When did
superhero films make their first real big break? I like to think it was with
the release of the first “X-Men” movie back in 2000. This was the first time a
serious approach was taken with the genre and the first time that audiences
actually bought the idea that the genre could be more then fluff. A couple
sequels later along with a (mostly) successful “Spider-Man” trilogy and things
were really picking up for these screen bound, and spandex bound, super powered
money makers. Those films served as catalyst; the spark that lit the fire that
would lead to the explosive inundation of our current movie going climate. That
explosion kicked off with the release of the first “Iron Man” film, which
started the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and the release of “The Dark
Knight”, the most beloved and highest earning super hero movie until “The
Avengers” hit in 2012.
We are
still in the midst of the superhero era of blockbusters, but the returns are
starting to diminish. While “The Avengers: Age of Ultron” did earn over a
billion dollars, a huge success in any rational persons eyes, it still
underperformed according to expectations and was thusly considered a failure as
audiences become more savvy of the rinse and repeat formula that Marvel is
pushing out. “The superhero film genre in the first
decade of the twenty-first century yielded a glut of nearly identical films
featuring dumbed-down versions of characters that were still appearing, to
better effect, in the comics.” (Bukatman, Cinema Journal)
Superhero movies
definitely aren’t impervious anymore in this social media and rottentomatoes
filled landscape. “At
the same time, 2015 has seen the worst wide openings in history, despite
expensive marketing. Blame social media. "You can't cheat an opening
weekend anymore," says Paramount vice chair Rob Moore. "And anyone
under 30 is checking Rotten Tomatoes and telling their friends what the score
is on a Thursday. You saw it with Fantastic Four: Fox actually had good
tracking, but by opening day the audience knew the film was bad.” (McClintock,
The Hollywood Reporter). You also saw the flipside of the coin this year with
“Deadpool”, who’s marketing campaign so ingeniously used social media that when
people found out it was good, it already had its own pre-established viral
trade roots to spread the word. “The good news is that when you have a good
movie, people equally share that." (Mcclintock,The Hollywood Reporter).
The superhero movie slate has been
mapped out until at least 2020, and even though the odds of the train coming to
a complete halt are close to null, the odds of some sort of crash are imminent.
“Even as
they dominate the box office, comic-book movies are approaching a moment
fraught with peril. If one definition of a bubble is that everybody with an
investment to protect insists that it isn’t a bubble, then we
should probably take as a warning the breezy assertion of
Marvel’s chief creative officer, Joe Quesada, that “We’re not the Western … The
sky’s really the limit for us, as long as we as a collective industry continue
to produce great material.” (Harris, Grantland)
Odds are
that superhero movies will continue to lumber along out of the factory for a
while now, but will lose steam eventually, the masses do eventually grow tired,
but lets shift focus to the even bigger money maker in Hollywood right now,
sequels and reboots. “Jurassic World”, “Furious 7”, “Minions”, “Avengers: Age
of Ultron”, and last, but certainly not least, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”
all made over a billion dollars, were all released in 2015, and were all either
sequels or reboots. 2015 was a record breaking year in terms of profit with 11
billion dollars earned and it was all because of these few mega hits. Hollywood
also saw record lows like Fantastic Four and Victor Frankenstein, hitting new
bottoms and earning under 5 million, which previously was unheard of. So, it’s
no wonder that Hollywood has become so heavily reliant on sequels and reboots.
Hollywood isn’t entirely to blame for this either. We, the people, are the ones
going to see these movies in droves. Hollywood does, in fact, release a few big
tent pole original properties each year, but they never do well, even if
they’re good. Case in point, “Edge of Tomorrow”, what I considered to be the
great action movie of the Summer of 2014, performed so badly at the box office
that its name was changed upon home video release to “Live.Die.Repeat: Edge of
Tomorrow” to distance itself from its theatrical release. It has a 90% on RT. If you want to see a change, then you have to
show your support.
