Neil Calloway looks at the superhero movie genre’s dominance of the mainstream, and its impact on adult cinema…
The news that financing on the the film Idol’s Eye, slated to star Robert De Niro and Robert Pattinson, had been pulled, just as it was about to go into production surprised me. If a film starring an double Oscar winner like De Niro and a young star like Pattinson can’t attract investors, what films can? Anyone that has an interest in film can’t have helped but notice that Marvel Studios – which only started making films on its own in 2008 – revealed their “phase three” for the next few years, quickly following the announcement from DC comics If these young upstarts can tell us what films they’re going to be making for the foreseeable future, how can a film like Idol’s Eye not secure the money it needs to get made?
The answer comes when you look at box office figures. Look at the top ten films at the US box office for 2013 (we’ll come back to the films for this year) 1. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, 2. Iron Man 3, 3. Frozen, 4. Despicable Me 2, 5. Man of Steel, 6. Gravity, 7. Monsters University, 8. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, 9. Fast & Furious 6, 10. Oz The Great and Powerful. Of those, only Gravity and Frozen aren’t sequels or based on other material or both (yes, I know Frozen is based on a fairy tale but I’d say it was sufficiently removed from its source to be considered original, and it did not rely on the recognition factor of the original story for publicity and marketing purposes). The majority of them are also aiming for the all important 16-24 year old demographic, with a few – Frozen, Monsters University, Despicable Me 2 – aiming for even younger.
Perhaps it’s always been like that; let’s look at 2003’s top ten films. 1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2. Finding Nemo, 3. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, 4. The Matrix Reloaded, 5. Bruce Almighty, 6. X2: X-Men United, 7. Elf, 8. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, 9. The Matrix Revolutions, 10. Cheaper by the Dozen. The first thing you’ll notice is that 2003 wasn’t a great year for cinema. There are slightly less films based on other material, and the target audience is slightly older. There may be a film based on a theme park ride, but there is only one based on a comic book.
Going back twenty years to 1993, you see how much has changed; 1. Jurassic Park, 2. Mrs. Doubtfire, 3. The Fugitive, 4. The Firm, 5. Sleepless in Seattle, 6. Indecent Proposal, 7. In the Line of Fire, 8. The Pelican Brief, 9. Schindler’s List, 10. Cliffhanger. First, how crazy did Hollywood go for John Grisham adaptations in the early to mid nineties? (Answer: totally – The Client was the 13th highest grossing film of 1994). Second, only half the films are based on other material – but these aren’t sequels or adaptations of young adult novels. The target audience is at least ten years older than the films that made the top ten in 2013 (hell, In The Line of Fire starred Clint Eastwood – he was 63 when the film was released, hardly someone a 16 year old teenager can relate to).
Now, the question is, are the sequels, reboots and comic book adaptations being made because they are the only ones that make money now, or are they making money because they are the only ones out there? I don’t know, but the success of Gone Girl – both critically and commercially, making the best part of $140m since its October opening in the US alone, shows that there is an audience for a good, grown up drama. Yes, it’s an adaptation, but of a serious novel aimed at an adult audience. Are older audiences now stopping in, binging on box sets instead of going to the cinema? Probably (the top TV shows of 1993 against the Top TV shows of 2013 would be interesting). But if they are, are they stopping in and gorging on Orange is the New Black because there isn’t much choice at the cinema? Maybe.
I like a good sequel, reboot or comic book adaptation as much as anyone, but I can’t help but feel Hollywood is playing safe by relying on them. The top ten so far for 2014 is completely made up of films based on other material, in one case a film based on brightly coloured plastic bricks from Denmark. I don’t mind these films being made, but I do mind when it is at the cost of serious, original films aimed at adults, which increasingly seems to be the case.
Neil Calloway is a pub quiz extraordinaire and Top Gun obsessive. Check back here every Sunday for future installments.
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Originally published November 9, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
