Open Forum Friday: How Long Before Comic Book Movies Stop Making Money?
With this year’s wave of summer blockbusters quickly approaching, it occurred to me that it’s been a long time since the biggest, and most hyped movies of the year were not comic book movies. In fact, as time goes on it seems like more and more studios are banking on superheroes and their fanboy followings for guaranteed income. But is this a safe move? How long can the trend continue? On the horizon we have movies like Iron Man, Hulk 2, Spider-Man 3, Wonder Woman, Thor, The Punisher 2, Ghost Rider, another Batman movie… the list goes on. Aside from the major draws like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and X-Men, do these b-list heroes have the recognition needed to fill movie theatres? Will oversaturation kill people’s interest? It’s also not too often that a blockbuster franchise makes it past 3 installments, and with X-Men 3 coming out this year and Spider-Man 3 the next, we might be looking at the beginning of the end. I guess the first thing that has to happen is the filmmaking talent has to move on… and I seriously doubt Sam Raimi wants to keep making Spider-Man movies for the rest of his life. If Superman Returns and X-3 are any indication, however, fan interest in comic book movies is still running high. What do you say? Is anyone out there getting sick of seeing superheroes on the big screen? Give us your thoughts here on Open Forum Friday.
Comments (3)
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy all of the above mentioned movies but I have to agree. Next they’ll be making million dollar films of manga. Oh yeah, please make “Remote” into a movie!! NOT!
It seems to me like Hollywood needs an idea transfusion. Lately, the theatres have been peppered with re-makes, comics and books. Is everyone out of new, fresh ideas? It’s starting to look that way.
I have a great idea for a movie. Why doens’t Hollywood respond???
Posted by themarina on May 5th, 2006Hollywood is playing it safe, there only making the movies from comics and books and remakes cuz there is already a built in audience. Look to the independent films for originality.
Posted by James on May 6th, 2006I think that there are too many superhero movies in the works and I’ve only enjoyed a small number of the ones released over the passed few years. Marvel’s plans to produce their own movies in hopes of “launching†more fanchises will only make things worse. The way I see it, Marvel films are on their way out after reinventing the superhero film and dominating the market for years. I don’t want to watch another X-Men film that probably won’t live up to X2 and I wasn’t crazy about Spiderman 2 so that franchise though a financial success, is a dud in my opinion. Beyond that, I can’t get excited about any Marvel related films but I am looking forward to more Batman, Hellboy and Sin City films. It’s time for Marvel to take a breather and re-evaluate the crap they’re putting out or just bow out gracefully before they really screw themselves over. I’m guessing they’ll take the latter route.
Posted by Nuno on May 7th, 2006Leave a Reply