EDITORIAL: Do you think they'll still be making comic movies in 10 years?

As long as they are still making comic books they will make CBM'S!

ninjinturdle: That's been suggested, but at 3+ a year(since 2004 -2009?) The good ones being made now are so good because the demand drew in huge talents.

The current popularity in CBM's is a trend, much like Westerns, or Kung Fu Flicks.
Of course they'll be making CBM's in 10 years, just not two dozen genre flicks a year like they are now.
Luckily, the trend is not going away for a while, but the shear amount of flicks will inevitably decrease.

The key is to find ways to stay fresh and unique while avoiding cliched "this is a comic book movie" territory.

The greatest hope for CBM's long term success is for the studios to create expanded universes (yes that includes DC)
The best way to hold the general audience's interest is to have established characters interacting in each others movies.

Eventually Marvel needs to find a way to buy back their characters from Fox, or somehow work out a deal so that X-men/Spiderman/FF can appear alongside Iron Man/Hulk/Cap etc.
The 3 Avengers Movies will of course be huge, but what's the next step? - get all the core Marvel characters back under one roof and build towards CIVIL WAR.

WB has an obvious advantage over Marvel in that they already own all their characters. They better get the ball rolling or we might not see a Justice League movie until the CBM trend is in decline...

All true and starting with a good film history reference. I suppose they make Kung Fu films ever since the first one too. So there's always that. I think the 4 a year deal is a great elation we have the privilege of living during it's excitement. Daredevil&Elektra is an example of a failed film expansion along with just failures on their own. Now we're seeing some poorly devised genre crossing happening with GH and the all around mess of GL. Kick Ass was perfect and GH tried to rip it off as if it were the first of it's kind(Mystery Men, Scott Pilgrim, MIB.) It's just in a time of growth I guess.

I believe our grandchildren are going to see "Spider-Man 8".

ninjinturdle: an 8th Spiderman film probably will exist, but who's going to make it? Will it be worse than S3?

its NOT THE WATCHMEN, it's just WATCHMEN. Stupid.

ninjinturdle: thanks

@Osbbie - And I'll still be around to watch that. Hopefully by then Sony and Fox won't own those products, but to that I highly doubt.

ninjinturdle: I probably will too.

@Curmudgeon

-2010-
CBM's - 7
Westerns - 3

-CBM's - Iron Man 2, Scott Pilgrim, Kick Ass, The Losers, The Book of Eli, Red, Jonah Hex (JH is a cbm first, western second)
-Westerns - True Grit, The Warriors Way, The Gundown

-2011-
CBM's - 8
Westerns - 3

-CBM's - Green Hornet, X-Men First Class, Thor, Dylan Dog, Adventures of Tin Tin, Green Lantern, Captain America, Cowboys and Aliens (C&A is a CBM first, western second)
-Westerns - Rango, The Price, Good For Nothing

I don't know were you're getting your info from. And your statement about biopics means nothing. The amount of biopics has never been a result of trends. Lots of documentaries come out too but that has nothing to do with how many CBM's will be made each year.

Next year's going to be the big decider. With the potential of 4 different 1 billion dollar worldwide grossing CBMs releasing (yeah, I'm including Superman in that.), and with 2 other CBMs hopefully taking a creative direction for the better (Ghost rider, Wolverine.) 2012 is a f***ing insane year for fans. But it'll also be a crucial year to assess one major factor- General Audience fatigue. There's definitely a tremendous amount of quality in the CBMs next year but will audiences be put off anyway because the novelty has worn off and they'll be beaten over the head with 7 new 100 million dollar marketing budgets? We'll have to wait and see.

ninjinturdle: that's some heavy stuff. I don't know if Wolverine can be saved, it's unnecessary and only being done because it sold with Hugh Jackman's career growth. Not that Wolverine is a bad character, just that W1 had alot of stupid crap. But with his appearance in X-Men Origins and if Deadpool ends up relating in any way, there's no way he'll go extinct.

I think since the technology involved in making movies has gotten so much better in the last 10 years it has made making CBMs more possible. Think about it when the 90's Batman was created would it be possible to see a live action Spider-Man swinging around New York. To see a CGI Hulk that can chug a tank a mile away. Even look at the movies like the first Spider-Man and compare the CGI in Ironman or Thor there's been a lot of improvment even now. So yeah I think they'll keep making comicbook movies and being more abitious with the characters they portray on screen. Hopefully the people making these movies try to put out a quality product. We can't expect that every movie out will be a gem but hopefully well see more good movies than bad

ninjinturdle: FX are very important, great point. Some aren't possible without top notch budgets.

i think it'll peak next year & then it'll slowly decline.

how many of the genral public know they're going to see a comic book movie.

i.e a history of violence,sin city,300,red,the losers or road to perdition.

we're definetly be getting at least two or three a year,but definetly not as many as we have been.

ninjinturdle: unless the Avengers spawns a huge growth in the success and grows more fans and improves in numerous ways, it's possible.

