These days there are only three types of movies doing well: comic book, Star Wars, and horror movies.
Animated films are also doing extremely well, on the whole. Add in fantasy films with an occasional dash of action-adventure, and you'll get 90%+ of the top 10 films for every year of the last decade.
For better or worse, the days of the box office being dominated by dramas, musicals, westerns, and comedies is over.
40 years ago Star Wars was released.
That’s almost 2 generations raised with Star Wars always being available on home video.
http://episodenothing.blogspot.com/2014/10/star-wars-comes-home-history-of-1977.html
It has tremendously altered the landscape of movie making.
Siskel and Ebert referred to a type of movie that could be summed up on 4 glasses available at a fast food franchise.
Star Wars didn’t invent this marketing tool but ran with it anyhow
http://www.metv.com/lists/10-collectable-fast-food-glasses-we-still-want