When something works in Hollywood – there is usually a long line of films in a similar vein that follow it. You can look at this in the macro – e.g. the
Attack of the {insert scary creature title here} movies of the 30's and 40's, the westerns of the 50's and 60's, the gangster dramas of the 70's and 80's, or the disaster movies of the 90's. You can also look at this on a micro level e.g.
Deep Impact being released by one studio – then mere months later
Armageddon being released by a different studio. There is no coincidence here. Often once a studio announces the production of a 'genre' movie, other studios will follow suit.
The noughties have very much been the era of
Comic Book Movies. They have dominated the summer blockbuster market since "X-Men" in 2000. You only have to look 2011 to see just how dominant comic book movies have become:
The Green Hornet,
Thor,
X-Men: First Class,
Green Lantern,
Captain America,
Cowboys and Aliens... I could go on and list the comic book dominance that will be 2012 but I won't.
So my question is – will this be another Hollywood phase?
Whether you're a comic fan or not, comic book movies will always draw a large audience because you know what you are going to get. Sometimes they don't hit the spot for the 'fan boys' and they will leave disappointed, but the films will still be successful because your average Joe will leave happy from being entertained. He doesn't care that the origin story has been bastardized or that Superman has a son, ahem...
This is where Hollywood gets it wrong: Spider-Man was a major disappointment with the 'fan boys,' but successful with the mainstream public. The films deteriorated in quality as they went on. Yet they were successful enough to have a reboot commissioned less than 10 years after the original was released. What other genre would that be possible?
The beauty of comics is that they are open to interpretation: any one film maker's take on a character will be different from someone else. So as long as there is a such a back catalog of material from which to draw, Hollywood will continue to make comic book movies. Let's just hope they don't forget the 'fan boys' along the way as we can make or break a movie.
This could be the genre that will last a lifetime. So long as there are comics, there will be characters to adapt. So long as there are comic book fans, there will be people willing to pay to see the film adaptation. The beauty of comic book films is that existing fans generate the early buzz, from pre-production they start a long process of posting on websites like IMDb and ComicBookMovie.com. With their passion comes a real power that starts to infect your average cinema goer who doesn't read comics but likes a good 'popcorn movie.' And that's what comic book movies tend to be...
ENTERTAINING! (The exception being
Superman Returns maybe...)