Recently I came across this picture, which lays out all the upcoming superhero films through 2020:
Yeah. That's a lot. But while this seems a little excessive, it makes sense why everyone in hollywood is making movies with super-powered characters: They can't be copied by other studios (Like Bugs Life and Antz, Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Oberve and Report, etc). For instance, only Sony/Columbia can make Spider-Man movies, only Warner Bros. can do anything D.C. related, and Fox is the only company that can make Fantastic Four or X-Men movies. Disney/Marvel and Fox even had to set down and lay out an agreement over how each studio would utilize the characters Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Disney/Marvel had to agree that they wouldn't use the word "Mutant" to describe them or reference their father Magneto in their upcoming Age of Ultron, while Fox couldn't reference Quicksilver's involvement with the Avengers in Days of Future Past.
When I look at this picture, I can only hope that the Avengers/Thanos storyline (pretty much the Kevin Feige produced Marvel movies) can finish how they want it to before the enviable over-staturation point that causes moviegoers to lose interest. Similar to what is happening now with the "young adult/dystopian future" movies (Hunger Games, Divergent, Maze Runner, etc), where I'm sure the source material and their film adaptations are great, but having them released so close together makes it a little stale. Saturday Night Live even did a bit on it during a recent episode:
So, in summary, everybody jumped on the superhero bandwagon because their characters can't be copied by another studio, and this is probably going to end badly for the studios who aren't Disney/Marvel (who everyone is trying to emulate).
And in case you haven't seen it already, here's the trailer for next May's Avengers, Age of Ultron:
Unexpected benefit of being bought by Disney: You can redo music from Pinocchio to use in your trailers.
Bugs Life is to Antz as any super hero movie is to any other one. They are all ripping off each other trying to bank off of the fact that a lot of people want to go see superhero movies. It's a money game and everyone is playing. No originality on anyone's part here.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with Zach here and say, unfortunately the reason why there are so many superhero movies IS the money. It didn't start out that way (way back in 2000) but it's definitely becoming that way, especially now that Marvel and DC are having like a competition. I really love superheroes, I love the comics, but the movies are mostly just going for money now. Marvel does have a huge plan on where their universe is going, but now it's feeling like every studio is just trying to beat the others to the punch. I also have to disagree with the statement about all the studios except for Disney failing and burning. I don't really think so. DC has a ton of potential, Fox has done (for the most part) a really good game with X-Men. Sony - yeah they are going to crash and burn. But, I also see an oversaturation of these movies coming soon. Just like the Western genre, there's going to be too many in one period of time because Hollywood is dumb in that aspect. Cut them down and space them out. Yeah, the actors will age, but seriously the genre is going to be killed! I love the comics, so I will always love superheroes and would love to work on superhero movies, but I get very iffy on the amount of movies coming and fear for the depth and quality of them.
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