By George Robbins
Movie theaters have been doing their absolute best over the past few months due to the position they have been put into by the pandemic. They were all forced to shut down as soon as the pandemic was announced back in March. Ever since then they have been trying to come up with a way of drawing people back in while simultaneously coming up with plans for how they will open. Well they have managed to succeed in at least opening their doors back up again to the public, but there is a complication. The former issue of whether they can bring people back in or not is now beginning to rear its ugly head. Movies may be in even more trouble than they were in before.
Studios are having an equally difficult time because they need money in order to start working on their next projects. This is kind of an issue given the fact that they can’t even get people to come and see their films, but they can make up for it at least a little bit by selling movies straight to digital.This is a plan which has been working in respect to some films already and the success of VOD films has got studios thinking about what they will do moving forward. Unfortunately for theaters, they don’t really have this option because they need people to go out in order to make their income somehow.
This previous weekend in the United States was a wake-up call for theaters because it showed that people are still far too wary to go back out to such a public place so soon. Though the previous weekend presented a huge box office return, this past weekend only saw movies like the blockbuster ‘Tenet’ getting just over $6.5 million nation wide. This just shows that if a blockbuster is having issues, then what chance do other movies have when it comes time for release. Therefore, theaters may just end up having no choice but to shut down again. It is just way too early for them to be opened back up to the public again and this just shows that.
By George Robbins
As we have all been made aware of by this point, ‘Suicide Squad‘ was a disappointing movie that had various aspects littered throughout which went against itself. For the most part, the movie had no idea what exactly it was trying to be, hence we ended up with a film that made no sense. Well, in the grand scheme of things it made no sense, because the movie itself was actually supposed to be a grittier and more put together version of itself. Unfortunately for director David Ayer, this just doesn’t seem like it was meant to happen because of supposed studio interference. There would have been nothing wrong with a serious film, but the end result was something trying too hard to be funny.
Comedy has become something which is now pretty much ingrained in superhero movies as a way of kind of lightening the mood of the film. It ends up working a trick in the release of the film because it helps relieve tension. ‘Suicide Squad’ was given way too many scenes where the characters were trying too hard to make the audience laugh and it came back to bite the film critically. This is due to all of the comedy being added during reshoots to try and make the film appeal more to the masses. It appears that this will not be the case with the upcoming spiritual sequel ‘The Suicide Squad.’ Apparently, the comedy in that movie will be much more natural than it was in the first film, and therefore, funnier.
‘The Suicide Squad’ will make its premiere some time next August, barring any more issues in the movie theater industry. This time, the movie is being directed by ‘Guardians of the Galaxy‘ director James Gunn who is well known for making those films funny, yet serious films. It has become apparent that he will be giving ‘The Suicide Squad’ the same level of energy given what has been seen at DC FanDome for the film already. Not to mention the fact that actors related to the film, like Joel Kinnaman, have a lot of good things to say about the film. Kinnaman, who played Rick Flagg in the first film and will be making a return in this film, has said that the script for the new film made him laugh out loud when he read it and this makes it very appealing for fans moving forward.
By George Robbins
Franchises are a massive part of the creative industry as a whole and account for the largest part of the income made. They are what allow companies to expand to the furthest reaches of the world and invest themselves in every possible type of industry out there. This is why, unless the movie that was made was based off of something, you won’t just see merchandise crop up for random films. In fact, I think at this point, franchises make up most of the market at large solely due to the merchandising fact behind it all. It means that unless a franchise can be made out of something, a movie or game will more than likely not get made.
This sort of ends up working out for the consumer because it means that people are going to end up getting new content to play or view on a regular basis. One of the unfortunate parts of a franchise, however, is the fact that quality usually suffers as a result of the fact that something is constantly expected to come out. This makes it so that fans are always expecting things to carry on as they have and they expect the content to always be incredible. This has made it extremely difficult for companies to keep up with current demand as they can’t usually keep up with the high quality demand being asked of them. Thus, not many franchises actually end up succeeding in the long run.