To see
evidence of that support we have to shift back to the superhero genre and look
again at “Deadpool”. “Deadpool” performed excellently and smashed all kinds of
records as an R rated movie and set some great new precedents. It
was a superhero movie that took risks. It was incredibly violent and incredibly
crude, showing that we don’t need our superhero movies to be as family friendly
as possible to make money. It also applied some conventions that were pretty
unique and totally risky for the genre. The constant breaking of the
fourth wall and pop culture references brought a lot of fresh ideas to the table. I think this was a good step in the
right direction, something familiar to audiences while simultaneously providing
something new, and showing Hollywood that you really don’t have to stick to the
exact same cookie cutter formula when it comes to superhero films. Hopefully we
can continue making strides in this direction and eventually drag ourselves out
of the superhero/sequel rut.
Works Cited:
1. Bukatman, Scott. "Why I Hate Superhero Movies." Cinema Journal 50.3 (2011): 118-22. Web. 21 Mar. 2016. Link
2.Harris, Mark. "Are We at Peak Superhero?" Grantland. ESPN Ventures, 22 May 2014. Web. 21 Mar. 2016. Link
3. McClintock, Pamela. "Box Office: 5 Lessons for 2016 From Hollywood's Record Highs and Lows." The Hollywood Reporter. The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Jan. 2016. Web. 21 Mar. 2016. Link
I chose to comment on this blog not only because I am a huge superhero film fan, but also because Sam and I had the opportunity to take a class last semester that focused on the subject of superheroes in America. I have been a fan of the genre since the release of the first X-Men movie back in 2000 just like Sam mentioned. I agree with what Sam said about how the superhero movie industry has become too mainstream and fallen off a bit. In true Hollywood fashion, the genre did not stem away from what was previously successful and it became stale and very repetitive. In our class last semester, we discussed how this has become a major problem in Hollywood and the first bright light came with the release of Guardians of the Galaxy. I do not consider myself a comic book geek, but I know about the main superheroes and it is refreshing to learn about some of the lesser-known heroes Marvel and DC has to offer. This is what happened with Guardians of the Galaxy, I had never heard of a superhero team that consisted of one human, a couple of aliens, and a talking raccoon and tree. This movie was wildly successful, and I think the reason is because it strays away from the traditional superhero movie genre formula.
ReplyDeleteAnother example of a superhero movie performing well and straying from the norm is the recent, mega hit Deadpool. Deadpool is another character I had never heard of. This superhero movie is also different compared to all others because it is rated R. Another differential of Deadpool is the marketing campaign that preceded the release. I remember seeing all of the crazy promotions for the movie and thinking to myself, “OK, I need to see this movie.” Almost everything about the marketing efforts for Deadpool were geared to go viral, which played perfectly into the current social media and Rotten Tomatoes movie experience. "Going to the movies has become all about the social media conversation," says Imax Entertainment CEO Greg Foster, noting that studios now advertise Rotten Tomatoes scores on Facebook and Twitter. (McClintock, The Hollywood Reporter) The red-band trailer for Deadpool was the most viewed trailer of its kind. The current social media landscape for Hollywood worked perfectly for Deadpool, but had the opposite effect for another movie in its class. “Consider Fox's Fantastic Four: It was tracking fine until director Josh Trank, stung by bad reviews, tweeted on the eve of the release that his version was "better." The movie quickly died.” (McClintock, The Hollywood Reporter) Fantastic Four had a huge opening upon it’s release, but due to social media the film made the list of the biggest box office flops of 2015. “The movie made just $25.68 million on its opening weekend, far less than either of the previous Fantastic Four films had earned during their opening weeks…it would finish with &56.1 million, well under its estimated $120 million budget.” (Boardman, Entertainment Weekly) I agree with Sam in his point about how Hollywood will continue to push superhero movies, but at least there is hope for some variety with the successes of Guardians of the Galaxy and Deadpool.
Works Cited
Boardman, Madelin. "Biggest Box Office Flops of 2015." Entertainment Weekly's EW.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.
McClintock, Pamela. "Box Office: 5 Lessons for 2016 From Hollywood's Record Highs and Lows." The Hollywood Reporter. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.
I can definitely see where Sam is coming from when talking about the superhero genre inundating the film industry. I absolutely hate how many superhero movies there are out there because they are long and overhyped. I understand that we have The Avengers franchise, but with it came all the individual backstory films for every single avenger. With each individual film came sequel after sequel. I personally am sick of superhero movies.
