' in 1998 caused a revitalization of the genre on TV, and Creator/GerardDepardieu himself went on to lead more adaptations, such as a Creator/HonoreDeBalzac biopic in 1999 and ''Franchise/LesMiserables'' in 2000. 2002's ''[[Series/Napoleon2002 Napoléon]]'' was also part of that trend.

* Specific to UsefulNotes/{{France}}: Adaptations of French literature and HistoricalFiction had gone moribund on French TV since the 1972 adaptation of ''Literature/TheAccursedKings''. The big success of the miniseries ''Series/{{The Count of Monte Cristo|1998}}'' in 1998 caused a revitalization of the genre on TV, and Creator/GerardDepardieu himself went on to lead more adaptations (such as ''Franchise/LesMiserables'' in 2000).

* Within the west, the EasternRPG genre of RolePlayingGames was niche until ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' and ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'' came along in the late nineties and succeeded massively, with ''Final Fantasy VII'' drawing lots of JRPG developers towards the UsefulNotes/PlayStation and UsefulNotes/PlayStation2, while ''Pokemon'' became a worldwide phenomenon and quickly became one of Creator/{{Nintendo}}'s flagships. However, the seventh generation saw a decline in the popularity of [=JRPGs=] due to most JRPG developers prioritizing the more affordable UsefulNotes/NintendoDS and UsefulNotes/PlayStationPortable over the more powerful UsefulNotes/Xbox360 and UsefulNotes/PlayStation3. While the former console did have successful titles like ''VideoGame/LostOdyssey'' and ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'', the void left behind by JRPG developers was quickly filled by WesternRPG developers and their games, most notably Creator/{{Bethesda}} with ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' and ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', and Creator/{{Bioware}} with ''Franchise/DragonAge'' and ''Franchise/MassEffect''. And with ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' proving to be an incredibly divisive game, western interest in the traditional JRPG genre fizzled out halfway through the generation, with the exceptions of ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' and ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1''. Even then, the former shared lots of similar aesthetics with Western [=RPGs=], while the latter only saw a limited run on the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}}. The relaunch of the genre in the west came in the middle of the eighth generation several years later, [=JRPGs=] like ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'', ''VideoGame/Persona5'', ''VideoGame/TalesOfBerseria'', ''VideoGame/FireEmblemHeroes'', and ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' all saw massive success on home consoles and reignited interest within the genre in the west. In the following years, ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterWorld'', ''VideoGame/DragonQuestXI'', ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'', ''VideoGame/TrialsOfMana'', and ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1: Definitive Edition'' all saw equal amounts of success, while the formerly dominant Western RPG franchises became plagued with heavy monetization and boring gameplay found in games like ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'', ''VideoGame/Fallout76'', and worst of all, ''VideoGame/{{Anthem}}''. The success of the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch also helped, with allowed more niche JRPG franchises like ''VideoGame/{{Ys}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Atelier}}'' to also gain a foot in the door, most notably seen when a Switch version of ''VideoGame/YsIXMonstrumNox'' was announced alongside the English localization, and when ''VideoGame/AtelierRyzaEverDarknessAndTheSecretHideout'' ended becoming the bestselling installment in its franchise and had a direct sequel announced in a Nintendo Direct in 2020.

* ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' is widely credited with revitalizing the Western animation industry and bringing it out of the [[UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfAnimation Dark Age]], [[OlderThanTheyThink though]] ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine'' is often considered to be the work that made people start taking the medium seriously again.

* ''Film/{{Insidious}}'', ''Film/CabinInTheWoods'', ''Film/TheConjuringUniverse'' and ''especially'' ''Film/{{It|2017}}'' helped renew interest in horror films in the 2010's. Before these were released, horror films relied too much on Gorn and Jump Scares, and were generally seen as a way to make quick bucks. After they were released, horror movies retained their low budgets, but made a conscious attempt to use the [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools aforementioned tropes to good use]]. It also helps that horror films in the 2010's were more diverse than what they had been in any previous decade.

** ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'' reintroduced the world to the Disney musical formula in 1989, and 1991's ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' made it a viable (and profitable) film-making approach. This unfortunately led to numerous imitators in the 1990s, which (coupled with Disney's refusal to do anything ''but'' musicals throughout the decade after ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuersDownUnder'' bombed at the box office) had turned it stale by the end of the decade. The popularity of 2001's ''WesternAnimation/Shrek1'' essentially killed off the musical formula, which led to Disney not using it for almost ten years. However, 2009's ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' managed to make the Disney musical popular again with critics, 2010's ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'' made it popular again with families, and ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013'' made it popular again with everyone else.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' and ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' brought a resurgence on WesternAnimation in many ways in the 2010's.

** ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'' reintroduced the world to the Disney musical formula in 1989, and 1991's ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' made it a viable (and profitable) film-making approach. This unfortunately led to numerous imitators in the 1990s, which (coupled with Disney's refusal to do anything ''but'' musicals throughout the decade after ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuersDownUnder'' bombed at the box office) had turned it stale by the end of the decade. The popularity of 2001's ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' essentially killed off the musical formula, which led to Disney not using it for almost ten years. However, 2009's ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' managed to make the Disney musical popular again with critics, 2010's ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'' made it popular again with families, and ''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013'' made it popular again with everyone else.

* 1998's ''Film/{{Blade}}'', 2000's ''Film/XMen1'', and 2002's ''Film/SpiderMan1'' brought redemption to the superhero movie industry after the travesty of the Schumacher ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' films and ''Film/{{Steel}}'' had put the genre down for the count. This revival also ensured that subsequent films would be DarkerAndEdgier teenage- and adult-oriented films rather than the all-ages kind that had been before, such as ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' and ''Film/ManOfSteel''. However, family-marketed superhero films are on the rise again, thanks to 2012's ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'', 2014's ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2014'' and ''Film/PowerRangers2017''.

* ''ComicBook/{{Trouble|MarvelComics}}'', released in 2003-04, was advertised by Creator/MarvelComics as their attempt to relaunch romance comics, a genre that (in the west, anyway) had largely petered out following the mid-70's, and it was released through the newly-reinstated Creator/EpicComics imprint, dedicated to publishing non-superhero material. [[SubvertedTrope This didn't work]] for a number of reasons -- for one, the tone of the comic is far more along the lines of a crass teen sex comedy than the wholesome, pulpy romance comics of yore, and its [[FirstEpisodeTwist early twist reveal]] that [[StealthPrequel it was actually a prequel]] to ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' by following the early sexual hijinks of a young Uncle Ben, Aunt May, and Peter Parker's future parents [[AudienceAlienatingPremise was thrashed by audiences]] -- and the poor reception has left both western romance comics [[ShortRunners and Epic Comics itself]] dead in the water.

* ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'' revived the Silver Age super hero.

* Although ''LightNovel/ReZero'' and ''LightNovel/{{Konosuba}}'' were written by close friends and were conceived as satire on the then-dying and discredited [[TrappedInAnotherWorld isekai]] genre (specifically the overabundance of ClicheStorm and MartyStu that was all too common), the commercial success and critical recognition of their anime adaptations in 2016 led to the mass resurgence of this genre to anime-mainstream soon after, with most of these new adaptations and works ironically playing the genre straight.

* After the success of ''WesternAnimation/TheRugratsMovie'', studios began churning out multiple animated movies based on TV shows, [[SturgeonsLaw all of varying quality]]. The over-saturation of these movies, combined with lackluster box office numbers, quickly caused animated TV to film adaptations to fall out of favor, with some even arguing they contributed to the decline of traditional animation due to "cheapening" the medium and coming out around the same time the AllCGICartoon was becoming popular. Despite the success of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'', it wouldn't be until the critical and financial success of ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobMovieSpongeOutOfWater'' in 2015 when animated TV to movie adaptations would start to see a comeback. Ironically, its predecessor ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobSquarePantsMovie'' was one of the last of the initial "wave" of TV show-based animated features, being released in 2004 just after the [[GenreKiller genre-killers]] ''WesternAnimation/RugratsGoWild'' and ''WesternAnimation/TeachersPet''.