Franchises have a couple of different paths laid out for them as time rolls on. They can take the heavy merchandising route where all they do is focus on the merchandise aspect and companies can sell content related to that franchise to make up for lost income. They can also be pretty successful and be able to keep people entertained as time goes on without declining in overall enjoyment. Another option is that they can go down both paths and they can be successful in multiple ways or they can do the opposite and fail miserably. Not many companies are capable of making franchises which can manage to do the third one, but we know of one that has done it already, Disney.
The Disney Company is one of worldwide renown which has cemented its place as a company which is most likely to last for an extremely long time moving forward. They might be catching flak nowadays because of everything going on with their new live-action movie ‘Mulan’ and their other business practices, but this won’t change anything. Disney is the type of company to bounce back after everything goes wrong for them, which is how they have succeeded so much after all these years. They are known mostly for the amount of effort they put into making their projects work which is why they are a perfect company for making franchises, which is exactly what they’ve done. Over the years, they have made many successful franchises.
They are unique in the fact that they don’t just have specific franchises, but their animated films grouped together are pretty much a franchise. Not only this but they can create franchises from their singular films that they produce for the public. This is why they have been able to make nearly every piece of content they own a success, but this mostly applies to animated films. When it comes to live-action films, Disney has to rely on already established content like the Star Wars franchise and their wildly popular Marvel Cinematic Universe. The later of which has been the most profitable purchase they have ever made followed by the purchase of the former franchise.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU, became popular immediately after the release of the original ‘Iron Man‘ film back in 2008. Marvel Studios was created in order to carry on this torch and they created a wildly successful franchise of films. This was very quickly picked up on by Disney and they began making a fortune based off of how popular this franchise became and we ended up with plenty of spin-offs as a result. Disney took that wild success and made it somehow even more profitable by using merchandising rights to make toys and other pieces of related content that they could sell. Needless to say, the MCU is still the most popular modern day franchise other than Star Wars which has had its popularity survive through merchandising.
Despite what is going on in the world right now, the MCU is still doing its best to carry on by making plans for upcoming filming for new movies. Among those new upcoming films is the third film in the ‘Ant-Man’ series of films currently named ‘Ant-Man 3.’ It is meant to begin filming some time in June of next year and it will have a 2022 release attached to it, at least as of now. Unsurprisingly, not much has been revealed about the movie thus far, but we now know that ‘Lovecraft Country‘ star Jonathan Majors has been cast for a role in the film. Reportedly, the role that he has been cast for has been revealed as the villain Kang the Conqueror who will most likely be playing the role of the main villain in the upcoming hero film. The only way to know for sure now is to wait and see.
By George Robbins
No matter how subjectively we look at certain aspects of the Marvel franchise, the fact remains that it has been pretty much a massive success. Even before the Marvel Studios films started coming into existence, the Marvel franchise created its foothold with movies like the early 2000’s Spider-Man films. Although the third film in that original trilogy was not viewed very well, it was overall a pretty successful trilogy that saw hero movies entering a new era. Spider-Man has held a pretty strong opinion in the eyes of fans over the years, especially through the ups and downs that came with them. When it was announced he would be returning for the MCU, fans everywhere instantly became excited once again. No one was quite sure what would end up happening because the company that owns the rights for the Spider-Man films was Sony.
Ever since the inception of the 2000’s Spider-Man films, Sony has been the company which has held the rights to make films related to the aforementioned hero. When the MCU films started becoming more and more popular, fans became worried because they knew that Spider-Man had to become a part of it all eventually, but they also knew Sony had his film rights. Luckily for fans, a deal was worked out and Spider-Man officially became a part of the MCU, but this doesn’t mean that Sony gave up his rights and, in the background, they made an animated film called ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.’ This movie would go on to be the best piece of Spider-Man related content they had produced themselves in years.