Of course we will as Hollywood has lost all imagination and orginal idea's are becoming a thing of the past, So i expect more CBM's, reboots and remakes not just for the next ten years but probably until the end of time.

ninjinturdle: as everything is rebooted, some become continuing franchises enough that it's no longer like taking an old dead comic and giving it life, so maybe all the new series and updated versions that came from the reboots and all are the present day and they'll be around forever. Never being considered taking from the past but a continuation of whats happening so far.

Yo people, remember first Superman movie and Batman. Those movies still rock and are classics. I think that in the next 10 years or so we will see all of our beloved heroes on screen and in about 20 years we will talk about them and own them on blu-ray if they don't get some other kind of tech by then. I am looking forward the next decade in seeing a lot of marvel and dc characters come to life. So yeah, I think we will see superhero movies a lot in the next 10 years.

ninjinturdle: Great. As for blu-ray, something tells me they already have the next waiting to be released.

THERE IS A WEALTH OF CHARACTERS AND STORIES FROM COMIC BOOKS TO LAST US SEVERAL GENERATIONS, AND NEW ONES BEING MADE..NOT UNTIL CGI HAVE WE EVER CONSIDERED TO VENTURE DEEPER IINTO THE COMIC AND SCIFI REALM...THE IDEAS WE HAD WISHED FOR WHEN ALL WE HAD WERE PUPETS AND FOAM LATEX BODY SUITS HAS BECOME COMPUTER GENERATED AND LIMITED ONLY BY OUR OWN IMAGINATION. CBM'S WON'T GET OLD, THERES SO MUCH TO TELL STILL. BESIDES, NOWADAYS WE NEED TO BELIEVE IN HEROES, THE WAY THINGS ARE NOW..PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR THAT ESCAPE INTO A WORLD WHERE STUFF WE ONLY IMAGINED DOING IS NOW IN FRONT OF US IN CINEMATIC REALITY.

ninjinturdle: that is true, it's why cinema has survived so long.

By the way, that avatar's very effective at grabbing attention with the caps lock on. Great match Mr. Smith!

comic book movies aren't going anywhere. Not the low key ones (road to peridition) or the mainstream ones (batman). I mean, if I'm not mistaken, Superman was made in 1977 that's nearly 35 years ago. And they've already picked up pace. I don't want to get into a debate about it, but I think Thor hurt GLs numbers because I was so disappointed in Thor, I didn't want to see GL. And I wouldn't have if someone didn't buy the ticket for me. But I liked GL much more than Thor. Point is CBMs are hot and while hollywood may not pump out 3, 4, 5 a year like they are now. We'll still get at least 1 per year. Some one else mentioned that Westerns died. But we get at least 1 western a year. 3:10 to Yuma, Tombstone, Appoloosa and True Grit come to mind over the last few years.

ninjinturdle: the future's already been covered by discussions in the comments since the article was first contributed(not that it's necessary to read comments before posting, but it was already there) and yes, the low key and the mainstream ones(all ComicBookMovies) will continue to be made into movies, just not likely at the present rate.

The following bit about Thor hurting GL's numbers and causing you to not want to see GL is rediculous for a few reasons. GL is hurt because of GL's sucking cinematic gonads. I JUST got done watching Thor again and I can't see how anyone who's part of something called www.comicbookmovie.com could not only say Thor made him not want to see GL(they aren't related beyond being comic characters by different publishers so that's kind of an unrelated connection to make) but then go on to say he "liked GL much more than Thor." Also, that you're a member of ComicBookMovie.com means you should have not wanted to see GL because the world agrees it sucked balls as this site showed in it's ComicBookMovie reviews, plus the world knew it sucked because it was being siad everywhere. I understand about opinions and that's great that you were entertained, but you said Thor was the reason you hadn't seen it, so the connection is fuzzy.

Thor's story was solid and interesting, but if not interesting enough maybe Maculis requires something more out of an American theatrical tale and doesn't accept films with a fight count less than that of "The Matrix." Then there's that other depressing letdown of Kat Denning not performing Felattio on Natalie Portman on screen, and not for a PG13 5 minute minimum. Even if you expected "A LITTLE MORE" out of the well hyped Thor(which every movie could have said about it really,) I don't see where GL succeeds in any way as a worthwhile movie, much less, better.