* The SpeculativeDocumentary based on prehistoric life, first popularized by ''Series/WalkingWithDinosaurs'', was gradually killed off due to derivative works having lower budgets, less accuracy, and a tendency to anthropomorphize the animals too much, culminating in the failure of the film adaptation of ''WesternAnimation/WalkingWithDinosaurs''. Then came ''Series/PrehistoricPlanet'' in 2022, which had the quartet of ''[[AwesomeArt amazing]]'' visuals, up-to-date behavior, formatting closer to an actual nature documentary, and being narrated by renowned biologist Creator/DavidAttenborough. Following this, interest in the genre exploded, and Netflix announced it's own speculative documentary, ''A Life on Our Planet''.

* The SpeculativeDocumentary based on prehistoric life, first popularized by ''Series/WalkingWithDinosaurs'', was gradually killed off due to derivative works having lower budgets, less accuracy, and a tendency to anthropomorphize the animals too much, culminating in the failure of the film adaptation of ''WesternAnimation/WalkingWithDinosaurs''. Then came ''Series/PrehistoricPlanet'' in 2022, which had the quartet of ''[[AwesomeArt amazing]]'' visuals, up-to-date behavior, formatting closer to an actual nature documentary, and being narrated by renowned biologist Creator/DavidAttenborough''. Following this, interest in the genre exploded, and Netflix announced it's own speculative documentary, ''Life On Our Planet''.

* The ''Film/JamesBond'' film ''Film/DieAnotherDay'' almost killed the franchise and SpyFiction genre, for verging too much into self-parody, {{continuity cavalcade}} and senseless/overblown CGI spectacle. Shortly thereafter, the much more grounded ''Film/TheBourneIdentity'' came out and was deemed "refreshing" for the genre. James Bond's producers would quickly follow on that trend (with some welcome renewed flair of their own) and the result, ''Film/{{Casino Royale|2006}}'', was a success that relaunched the franchise through a ContinuityReboot. Subsequent spy movies have often taken notes from both Bourne and modern Bond.
** The recent entries of the ''Film/MissionImpossibleFilmSeries'' have been praised for softly relaunching the spy genre moviewise (or keeping it fresh at least), as the Creator/DanielCraig Bond movies take a long time to make and ''Film/{{Spectre}}'' resulted in mixed feelings (later fixed by ''Film/NoTimeToDie'').

* The ''Film/JamesBond'' film ''Film/DieAnotherDay'' almost killed the franchise and SpyFiction genre, for verging too much into self-parody, {{continuity cavalcade}} and senseless/overblown CGI spectacle. Shortly thereafter, the much more grounded ''Film/TheBourneIdentity'' came out and was deemed "refreshing" for the genre. James Bond's producers would quickly follow on that trend (with some welcome renewed flair of their own) and the result, ''Film/{{Casino Royale|2006}}'', was a success that relaunched the genre.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'' is an interesting case. The genre it "relaunched" was one that never truly had a chance to flourish in the first place--the teen-oriented animated action movie. This genre experienced a number of high-profile failures in the early 2000s, such as ''WesternAnimation/TitanAE'', ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'', and ''WesternAnimation/TreasurePlanet'', causing it to be seen as box-office poison until ''Spider-Verse'' revived it.

See also PopularityPolynomial. This is a subversion of CondemnedByHistory.