ReplyDeleteIt is a bit ridiculous that the superhero films are mapped out until 2020. I agree that superhero movies will keep going strong for certain franchises, but I can already see audiences losing interest. We are about to have our third Spiderman reboot in less than fifteen years just the person directing the new crossover decided he did not like Andrew Garfield as Spiderman. I think I know the Spiderman story like the back of my hand now, and I know that I don’t need another reboot. The storylines themselves are clearly running dry if the Superman reboot sequel has to have Batman in it. Superman is suddenly even a killer according to Man of Steel, showing that the storylines of the films are veering away from what the superheroes and comics were truly about. I feel like superhero films are just a way for the studios to make a large sum of money nowadays because the storylines are the same thing for two hours. The excess of superhero films is causing there to be some flops in the genre, as well. Fantastic Four made only $25.6 million in the opening weekend, which is less than any other Fantastic Four movie (Boardman). This is just one example to show that people are getting sick of the superhero genre.
Like Sam said, we are still in the “superhero era of blockbusters.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, Deadpool opened with over $132 million dollars, making it the biggest R-rated movie opening of all time (McClintock). However, like Sam said this is because Deadpool was actually the only superhero film in years that had a different spin on superhero films. It featured this sarcastic superhero, and that is likely why the film broke records. Jeff Bock states, “Deadpool is unconventional in ways, but I call it a return to the core values of what comic books offer — an abundance of energy, unbridled excitement, spontaneous comedy throughout and general snarkiness” (McClintock).
In terms of the social media aspect, I can also see why superhero films do well or flop. When people are talking about a movie, other people are more likely to go see it. I went to see The Avengers, Captain America, and Thor just because I saw everyone talking about it on social media. However, I did not go see Green Lantern or Fantastic Four because I did not hear the same ravings about those movies. With Deadpool, the reason it worked was because young social media users love the snarky and sarcastic humor, and that is exactly how the film was advertised.
I don’t know if I will end up going to see Superman vs. Batman this weekend, but if I do, it will only because I feel that personal connection to “Smallville” from years ago. I know that I am definitely getting sick of superhero movies.
Works Cited
Boardman, Madeline. “Biggest Box Office Flops of 2015.” Entertainment Weekly. Entertainment Weekly, 2 Dec. 2015. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.
McClintock, Pamela. "Box Office: 5 Lessons for 2016 From Hollywood's Record Highs and Lows." The Hollywood Reporter. The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Jan. 2016. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.
I think that X-Men was definitely the first big break of a new type of superhero film. We had had the original Batman and Superman movies, but we never had superhero film that had the intensity of X-Men. It had an amazing cast and for 2000 had really stunning graphics. For about 10 years X-Men and Spider-Man had a monopoly on the Superhero world. But with the addition of Iron Man and the social media world things began to change. "Going to the movies has become all about the social media conversation (McClintock)." Since the release of Iron Man, we have seen and increase in the amount of social media usage surrounding superhero film releases. "Creative remains key, but it's less about television commercials and more about shaping the social conversation." Consider Fox's Fantastic Four: It was tracking fine until director Josh Trank, stung by bad reviews, tweeted on the eve of the release that his version was "better." The movie quickly died (McClintock).
ReplyDeleteIt is becoming clear that people aren’t making their own choices anymore. The decision to see a movie or not has become based on the Tomato meter, and if it has a score you do not approve of then it is not worth seeing. Online reviews have taken over and people will not go and see a movie if the review was bad. We cannot make decisions for ourselves. Fantastic Four had a terrible review on Rotten Tomatos and that review affected the way that people decided what movie to see that weekend. The choice to believe what Rotten Tomatos thinks over actually seeing a movie they might like.
When we think of superhero movies, the first thing that comes to mind is most likely the Marvel Universe. Marvel has given us some of the most memorable superhero movies to date. X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Spider-Man, The Avengers, and more recently Deadpool. The Ryan Reynolds superhero movie opened to an astounding $132.4 million for the three-day Valentine's Day/Presidents Day weekend and $152.2 million for the four-day holiday, the biggest R-rated opening of all time and the seventh-biggest for a comic book opening, it also had the most viewed red-band trailer in history, garnering 114 million hits. The second red-band trailer debuted on Christmas Day, nabbing 90 million views. (McClintock). I agree that Deadpool is not your typical Marvel movie, but that is what malkes it so amazing. We have seen the same types of superhero movies for a long time and it finally time we shook things up a bit.