‘Into the Spider-Verse’ was an animated film created by the Sony company which revitalized Sony’s own market for their character that they have creative control over. The movie was a massive hit on release and there was word not too long ago that a sequel for the film was currently beginning production and would become available to the public by some time in 2022. With word of a sequel on the way, it is of no surprise really to anyone that new information is coming out in regards to the first film and some of that info is actually really interesting. One of the big things to come out about the film is the fact that live-action versions of Spider-Man were considered for the film, but were seen as being too weird. That is saying something considering the different types of Spider-Men already in the film, but it makes sense given the fact that trying to blend live-action and animation like that would have been nearly impossible. Still, it definitely would have been interesting to see a version of the film where live-action Spider-Men were a part of the action.
By George Robbins
Zack Snyder is the creative mind responsible for the creation of the DC Extended Universe, or DCEU, as a whole when he made the ‘Man of Steel’ movie. While the movie, like much of the DCEU, was not received especially well critically, it did start a franchise of films which made a lot of money. This sort of thing kind of needs to be taken into account when looking back at everything that has happened over the years. There have since been a number of films which have released which have expanded a bit more into the universe that was originally portrayed in that first film. Needless to say, if not for Snyder, DC would not really have any foothold whatsoever in the era of franchises in which we currently find ourselves in.
Although since the release of ‘Man of Steel’ many of the films in the DCEU have not been well received, they are still a sight to behold as they shape DC as a whole in the modern era. One of the films that followed which was also directed by Snyder was ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ which changed things moving forward, but only just a little. What that movie did was set up a reason for a plot point in the ‘Justice League’ movie to exist. That plot point was just how much Superman was needed to further the storyline in the ensemble film, but we did not get what we expected in the final version. This probably had something to do with the fact that Snyder was not able to stay on the ‘Justice League’ project and director Joss Whedon took over.
Fans took heavy notice of the fact that Snyder was not really going to be involved in the upcoming film and a petition was put in place where they asked the studio for a director’s cut of ‘Justice League.’ This new cut, directed by Snyder, would be the version of the film that was originally supposed to be shown on the big screen. This new version will be appearing early next year on Warner Bros. streaming service HBO Max in four one-hour segments to give people what they wanted. We have just now found out that the movie will apparently pay off on more of what happened in ‘Batman v Superman.’ According to Snyder, the opening of his version of ‘Justice League’ will peak back at the fight between the heroes and Doomsday while showing things from Batman’s perspective, showing how his views changed from the beginning of the movie to the end.
By George Robbins
The creative industry is one where people are always competing in order to make things that can draw in different people’s attention. If not for creative differences, we would not have entertainment the way that it is today and much of the industry would be very much different from what it is nowadays. If not for this phenomena, we would have plenty of movies that are exactly the same from their predecessors which is already an issue given how much content exists out in the world. Among those creative types are the ones responsible for the creation of the DC and Marvel franchises. These franchises are rightfully seen as among the biggest franchises to actually exist in the world currently and they pretty much dominate the markets.
If not for the DC films and shows of the 80’s and 90’s, we probably would not have had such a successful run with the Marvel films of the late 2000’s. If not for the love people had for superhero films in general, the movie industry could be a very different place for hero films right now. Among those Marvel films, were movies that no one expected to be as good as they were such as ‘The Guardians of the Galaxy’ which was not very well known outside of a select group of comic book fans. That group of heroes would actually go on to be one of the most popular groups to grace the big screen because of the efforts of the movie’s director James Gunn. Gunn put a lot of work into the likeability of the characters seen on screen and the overall aesthetic that made up the film, giving it an air that made it seen as a great film overall.
Due to a controversy caused by old messages that Gunn had online for jokes that didn’t age well, he was temporarily let go from the upcoming ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ movie. Eventually they rescinded this, but during that time, Gunn was picked up by Marvel opposition DC to direct a new film. That movie would go on to be the upcoming spiritual sequel ‘The Suicide Squad.’ One would probably expect some bad blood between Gunn and Marvel Studios, but Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige actually went to Gunn’s set to see how he was doing with his film. Gunn revealed that Feige was “very cool and supportive as he always is,” and that any behind the scenes enmity is only existent in the fan community.
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