Death of the Superhero?
Thoughts on the "Death of the Superhero Movie":
1) I started reading superhero comic books when I was a kid, somewhere around 1976. My love for cape stories (especially Marvel) runs deep, and for many years I pined for an era where the brain-blasting stories of people like Jack Kirby and Roy Thomas would come to dominate the silver screen. But a funny thing about eras is, they by definition come and go; nothing lasts forever.
2) Prior to superheroes, Hollywood made a lot of money off other action genres, with the Western arguably being the biggest and perhaps most influential. My father-in-law still watches old reruns of "Gunsmoke". And when I sit there and watch them with him, I appreciate why the best of those episodes once deeply resonated with audiences. But the world moved on from Marshal Dillon and co.; if cape stories are going out of style, we're going to be okay.
3) Let's reflect on why we're told these movies are on death watch - they cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make, but currently are only returning revenues in the hundreds of millions instead of a billion-plus per feature. Why should we as a society be fearful that giant corporations like Disney or Warner Brothers are no longer convincing enough of us to fork over enough cash to justify their exorbitant capital layouts?
4) It was Hollywood and the various other interested parties who gave us streaming and told us that we could all stay home and watch countless hours of 'The Handmaid's Tale' or 'Stranger Things'. If you pick only one streaming service and stick with its offerings, that's cheaper than driving to the theater and forking over $20+ in concessions in addition to the price of tickets. Plus, you can catch that film on Hulu or Amazon Prime later, sometimes only weeks after its theatrical run ends.
5) For years, Marvel and others made oodles of money getting their movies shown in China, which as I understand it involves a selective approval process that surely involves making the right government officials happy. Nowadays, these same films tank in the Middle Kingdom, probably due more to fickle audience tastes rather than some dark agenda on the CCP's part. In any case, that revenue stream appears to be gone for good.
6) The other night, my wife and I watched the opening credits roll before 'Fantastic Four'. And when they finished, she remarked every new offering being advertised was based on some pre-existing property - a new 'Tron' was coming, for example. Hollywood needs to stop rehashing the crap they already gave us, and start putting out new ideas from new creators. That's how the business started, as Justine Bateman and others have pointed out; if it worked once, it can work again. And if the fresh stuff costs less money to make (which for the most part it should), where's the harm?
Final thought: as LA-based radio personality Ralph Garman once said, 'They'll keep doing it (making superhero movies) until it stops making money.'
Well it did. But that's not a cause for mourning.
#deathofsuperheromovies #SuperheroFatigue #marvelstudios #DCStudios #JamesGunn #KevinFeige #ralphgarman #justinebateman
