If this summer’s movie season proved anything, it’s that consumers crave originality. While audiences generally ignored sequels, reboots, and remakes, they embraced fresh content with a ferocious appetite that typical Hollywood content has been mostly failing to fill.

“Jason Bourne,” “Ghostbusters,” “Independence Day: Resurgence,” and “The Legend of Tarzan” amount to just a fraction of this summer’s disappointments. The most highly produced and aggressively pushed product out of Hollywood over the last few months has failed to excite the box office, audiences, or critics. This summer’s graveyard of movie flops is what has led to headlines like, “2016: The Worst Summer Movie Season Ever?” published at Screen Crush.

“Audiences get numb. If you eat cheeseburgers every day, you get bored with cheeseburgers.”

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“I’ve talked to people at these companies, and they all seem to think the problem is they are putting out bad movies, as opposed to the consumers are demanding change. I think they are in denial about what’s going on,” Wall Street analyst Doug Cruetz told The Hollywood Reporter in a recent report exclaiming that Hollywood studios are on “red alert” after the most recent summer movie season.

For the past decade or so, Hollywood has primarily put their money behind anything with a modestly well-known name. People have seen endless big budget sequels, remakes, and reboots  hit multiplexes. It’s created a same-old, same-old feel. Audiences have used this summer as a way to show Hollywood it’s time for a change.

“I believe 2016 is a transition year for moviegoers and Hollywood studios. The audience is talking with their wallets and the studios need to improve their listening skills before it’s too late. One more season of remakes and sequels and we may hear a giant collective yawn as moviegoers leave their theater seats and venture outside for the next unexpected cultural phenomenon,” actor Brian Mahoney (“Furious 7”) told LifeZette.

Normally, the summer months are a high point for pop culture, with audiences rushing out in droves to see highly anticipated flicks and then showing their excitement to others through word of mouth and social media. That didn’t happen this year. Despite a few hits keeping the money train on the tracks, even strong earners like “Suicide Squad” only mustered mixed responses from moviegoers and critics.

The CGI monster known as the franchise blockbuster is clearly being put on notice.

“This summer was crowded. Audiences get numb … if you eat cheeseburgers every day, you get bored with cheeseburgers,” screenwriter John Sullivan (“Recoil”) said.

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Box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian seemed to agree about audience fatigue when he told The Hollywood Reporter, “This summer there have simply been too many sequels, reboots, remakes and even re-quels that have failed to measure up to audience expectations. This has created a negative perception of what Hollywood has to offer.”

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Originality was instead what ended up getting people excited.

Pop culture obsessions included the Netflix phenomenon “Stranger Things” and the viral phone app, Pokémon Go. They were the two pieces of entertainment pie that kept the masses entertained and set social media on fire.

Related: “Stranger Things” Steals the Summer

“Things” was an original series for Netflix that provided fresh and fun material while also paying homage to beloved 80s classics like “The Goonies” and “Poltergeist.” The show found a popularity that put summer movies to shame. It blew up social media and had people bingeing during summer staycations. The series became one of Netflix’s most watched in a matter of weeks. “In a dismal movie season, ‘Stranger Things’ is our great summer blockbuster,” exclaimed The Washington Post’s Emily Yahr in a headline.

Pokémon Go, on the other hand, was a fresh form of entertainment that had people of all ages wandering outside looking into their phone screens attempting to capture animated creatures. The game was the type of cultural phenomenon every big budget summer movie hopes to become. It received well over 100 million downloads. Like “Things,” it was devoured by consumers looking for something unique and different.

In the end, Hollywood failed pop culture and consumers this summer. Disappointing box office takes and a generally lazy output had people searching for — and finding — alternative ways to be entertained.