EDITORIAL: How To Make THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 3 Better Than The Others

EDITORIAL: How To Make THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 3 Better Than The Others

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 is doing really, really well...under normal film standards, with average expectations. However, given the fact SONY wanted $1 billion reactions and great critical response: this turnout has been...disappointing. The only way to make sure the franchise can return to massive profitability is to make sure the next film is better than the others. How do I think the next one could be the best Spider-Man yet? Find out my thoughts after the jump!

Editorial Opinion
By TheDarman - May 28, 2014 05:05 PM EST
Source: Wikipedia

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 opened on May 2, 2014 the home of the biggest and most successful Comic Book Movies, such as The Avengers and Iron Man 3. Not unlike its predecessor, it had a surprise hit the weekend after its debut. (Ice Age and Neighbors, respectively) However, The Amazing Spider-Man had the benefit of a six-day opening weekend before July 4th, an American holiday. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 had only three days to show what it had in it. For a film, like this, with milder expectations, $91.6 million would've been fantastic. However, this is Spider-Man. He is the third most widely recognizeable superhero in the entire world. With a previously second-tier superhero like Iron Man showing Spider-Man up, not only half a million, but half a hundred million dollars on the opening weekend previously held by Iron Man 3Sony's alarm bells better be going off.



Domestically, Spider-Man, again, is underperforming his last entry while also outperforming his last entry overseas. Sony can rely on overseas markets to an extent. However, movies generally make more of their money in domestically than any other country, or pair of countries, on the planet. How far is too far to shrink? The Amazing Spider-Man 2 looks to be hitting $200 million domestically which is $65 million below its predecessor. That is a large 24.5% drop in its domestic market. Sony needs a strong franchise in order to keep going with its spin-offs and universe building. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 seems to be Sony's Iron Man 2, in terms of public reception, which isn't exactly good when Spider-Man doesn't have a three-year break between his next solo film and a bunch of team-up hype working with him. Critics, who are significant in deciding who goes to see these films opening weekend, weren't kind to The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and The Amazing Spider-Man 3 is going to have to win back some of them in order to reassure audiences there is still something amazing about this franchise.



The Amazing Spider-Man 3 is also going to be dependent on a very good opening weekend. It seems unlikely that How to Train Your Dragon 3 will open against Pixar hit Finding Dory only a week after Spider-Man's release but, either way, Spider-Man is going to have his legs cut into by these two sure-to-be franchise hits. While one of them is as sure to move as as-of-yet untitled Captain America 3 and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice are sure to move away from the release date six weeks before The Amazing Spider-Man 3, Spider-Man can only hope it catches the weaker of the two, but, even then, it is unlikely Spider-Man will stay number one. With decreasing franchise confidence, and interest, from the audience, we are unlikely to see huge returns with The Amazing Spider-Man 3 but, perhaps, franchise returns can be brought back up to abscene levels if The Amazing Spider-Man 3 can be as fresh as Batman Begins was. I have some ideas on how to do that:

1. Marketing



It is never a bad thing to market your film or to let your audience know it is coming out. But, c'mon, did we know a single soul that didn't know The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is coming out? Even those people that didn't watch all 572 trailers, 876 TV spots and 334 promotional videos? The Amazing Spider-Man 2 spent a literal ton of money making these things through the marketing alone. It might very well be time to take a page out of Disney's playbook. Say what you want about Disney, but they know how to market a film. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 marketed its end like crazy, trying to tease fans that Gwen might day in this installment. However, how awesome would it have been to see Gwen's dress in the theater and gasp? How awesome would it have been if we hadn't known Dane DeHann was going to be the Green Goblin? Captain America: The Winter Soldier seemed to give the whole movie away in its second trailer but when you saw that movie, you realize how much they left out. The whole film was a joyride because Disney wasn't spoiling you silly. The Amazing Spider-Man 3 can be made much more profitable by just lowering the amount spent on marketing the film. Captain America: The Winter Soldier made more money on its opening weekend than Sony's The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Now I'm not saying that marketing may have killed it for the audience as I don't have any proof of that. However, this does prove that conservative marketing can build up even more hype for the film or just enough to show people that it is coming out.

