[2][3] Industry executives believed the problem, in part, was a lack of original concepts.
[5][3] Janet Maslin said the fault for this lay partly with Steven Spielberg, who had created such a successful template with films like E.T.
[3][7] Only Back to the Future and Rambo: First Blood Part II were successful blockbusters, earning more than double the box office of Cocoon.
[3] Films offering escapism and pro-America themes like Rambo: First Blood Part II and Rocky IV had also fared well.
[7] The glut of youth-targeted films like Return to Oz and The Black Cauldron, and science-fiction comedies like Weird Science, Real Genius, and My Science Project had resulted in a string of failures.