McClintock, Pamela. "Box Office: 5 Lessons for 2016 From Hollywood's Record Highs and Lows." The Hollywood Reporter. The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Jan. 2016. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.
McClintock, Pamela. "How 'Deadpool's' Marketing Won Over Fanboys (and Everyone Else)." The Hollywood Reporter. N.p., 16 Feb. 16. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.
Lea Herlihy
ReplyDeleteMSS495
Dr. Burns
I’m really happy you chose this topic. I, for one, went through my minute obsessive stage with superhero movies around when the Fantastic Four with Jessica Alba became available on TV. I also have an affinity for the Spider Man movies with Emma Stone and James Garfield (I think maybe that was due in part to their off screen romance). However, when 2015 hit it was as if everyone had the same idea – superheroes. Sadly, when everyone has the same same idea it tends to be the wrong one.
The box office did hit an all time low as, “Revenue looks to have come in at $10.35 billion, down more than 5 percent from 2013’s record $10.9 billion” (Ford). The key word in this quote is “record” if something hits an all time high then at some point it is going to have to come back down to its equilibrium state. How’s that for some left field science.
Regardless of science, there is something about sequels that draws people in, but then you think about the problem with sequels – they’re just never as good as the first. This does not stop people from going to see them, and I feel that because of the cult- like culture that surrounds certain movies a sequel that’s a dud is heartbreaking. I’m going to use “Pitch Perfect” as my example, because, well, I love that movie with every fiber of my being. When it was announced that a second “Pitch Perfect” would be hitting the scene my heart did a little potter patter and I wanted to know when I would be able to pre-order tickets. I was so crazy about seeing the second one because I loved the first one so much. Sadly, after I saw the second one I was nowhere near as impressed or blown away as I was with the first one.
In an article posted by The Wrap, Cunningham and Lang point out, You can’t have a franchise without a successful second movie, and several studios will be trying to grab ring with follow-ups to recent hits” (Cunningham & Lang). This, I think, also points in another direction – how stubborn people are. If you are a true fanatic and you support a movie to its dying breath then you will never ever say anything to discredit the magic that you believe took place on screen. It could be the most God-awful sequel, but because you liked the first movie so much you refuse to show any inkling of doubt in the production you just witnessed.
So, I guess that in the case of superhero movies, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and if someone wants to go see the 27th Spider Man then who’s stopping them? Their choice or opinion may not be in line with the majority’s but it's their own and that contributes to the overall ranking of a movie on several different critic sites.
Works Cited:
Cunningham, Todd and Brett Lang. “Box Office: 2014 Will Likely Be Down, Because Not All Sequels are Equals.” The Wrap 2 Jan. 2014 Web.
Ford, Rebecca. “Box Office Winners and Loser of 2014.” The Hollywood Reporter. 2 Jan. 2015.
Looking at recent years it appears that Hollywood has been lacking in creativity. Mainly films have been either reboots, “based on a true story”, sequels, or “based on a book.” I agree with Sam when he says that Hollywood is going through a rut. I specifically want to focus on superhero movies because they are the main contributors to the predictability that is Hollywood films nowadays.
ReplyDeleteAlthough continuing a successful franchise gives your film an automatic fan-base, the repetitive superhero-formula becomes dull very quickly. This formula consists of the protagonist doing their daily routine of fighting crime until one day they meet a villain that they can’t immediately defeat. After multiple encounters with said villain, there is a battle where the hero appears to be nearing defeat. As he struggles to stay alive, he spontaneously comes up with a master plan and finally defeats the evil villain after a thirty-minute fighting sequence. THE END. Since the modern day superhero film era began, starting with the X-Men franchise in 2000, this formula has seemed to work, but now that several superhero films get released each year, the genre is starting to get dull.