My marketing strategy would be:
Comic-Con 2015 Trailer (Not released to the general public)
2016 Super Bowl TV Spot That Leads to the FIRST trailer (February 2016)
The second trailer is released a week before Captain America 3 (April 2016)
Start your final push with TV Spots and further clips

2. Do Something New



The Amazing Spider-Man 3 needs to be fresh in a way the rest of the films weren't. With Peter's first love bein dead, the rebooted franchise, for the first time, has the chance to do something really different. Instead of Peter moving right along to Mary Jane, I would like to pay homage to the classic Mary Jane storyline. While Peter is recovering, he decides that Spider-Man isn't the problem: it is Peter Parker that creates the connections that are going to end up killing the people he cares about. Aunt May sees Peter shutting her out and everyone else, so Aunt May tries to get Peter over Gwen by trying to get Peter with Mary Jane. Peter refuses, not because he doesn't want to meet a new girl but because he can't. This'll also allow Marc Webb to uphold the company mandate of establishing the Sinister Six as Peter becomes increasingly devoted to being Spider-Man. I think this would be a new thing to explore as, to my knowledge, we've never really seen the psychological trauma this causes and the hero, instead of giving up his crime-fighting alter ego, buries himself in his crime-fighting alter ego. This would allow for Spider-Man to continue his investigation of OsCorp and to confront more and more villains that will eventually comprise the Sinister Six. Speaking of villains...

3. Get a Recognizeable And Strong Villain



We've seen the Doctor Octopus arms for future Spider-Man films. With Spider-Man (essentially confirmed) going up against Rhino at the start of the third film and Vulture also teased for the next film, I think it might be time to bring Ock back into the picture as the main villain. It'll be difficult to live up to the near-perfect interpretation that Molina brought us but it'll have been 12 years and that is more than enough time to accept a new interpretation (more than we got for Spider-Man himself). Vulture could be a lot more like the villain of Two-Face in The Dark Knight and allow for Spider-Man to fight Doctor Otto Octavius, his second most famous adversary. I would prefer this new film not to bring the Goblin back from behind the curtain until the inevitable Sinister Six film as I think he's had more than enough time to shine. Doc Ock needs his film and doesn't need to be set up nearly as much as the new interpretation of the Goblin. We all know how strong a villain Ock can be, so why not use him? Also, bring in J. Jonah Jameson and the rest of the Bugle cast. They're not villains but Jonah is definitely an antagonist worth bringing into the Spider-Man universe. Plus, having Spider-Man have multiple confrontations with one, strong villain will help make up for the franchise missteps with the Lizard and Electro. Green Goblin, I felt, was strong but shortchanged in terms of screen time and I certainly don't want to see that happened to Otto in order to keep things fresher. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet.

Well, there is my list to make The Amazing Spider-Man 3 a better film with reasons. If you could, please, tell me in the comments section below what you thought of it and also hit that thumb down below if you liked the article. As always be sure to share your thoughts courtesily without deliberately attacking, threatening or name calling other people. Please keep it civil. Thanks and have a great day!
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kong
kong - 5/28/2014, 5:37 PM
ow much you wanna bet that when Avi Arad leaves Sony does 10 times better with their Spidey oriented universe.
gamecreatorjj
gamecreatorjj - 5/28/2014, 5:52 PM
yeah get arid far away from spiderman. Maybe we can see some interesting original stuff then.
What we don't need to see is another Lab created villain. Another "sympathetic" villain. Another villain who used to be peter's friend. We dont need depressing spider man films, we already have 5 of those. No more ending the movies with funerals. Dont do green golbin again, you wont top dafoe. Use new unique villains. Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio, Chameleon, King Pin, Black Cat, etc.
Build a compelling narrative and stick to a single plot. Beyond that only use 1 or 2 subplots, we don't need an entire film dominated by subplots.

Dump every creative force currently behind the franchise, including webb. We don't need a yes man who will just follow through with Sony's stale ass ideas.

If they want to make spiderman interesting again, if they want him to make money again, they need to start breaking new ground instead of retreading the same thing since spiderman 1.
Pasto
Pasto - 5/28/2014, 6:58 PM
"How to make The Amazing Spider-Man 3 better than the others"....

You can't, it's not possible.
DeusExSponge
DeusExSponge - 5/28/2014, 7:33 PM
I think they need to focus a bit more on Spiderman heroics and his crime fighting life than his romantic life. Don't completely remove the romance, but just don't push it too much either.
TheManFromMars
TheManFromMars - 5/28/2014, 7:45 PM
I was half-expecting this to be a PredatorRIsing editorial because of the lenght of the teaser, but then again the teaser was much better worded than Predie's regular drivel, so...
JustinQu33f3r
JustinQu33f3r - 5/28/2014, 8:33 PM
"How to make Amazing Spider-Man 3 better than the others..."

