I heard an interesting explanation for the influx of comic book movies over the last six years. It seems the last real golden age for comics was about the time I was reading them, about fifteen years ago, which means that others of my generation have finally ascended to positions of power in Hollywood. So even though the industry itself took something of a nosedive in the mid-nineties, suddenly the people green-lighting movies were huge fans. Combined with the developments in CG technology, studios were able to bring us better-than-average blockbusters that had decades of storylines and character development to draw on.

Basically, in the beginning, things were good. Spiderman and its first sequel, X-Men and it's first sequel, even Sin City, were all about as good as one could expect from such mega-budget fare. There were failures in there, to be sure (Daredevil and Hulk spring to mind), but all in all I was impressed with the way Hollywood handled it. But recently... man, they have just been atrocious. The last few months have seen the release of Ghost Rider, Spiderman 3, and now Fantastic Four to almost venomous critical reaction, and word-of-mouth is definitely hurting profits after exceptional opening weekends.

Just to put it in perspective, Ghost Rider grossed $115 million domestic and $227 worldwide while sporting a rottentomatoes rating of 29%, Spiderman (as you well know) is over $330 million with a 'cream of the crop' rottentomatoes rating of 45%, and now Fantastic Four rolls into theatres with $57 million and a rating of 39%.

So the question is, what can we do to get the genre back on track? I'm hopeful that Jon Favreau's Iron Man will be decent (Robert Downey Jr. is an inspired choice for Tony Stark), but I'm much more skeptical of Universal's decision to redo Hulk as though Ang Lee's version never happened, even with Ed Norton in the titular role. If it works, though, maybe they can just remake all the ones that suck. There's a good Daredevil movie to be made, I think, especially if they get Frank Miller involved. Ditto that for Elektra, which could have brilliant source material in a Miller limited series called Elektra: Assassin. Oliver Stone even flirted with that one a while a back, which I think would be a terrific fit.

Still, that's all I got. What do you folks think?

In other box office news, Ocean's 13 fell a bit harder than I expected, dropping 47% to $19 million for a $69 million total. Still, it's already done $67 overseas, so the folks at Warner Bros. are happy. But don't hold your breath for 14. Knocked Up continues to hold up well, slipping just 26% to $14.5 million for a $90 million total, easily making it the sleeper hit of the summer, a feat that is fast becoming Judd Apatow's specialty.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End followed in fourth place with $12 million, down 43%, for a $273 million total. Surf's Up took the hit I thought it would, falling 47% to $9 million and a $34 million total, signaling the end of talking penguin movies for at least another presidential administration. And with Pixar's Ratatouille right around the corner (and getting great buzz), I expect this one to disappear faster than... any one of those dozen CGI kid pics that came out last year that no one remembers. Faring much better was Shrek the Third in sixth place with $9 million and a $297 million total.

Posted in Industry , Moviegasm , Newsgasm by Sutter Cane at 2:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Last Comment: sutter kane on Jun 22, 2007 10:32 AM.

Comments (3)

TinkerbellAPixie :

OOOH I didn't know they were making a new Hulk but that news excites me. I love the Hulk character and was so disappointed with Ang Lee's version. I would have walked out if I wasn't stuck in the middle of a very full theater.

I had been excited when I heard they were making a movie about Nancy Drew - but the previews showed a Nancy very different from the books I read as a kid. Gonna skip that one.

As for Oceans 13, Oceans 12 was such a hot mess I'd be hard pressed to see 13 in the theaters.

1 of 3 | Posted by TinkerbellAPixie | Posted on June 18, 2007 5:11 PM

msu11y28 :

Sutter, why do you think Evan Almighty won't make back its $$? It can't be the cast..Carell, Wanda Sykes, Morgan Freeman are all great. Is it the premise? But with a similar religious premise, Bruce Almighty did very well.

2 of 3 | Posted by msu11y28 | Posted on June 21, 2007 6:55 AM

sutter kane :

msu,

The problem is that Universal got crazy with the budget, and it's not tracking very well. It might open to $40 million this weekend, which would be good if it didn't cost $200 million to make, and probably near another $100 to market. If could show great legs and do big business overseas, but I don't see Carrell being a big foreign draw.

3 of 3 | Posted by sutter kane | Posted on June 22, 2007 10:32 AM

User Name		Need to Register with our Forums section? Then click here
Password

Back to Recaps

Post a comment

141