I think another influence on superhero movies either flopping or being successes, like Sam said, is based on social media. On the rare occasion that I do go to the movies I first look at film websites, like IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes, to get an idea of how others thought the movie was. As Pamela McClintock perfectly explained, “anyone under 30 is checking Rotten Tomatoes and telling their friends what the score is… You saw it with Fantastic Four. Fox actually had good tracking, but by opening day the audience knew the film was bad,” (“Box”). The film initially had a built-in fan base just from because it was a reboot, but once people started talking on social media, the film died quickly. Social media is so quick that you can reach millions of people in less than a minute with either the best or the worst review in the world. Even films that I didn’t anticipate watching prior to their release has now become a must-see thanks to reviews and constant talk on social media. Before looking at advertisements and trailers for the film Deadpool I had never heard of the Marvel character before but whenever I was watching TV or on social media I was bombarded by the latest ad campaign for the film. With hilarious photos, for example the recreated Burt Reynolds’s Playgirl centerfold, and informative videos, such as checking yourself for testicular cancer, the film really took a step above the usual promoting tactics for a movie release. Fox’s domestic marketing chief Marc Weinstock explained the company’s market tactics for this project; “We wanted to be everywhere. And we knew from tracking that we had reached beyond the core fans,” (“How”). They absolutely reached every demographic because even a person, such as myself, that had never heard of the character before, was dying to see what all the fuss was about.
Superhero films mainly follow a formula that gets dull at times but there are some new films that are rising above the standard. An upcoming film that goes against the norms of superhero films would be Batman vs. Superman, there is no villain, one superhero is fighting another. While a lot of superhero films are getting into the “Hollywood rut” there are some films that are going to be amazing blockbusters, because they are stepping away from the formula and possibly out of the rut as well.
Works Cited
McClintock, Pamela. "Box Office's New Normal in 2015: "You Can't Cheat an Opening Weekend Anymore"" The Hollywood Reporter, 17 Dec. 2015. Web. 22 Mar. 2016.
McClintock, Pamela. "How 'Deadpool's' Marketing Won Over Fanboys (and Everyone Else)." The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Feb. 2016. Web. 22 Mar. 2016.
Sam,
ReplyDeleteI wanted to comment on your blog mostly because my perspective about the superhero genre is different than most. Growing up, I was all about sports and truly never paid any attention to comic books. That being said, I remember when I first saw the original "Spider Man" with Toby Maguire and thought it was one of the coolest movies ever. It woke up my imagination and made me yearn for more movies of that nature. I began keeping track of movies as best I could that way I knew when an "X-Men" or "Batman" type of film would be in the works.
Many people may think that "X-Men" was the first big break in the new wave of superhero movies, but I believe it was "The Dark Night Rises" starring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger. Two huge name actors were able to take a comic book story and make it a word wide phenomenon. Each movie in this genre since then has been trying to meet or exceed that standard, so it's natural to hear that superhero films are slotted until 2020. However, it's extremely hard to believe that studios thought one niche type of genre can consistently pump out box office winners. Look at the new Fantastic Four film....absolutely terrible. "Consider Fox's Fantastic Four: It was tracking fine until director Josh Trank, stung by bad reviews, tweeted on the eve of the release that his version was "better." The movie quickly died. (McClintock, The Hollywood Reporter)." Now, instead of the film just tanking and being forgotten about, it's actually tracked beforehand by social media and numerous leaking types of websites.
With that problem being so evident in our everyday lives, thanks to social media, a movie recently figured out a marketing campaign that was highly ingenious. Welcome, Deadpool!
This first ever "R" rated superhero film made it clear from day one of advertising that it was with the times. Deadpool invaded Twitter, Facebook, Instagram as well as the classic billboards/television. It strayed away from the "norm" of powerful messages hidden deep in a film and had a guy get morphed into a "weirdo" who kills people because he wants to... Jeff Bock states, “Deadpool is unconventional in ways, but I call it a return to the core values of what comic books offer — an abundance of energy, unbridled excitement, spontaneous comedy throughout and general snarkiness (McClintock)."It's VERY GOOD to see how change is being made. What's getting a bit scary is the thought of every superhero movie following suit. I personally believe that variation is the key to success for most films of the same genre because that's what makes them stand out. Everything doesn't need to be the same and all of these superhero movies slotted until 2020 is a high risk - high reward formula that could go either way.
McClintock, Pamela. "Box Office: 5 Lessons for 2016 From Hollywood's Record Highs and Lows." The Hollywood Reporter. The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Jan. 2016. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.
McClintock, Pamela. "How 'Deadpool's' Marketing Won Over Fanboys (and Everyone Else)." The Hollywood Reporter. N.p., 16 Feb. 16. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.