Though I did hear a reliable being in a store the other day talking out loud to some other guy who screams stuff out in public about how GL was good too.

As if you didn't already seem like someone writing the opposite opinion of me&everyone expecting plot when watching movies just to disagree, you address (I'm assuming:) golden123, WellDrawn, blkyank, WellDrawn[listing film count for westerns&cbm,] with "someone mentioned that Westerns died." They referenced how westerns were very common at one point, then the craze died down. They weren't saying, "westerns died with John Wayne!" That sounded like someone just bothering people online with crazy comments, but you continued with this gem, (I ADDED THE DATES)"But we get at least 1 western a year. 3:10 to Yuma(2007,) Tombstone(1993,) Appoloosa(2008) and True Grit(2010) come to mind over the last few years."
What are you talking about man? Yes, westerns are still made and no one said they weren't, just that they aren't as common as in their golden years. Just a weird set of titles too, perhaps you were struggling to remember recent Westerns, which goes against your point, but only 4? True Grit's a remake(doesn't count against you or anything,) Appaloosa was a bomb and Tombstone was 18 years ago. A decent western comes around every maybe 3-18 years in your book(Unforgiven was 1992.)
And that's all he wrote. Enough for now, but hopefully we'll be blessed with some of that again!


*http://comicbookmovie.com/fansites/mightyThorton/news/?a=40631

look i think when we talk about CBMs, people tend to automatically associate em with super heroes, and nowadays, sometimes they're not.

the way i understand this article might just be directed at the super hero movies and not ALL cbms. i mean, stuff like ghost world, the road to perdition and even blade don't look like CBMs, unless you're in the KNOW.

having said that, i hope after GL, hollywood will really watch their step and change the way they look at things, i.e. instead of trying to make a great comic book super hero movie, they would try to just make a great movie. they should've just looked at GL as another big budget summer movie and make it great, instead of looking at it as another big budget SUPER HERO movie and follow a certain tried and tested formula, thus, making it SUPER dull.

ninjinturdle: I pretty much was referring to the costumed heroes with capes. They're too easily seen as something that's just coming back around as a fad. The Graphic Novel and grittier heroes are more movie like anyway.

Hopefully within 10 years we'll get a decent Super-man film. But I doubt it.

Nolan's been on that a while now with Zack Snyder:
*Christopher Nolan co-wrote the story with David Goyer, as well as being appointed one of the producers involved in the film, and has final say on casting.

*http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0770828/faq#.2.1.16

I think you should learn how to put sentences together before you write about something that is beyond your comprehension. Or was that just me?

ninjinturdle: no, pretty much everyone but WesleyGibson seems to believe they're beyond my comprehension, smartass

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@REMIMARKS: Hey I was going to say that (almost) exact same thing myself. P :)

I thought about this question for a while and decided to respond with this:

It is possible for CBMs to fail or flourish at this point. The trick to making it work is taking it to the same level that inspires us as comic fans to read the books. If Hollywood deducts the commercial, franchise, fast-food,formula from the equation and give us solid stories that focus solely on character building, depth, and exciting visuals it will be fine.
Take a movie like SALT. I've said it before, but I think it would've been great to see that story as a BLACK WIDOW movie. It had great pacing, twists and turns throughout the film, and she was a Russian agent! The same tone should be applied when dealing with characters with superhuman abilities. The magic happens when you stay as true to the character/comic history as possible, all the while bringing complex situations grounded in a real world. We also have to care about them and believe that they care about what they're doing.
Furthermore, I also think the studios should up the ante on the threats that enemies bring. Make the bad guys motive seem justifiable to the villain (or villains) with a skewed sense of logic and rationale that separates them from their counterpart.
TDK's Joker: Flawless.
Unbreakable's "Mr. Glass": Great.
The story is the point. Cutting corners on it will ultimately knock down the Jenga tower (so to speak), but if done properly, the magic could continue for generations to come.
My desire is to see the Marvel U as a whole under the Marvel flag. So things like Secret Wars, Infinity Gauntlet, Civil War/ Secret Invasion and many other Marvel stories happen. They need to make an agreement and get this Marvel/ Fox/ Sony BS situated before it becomes something the fans no longer care about, and make whoever's writing these stories take an exam on the hero before jotting down one line. If they put love into what we love, we'll put money down for the product and keep coming for more! My thoughts...

ninjinturdle: I hope the Holooywood execs read this one!