* The StylishAction genre reached peak popularity during UsefulNotes/TheSeventhGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames, with titles like ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'', ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'', and ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden'' all being pioneers of the genre and inspiring imitators like ''VideoGame/HeavenlySword'' and ''VideoGame/DantesInferno''. However, near the end of the seventh generation and the beginning of the [[UsefulNotes/TheEighthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames eighth]], the [[VideoGame/DarkSouls Souls]][[VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}} borne]] genre eclipsed stylish action games in popularity and profitability, with ''VideoGame/DmCDevilMayCry'' and ''VideoGame/YaibaNinjaGaidenZ'' proving to be divisive installments in their respective franchises that flopped commercially, and ''VideoGame/GodOfWar2018'' choosing to go with a more ''Souls''-like approach to its combat system. ''VideoGame/Bayonetta2'' was the only holdout during this time, but the failure of the UsefulNotes/WiiU, which it was exclusive to, prevented it from gaining the same level of exposure as other games. A few years later, however, the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch came along, for which ''VideoGame/Bayonetta3'' was announced at the end of its first year as an exclusive, with ports of the first two games releasing several months from them, giving the franchise the exposure it needed. The next year at E3, ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'' was announced and was released in 2019 to rave reviews and commercial success, reviving the franchise after a long hiatus. ''VideoGame/AstralChain'' was also released the same year as a Switch-exclusive title, and managed to sell over a million copies despite the exclusivity. Then in 2020, the kickstarter-funded ''VideoGame/TheWonderful101 Remastered'', formerly exclusive to the Wii U and originally a sales flop, managed to accumulate the funds needed for Creator/PlatinumGames to self-publish it on the Nintendo Switch, UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}, and the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 in less then several hours. Overall, the stylish action genre has seen a resurgence near the end of the eighth generation after years of it laying dormant, with the ''Bayonetta'' games, ''Devil May Cry 5'', and ''Astral Chain'' proving the genre is still alive and well.

* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' trilogy directed by Creator/PeterJackson, it can be said, effectively brought HighFantasy (or perhaps even MedievalEuropeanFantasy) in general to the attention of film audiences, but results from attempted films of this genre have been mixed. On one hand, we got successes like ''Film/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'', but on the other, we also got commercial flops like ''Film/{{Eragon}}''. It's often stated that the ''Series/GameOfThrones'' HBO series has re-killed HighFantasy, however, by raising the bar too high to compete.

* Starting in the mid-2000s, there was a resurgence in popularity with older styles of video games from the 8-bit and 16-bit era, with many existing franchises from the those eras seeing revivals [[GenreThrowback heavily influenced by nostalgia]].
** The 2D fighting game genre was in decline until the release of ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'' and ''VideoGame/BlazBlueCalamityTrigger'' in 2009. This coincided with new arcade stick controllers to match these games.
** ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'': The sub-series revived interest in 2D platformers. ''NSMB'' would go on to spawn a subseries of titles that were very successful for Nintendo, and would be followed by numerous other 2D platform games from both major publishers and especially indie developers.
* The recent success of ''VideoGame/ShadowWarrior2013'', ''VideoGame/WolfensteinTheNewOrder'', and ''VideoGame/DOOM2016'' has created a revived interest in old-school style FirstPersonShooters.

** ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' revived interest in 2D platformers. The game would also go on to become [[CashCowFranchise very successful for Nintendo]] by being given its own series, and would be [[FollowTheLeader followed]] by numerous other 2D platform games from both major publishers and especially indie developers.

* The spy genre had floundered with [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp the end of the Cold War]], such that a major subtext running through ''Film/GoldenEye'' was whether or not spies like Film/JamesBond were still relevant. 9/11 and UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror answered that question with a very definitive "yes".

** The recent entries of the ''Film/MissionImpossibleFilmSeries'' have been praised for softly relaunching the spy genre moviewise (or keeping it fresh at least), as the Creator/DanielCraig Bond movies take a long time to make and ''Film/{{Spectre}}'' resulted in mixed feelings.