Comic Book Movies Are The End of Movies

I will be honest…I find this claim a bit dubious.  Not because there is zero truth to it.  But the headline lays the lack of staying power.  Hollywood has relied heavy on genre before and movies survived.  For one, westerns did not kill the industry. And they ruled for a long time.

But as the article notes, lots of movies from multiple genres are facing massive declines in their  second and third weeks.  The continued reliance on blaming comic book movies (or more specifically Super-Hero movies…after all, Road to Perdition and  a History of Violence are comic book movies) for Hollywood’s ills is a bit overstating things.

There are less than ten super-hero films a year (usually less than five, but there is a year coming up with eight or nine on the slate).  There are over a hundred films released every year.  Super-hero films are not even ten percent of the films released each year.  I have mentioned all this before.  I think the article is right in the reference to all the choices cannibalizing each other.

I confess, there is one thing I wish Marvel Studios would do.  Marvel has a large catalog of material.  They are saturating their own market with such big movies, they are not planning for what will happen when super-hero films just won’t make money.  Marvel Studios has a real concern there than DC does not have.  DC is just part of the WB…they have other options.

Marvel’s sole option right now is their cinematic universe.  Marvel Studios can, and should start considering making smaller movies…films not aimed at the blockbuster.  Both in their cinematic universe and outside of it.

Marvel needs to look to the future if they want to succeed past 2020.  They need to look into stuff they own that is not super-heroes.  Fantasy, sci-fi, thrillers, adventures,espionage, comedy, family fare.  Marvel has all sorts of options beyond their Cinematic Universe.  They need to take the risk and see if they can succeed without the MCU.  They took risks with Ant-Man and Guardians and now Doctor Strange.  Now Kevin Feige and his team need to see if they can work their magic beyond super-heroes.