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Box-Office Kryptonite
Are comic book movies and superhero movies dead?
Are we looking at the end of the line for the comic book and/or superhero
movie?
If you read some of the recent box-office analysis, the results are certainly
troubling. Marvel Studios' "Thor," which came out in May, was a solid if
unspectacular hit here in the U.S., although it did rack up an impressive $450
million worldwide -- not bad for a far-fetched comic book character that a lot
of mainstream moviegoers were not familiar with. Then "X-Men: First Class" came along in early June,
earning $54 million in its first weekend in theaters -- the lowest first-weekend
gross out of all five "X-Men" movies. Finally, in mid-June, we had the
arrival of "Green Lantern" -- and that's when the alarm bells
began to sound.
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"Green Lantern" grossed just $53 million in its opening weekend and plummeted
in its second, with estimates at press time to be $18 million. Warner Bros.
Pictures, the film's distributor, had hoped for at least a $60 million opening;
as it stands, the picture is unlikely to earn back its $200 million budget (not
to mention an additional $100 million in marketing). Warner Bros. pitched a lot
of hopes on "Green Lantern," hoping it would launch the DC Comics universe on
film the way that Marvel launched its series of movies with 2008's "Iron Man." As of now, however, the future of other
DC heroes, like the Flash, Wonder Woman and Aquaman, is in doubt.
But the larger issue is whether audiences are simply growing tired of comic
book icons coming to the screen in what, to a casual glance, seems to be an
endless parade of origin stories about brooding heroes who end up defending a
city or the Earth itself in a spectacular barrage of sometimes awesome,
sometimes hokey CG effects. We've got two more comics-based movies to go this
summer: "Captain America: The First Avenger" (July 22) from
Marvel, and the non-superhero "Cowboys & Aliens" (July 29) from Universal. Will
either of them prove to be the runaway hit -- we're talking $200 million or more
at the U.S. box office -- which the season's first three superhero behemoths
have not?
No one can say for sure. But the current lack of a hit on the scale of "The Dark Knight" (more than $531 million in the U.S.
alone) or even "Iron Man" ($318 million), coupled with the recent
announcement that a handful of studios (Warner, Disney, Weinstein Company) are
scaling back or even skipping presentations at this July's San Diego Comic-Con,
has sent ripples of unease and speculation through the fan-boy community and the
network of movie blogging sites that tend to superserve them.
The roots of this go back to 2010, when several non-superhero films that were
nonetheless based on comic books or graphic novels -- "Kick-Ass," "The Losers" and "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" -- failed to light up
the box office. "Kick-Ass" did OK relative to its cost, but "The Losers" sank
quickly from sight, and "Scott Pilgrim" was a bomb of epic proportions, earning
just $30 million despite a massive promotional push that included a literal
takeover of last year's Comic-Con. If we look back even further, 2009's "Watchmen" underperformed despite its acclaimed
source material and an equally aggressive marketing campaign.
So what's wrong? Although the success of "Iron Man" would seem to negate this, there is the
question of whether audiences are going to watch movies starring second-tier
heroes or based on books that the majority of them have never heard of.
Superman, Batman and Spider-Man are iconic, but there's less familiarity with
the likes of Thor and Green Lantern (Captain America's patriotic imagery has him
better positioned in the public zeitgeist). There's also the problem of telling
what is essentially the same story over and over again: Hero (or would-be hero)
comes into possession of incredible powers, has his mettle and abilities tested
by some malevolent force or villain, but triumphs and embraces his newfound
superhero status. That is the superhero origin story in a nutshell, and we've
seen it time and time again. "Green Lantern" seemed to just run soullessly
through all the standard clichés -- even sending the cocky, headstrong Hal
Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) abruptly into a crisis
of confidence just because the template demanded it.
The increasing necessity by the studios to top themselves each time out has
led these films to cost more and more money, making it naturally more difficult
to turn a profit. The original "Iron Man" cost $140 million to make; "Green
Lantern" cost over 40 percent more. And then there's the bizarre Hollywood
fixation with doing what the other guy is doing -- so the minute that any studio
scores a hit with any specific type of movie, all the other studios want to jump
on the bandwagon, usually with poor results. Remember all those films based on
children's fantasy novels that came out in the wake of "Harry Potter"? Neither
do we.
The high cost of marketing comics-based movies, their massive promotional
campaigns and the general infiltration of geek culture into the mainstream have
led the genre to a sort of breaking point, and also placed it under more
scrutiny than other types of films. After all, when a romantic comedy or two
bomb, no one declares the end of movies starring Kate Hudson or Jennifer Aniston (as much as we'd
like that to happen). When a cop thriller fails, the studios don't send their
prop handguns and fleet of fake police cars to the junkyard. But the glee in
some quarters over the sudden perceived vulnerability of cinematic superheroes
has led to a kind of pushback against the geeks -- just like the arrival of
these films was deemed their "revenge."
Comics-based movies may have reached a certain saturation point, but they'll
be back. The horror genre has been dead and buried plenty of times (it's
currently in its crypt right now, in fact), but always resurrects itself. Sci-fi
films, Westerns and others have all struggled throughout the decades. All it
takes is one big hit, one fresh take on the subject -- usually after a few years
off -- and all of a sudden moviegoers are interested again.
And fans shouldn't despair, because look at what's coming in 2012: in May,
we'll see the colossal Marvel team-up movie "The Avengers," which will
ambitiously bring together Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and the Hulk in the
same film. Early July introduces "The Amazing Spider-Man," with a brand-new cast
and director. Later that month, perhaps the most eagerly awaited film of this
decade so far, "The Dark Knight Rises," hits screens. And then the Caped
Crusader's good buddy Superman gets his own reinvention in December with "Man of
Steel."
With a lineup like that, the superhero/comic book movie is far from over,
despite the most fervent wishes of some of the genre's critics. But, like the
characters and the books themselves, a reboot may be in order somewhere down the
line.
Send us your thoughts on all things sci-fi, horror, etc. Write us at
heymsn@microsoft.com
Don Kaye covers film, TV and entertainment for MSN.com
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