Response to "The Death of The Superhero Movies" by Mark Cassidy

Response to "The Death of The Superhero Movies" by Mark Cassidy

Recently one of the editors, Mark "RorMachine" Cassidy, of comicbookmovie.com posted an article about the death of the superhero movie and whether it is true or not.

Editorial Opinion
By Potterman - Jul 22, 2011 08:07 AM EST
Filed Under: Other
Source: comicbookmovie.com

My response is a resounding no. The superhero film industry has really only just begun to be tapped. Along with this there are many different storylines and characters to provide production companies with countless ideas for superhero movies.

To make things easy I broke up my response into two groups. Group 1 is your mainstream superheroes and group 2 is your lesser known. The reason for this is there will be two very different strategies for future movies.

Group 1. Mainstream Heroes (Batman, Spider-Man, X-Men, Superman, Iron Man)

All of these either have or will have a movie coming out every year. These are the blockbusters that cash in regardless of what critics think. Now most people will say these have been done and cannot be counted on for future movies. I disagree.

The current fad for mainstream heroes is the origin and younger developmental years of the hero. This opens up the possibility for future movies to focus on storylines that explore the latter years of the hero.

Example. The next Spidey flick will be a reintroduction of Peter and his teenage years.

What is stopping them from creating another movie two years later focusing on an aging Spider-Man who has been fighting crime for years? I would love to see a story about a man fighting crime for 15 years with no end in sight and how that affects his pysche.

The same can be said with the current Batman trilogy, X-Men first class and the upcoming Superman. All of these films focused on the origin and younger years. The next installments can be set years ahead. With new villains and a whole different target audience.

Also each of these mainstream character's has tons of different villians which opens up the doors for different movies focusing on a whole different threat.

These movies will still receive high budgets in the 100+ million. Your mainstream heroes will cover budget regardless of what critics say.

Moving on to Group 2. The lesser known heroes. (Green Lantern is the best example)

These movies will now move to low budget, unknown directors/actors. Green Lantern proved that a less popular hero will not smash the box office regardless of the budget. We can all say at this time that Green Lantern was a failure and movie studios will not provide this sort of budget moving forward.

That does not mean they will not make movies based on lesser known heroes. It only means the budgets will be ALOT less and it will actually require the movie to be good in order to be successful.

This could be good for the CBM. Instead of movie studios throwing money at a movie, they will be forced to make a quality CBM in order for it to be successful.

Maybe that means we will see some amazing CBMs come out based on comics only the diehards know of.

To conclude I hardly think the CBM is dying. I actually think the opposite. There are so many possibilities with the mainstream heroes that will provide potential movies for years to come. And we may see a drop in budget for lesser known heroes but the movies will still be made and they may even be better when they can't rely on money to sell the movie.

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JillKennedy
JillKennedy - 7/22/2011, 9:52 AM
I couldn't agree more, Mark. I also wrote a response to "The Death of Superheroes". It's just a ridiculous analysis that has no weight to it. To say that 16 superhero characters in 10 years have been introduced is not over saturation. 2,000 other movies were released in the same time.

http://mankabros.com/blogs/onmedea/2011/07/21/dont-blame-superman/
Potterman
Potterman - 7/22/2011, 10:04 AM
Exactly Jill! It's ridiculous to think they are going to stop. Reboots, new storylines, and new villains are just a few ways to make new movies.
thunderforce
thunderforce - 7/22/2011, 10:21 AM
You can't make a good Green Lantern movie on the cheap to many special effects . The answer is what Marvel is doing introduce your b string superheroes in the a string superhero movies . Whenever possible have the b stringers operate on a team also and have larger story arcs 3, 4 or even 5 movies long . To do this though you have to have a unified cinematic universe .
LEEE777
LEEE777 - 7/22/2011, 10:22 AM
Of course superhero cbm's aren't going anywhere and never will!

They been around in black & white on the big screen and be around a 100 years from now!

Tho FOX is trying their up most to [frick] it up, and GL/WB... should have made GL like SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE, epic!

THOR best pic this year by far an hopefully CAP is up there too and with THE AVENGERS and hopefully JLA later on we got so much to look forward 2!

Bring it on!!!!

LEEE777
LEEE777 - 7/22/2011, 10:23 AM
Most cbm's tho need to be 2 hours plus for a decent story anything else just feels rushed an a popcorn movie.
golden123
golden123 - 7/22/2011, 11:56 AM
Yeah, I'm with the above guy, this editorial wasn't that well. you could of put more effort into this editorial.

Anyways, Green Lantern was definitly more well known, if not the same, as Ironman before Ironman came out.
RobGrizzly
RobGrizzly - 7/28/2011, 6:34 PM
Its kind of like preaching to the choir on this site, though, isn't it?

I would like a link to this "Death of CBM "article so I can see what it is you are defending. It sounds like you're simply saying that superhero movies will continue to be made. If so, I can only say, OF COURSE THEY WILL! That won't change anytime soon.

Its not so much a matter of popularity as its simply Hollywood's lack of imagination. One could argue CBMs are "hot" right now, but my counterpoint would simply be that if you look at the industry, they are adapting ANYTHING and EVERYTHING with the intention of building audience based on name recognition. Like videogames, young adult novels, 80s movies, and friggin board games, comic books are simply just another resource to plunder. Nothing special about 'em, and from the recent mediocre efforts, they aren't being made with love. They are being made for money. Sorry if that bursts your bubble, but comic book viability has nothing to do with it. Y The Last Man won't become a film because 'everyone's dying for it'. It will become a film because, well, its something and it exists. Make it. That's the Hollywood mentality right now.

Now, if you're arguing that CBMs will only be more plentiful and they are not oversaturated, I would warn you that "audience fatigue" happens to every genre. Maybe WE can't wait for the next Spider-Man or JLA, but general movie goers tire quickly with over-crowded markets. It recently happened with horror remakes, musicals, and sword and sandal pictures. It will happen with CBMs.

RobGrizzly
RobGrizzly - 7/28/2011, 6:34 PM
Its kind of like preaching to the choir on this site, though, isn't it?

I would like a link to this "Death of CBM "article so I can see what it is you are defending. It sounds like you're simply saying that superhero movies will continue to be made. If so, I can only say, OF COURSE THEY WILL! That won't change anytime soon.

Its not so much a matter of popularity as its simply Hollywood's lack of imagination. One could argue CBMs are "hot" right now, but my counterpoint would simply be that if you look at the industry, they are adapting ANYTHING and EVERYTHING with the intention of building audience based on name recognition. Like videogames, young adult novels, 80s movies, and friggin board games, comic books are simply just another resource to plunder. Nothing special about 'em, and from the recent mediocre efforts, they aren't being made with love. They are being made for money. Sorry if that bursts your bubble, but comic book viability has nothing to do with it. Y The Last Man won't become a film because 'everyone's dying for it'. It will become a film because, well, its something and it exists. Make it. That's the Hollywood mentality right now.

Now, if you're arguing that CBMs will only be more plentiful and they are not oversaturated, I would warn you that "audience fatigue" happens to every genre. Maybe WE can't wait for the next Spider-Man or JLA, but general movie goers tire quickly with over-crowded markets. It recently happened with horror remakes, musicals, and sword and sandal pictures. It will happen with CBMs.

RobGrizzly
RobGrizzly - 7/28/2011, 6:47 PM
(sorry for he double post)
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