Replace Andrew Garfield.
MightyZeus
MightyZeus - 5/28/2014, 8:40 PM
"How to make The Amazing Spider-Man 3"

Hire new screen writers and have Sony not have full creative control over Marc Webb.
GuardianDevil
GuardianDevil - 5/28/2014, 9:13 PM
I have been displeased with the TASM series so far, I think they just need a new direction and possibly a new director. Even with the disappointment of Spider-Man 3, I still really miss Raimi and his style. I think Webb took a step in the right direction with TASM2, but it's still not that great. He learned post-TASM1 how to embrace the comic book cheesiness of Spider-Man and I like that. He now needs to learn how to mesh subplots into a coherent storyline. All three subplots of TASM2 are decent stories by themselves but as a whole film it really does not make any sense whatsoever.

On a side note, why does everyone bag on Jollem??
GuardianDevil
GuardianDevil - 5/28/2014, 9:20 PM
After TASM I said Webb should takes notes from Raimi's Spider-Man 1 & 2 on how to embrace the comic book cheese. Now I'd say he needs to watch something like X2 or DOFP on how to handle multiple plot strands and blend them into a strong cohesive script.

I used to hate him and the series but then I found out he is still a novice director. Considering the fact that Webb had only made one film in his life before Spidey, TASM1 & 2 could've been MUCH worse.
Lhornbk
Lhornbk - 5/28/2014, 9:20 PM
How about just cancel the third one, and go 7-10 years with no Spiderman films. He's getting tired, and audiences ate getting tired of him. I think a break is in order, then reboot.
Mike89
Mike89 - 5/29/2014, 12:12 AM
1. get rid of Mark Webb
2. Give us a truly evil/diobolical villain
3. dont overload the movie with more filler for the sinister six just develop the characters and give us a good movie
4. Dont release 1000 trailers that give away the movie.
5. Hire better writers
HankPymp
HankPymp - 5/29/2014, 1:08 AM
This new film is actually my favorite out of all of the Spidey flicks...
BUT. I completely see the missteps that it took..and am not blind to what could be better.
The biggest problem that doesn't get addressed is that the new series is called "Amazing" Spider -Man, not "Ultimate" Spider - Man.
You're definitely on the bullseye about the marketing of the next film.
Sony and Co. Practically spelled the newest movie for everyone, and it robbed it of the drama and surprises it could've had.
They're trying to copy marvel with a big consistent universe, and that't not a smart move.
I get a lot of movie studios are trying to cop the Marvel Style,
but Sony have a better chance of keeping up, if they don't try to shoe horn in so many plot points at once.
The same problems that befell this movie, ironically enough, befell Spider - Man 3. Which was studio meddling.
HankPymp
HankPymp - 5/29/2014, 1:15 AM
Amazing Spider-Man 2 had I think..4-5 writers on it..
not a good move.
Klone
Klone - 5/29/2014, 3:52 AM
Step 1: Hire new screenwriters.
Klone
Klone - 5/29/2014, 3:54 AM
A tv show and a film are completely different. Screenplay isn't even applicable to televisions shows, that would be teleplay. Saying that 5 writers for example on a film all who have never worked together and have different records as a far as films are concerned isn't bad because Game of Thrones has 10 writers for example does not work at all as a comparison because films and tv shows are different.
MightyZeus
MightyZeus - 5/29/2014, 4:42 AM
It's not the number of screenwriter's that ruined the film it's the fact that two inexperienced screen writers that have written lackluster scripts in the past handled this specific script. I think it's one of the worst comic book scripts put on film because there is no plot, nothing connects and it's just a series of events that the screenwriters basically tried connecting the dots too.
theowl
theowl - 5/29/2014, 4:44 AM
Just do Doctor octopus against spider-man in the next film.. THEN Doc Ock can form the sinister six in the next film.
theowl
theowl - 5/29/2014, 4:45 AM
It would be a shame to see Doctor Octopus be portrait as a sidevillain.
Klone
Klone - 5/29/2014, 6:12 AM
@MrSoto

No, it is different. I really should not have to explain this at all.
GreenLantern519
GreenLantern519 - 5/29/2014, 1:28 PM
New writers are needed, and less involvement from Sony's end. I'd be okay with a one villain movie focusing on Doc Ock, mainly because he's a huge character that deserves his own movie. I'd personally prefer someone different than Ock, maybe Mysterio? He might not be "big" enough to get casual movie fans excited, though.
PeterDarker121
PeterDarker121 - 5/29/2014, 2:37 PM
As you guys know, Orci and Kurtzman announced last month that they would no longer be co-writing films together after ASM2....though they've already co-written the 'Venom' script with Ed Solomon, so we'll have to see how that goes....

http://variety.com/2014/biz/news/alex-kurtzman-roberto-orci-splitting-up-on-big-screen-exclusive-1201160542/
nova480s
nova480s - 5/29/2014, 4:54 PM
4. Get sony's hands out of the mixing bowl
5. Let webb do his job
6. GET BETTER WRITERS
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