Help me understand the constant Superhero movie reboots.

[edge10]

 

[PAULH]

There is no longer any creativity or originality in Hollywood, largely because studios want to maximise the chance of getting their money back.

 

[renaissance_man]

But when original movies are made very few people go to see them in the cinema, so it's a vicious circle.

 

[Cephus]

So basically moviegoers are mindless drones who will watch any superhero movie they put out. Lol

Hollywood is truly dead.

That's how it used to be. Today, not so much.

 

[Cephus]

There is no longer any creativity or originality in Hollywood, largely because studios want to maximise the chance of getting their money back.

Then they shouldn't make so many really stupid, indefensible decisions. People tell them why their movie is going to fail, they make it anyhow, it fails miserably and they blame the audience instead of their own in competence. Maybe they ought to listen.

 

[Uridium]

Not disagreeing with the comments about creativity and originality in Hollywood these days....

But what if we looked at it this way....

Studios: Well Tim Burton put out two pretty good Batman films for us. No need to make any more Batman films.

Batman Fans: uuuuuh?

 

[batguy]

IMO most of the spectacularly-bad decisions in Hollywood lately are caused by corporations trying to run artistic endeavors. The mindset is all wrong.

 

[Halliwax]

I don't know if that's true anymore. It sounds like, other than collectors, action figures aren't selling. I think the only toys that really sell now are LEGO.

I agree, but by my statement I just mean “merchandise” in general, anything with the logo on it gets royalty’s

 

[Laspector]

How many decades have we had Westerns?
How many decades have we had war movies?
How many decades have we had romantic comedies?
Why aren't we fussing about that?

 

[Analyzer]

As mentioned earlier...

The target audience changes every decade or so, and the older moves become dated and out of touch with current generations

Few if any of these movies are really "classic" cinema anyway

Although, I don't know if we really need to see another "origin" story with each reboot

 

[Cephus]

How many decades have we had Westerns?
How many decades have we had war movies?
How many decades have we had romantic comedies?
Why aren't we fussing about that?

There's a difference between westerns and an endless string of Rooster Cogburn movies. You can have lots of war movies, so long as it isn't Tora Tora Tora Part 63. That's especially true when it stopped being about Pearl Harbor back in Tora Tora Tora 17.

 

[Laspector]

And you can have lots of superhero movies. They're not all the same.

 

[joberg]

And you can have lots of superhero movies. They're not all the same.

There's a formula to every genre of movies (list is too long).

 

[RedCircle]

I just don’t get it. A new Superman movie, several different Spider-Man movies, Batman, etc etc etc. it’s beyond ridiculous. I’m trying to wrap my head around the studios agreeing to all of them. Are they trying to get it right with each one? Is it a marketing tool? It makes absolutely no sense from a creative and financial point of view.

I’m at the point that I’m repulsed by the whole superhero genre and those who make them. Can someone take the camera away from James Gunn please.

Artists create - they write and illustrate stories about interesting characters. Back when comics were getting started, the artists didn't get a lot of credit - they were made to feel they were lucky to have a job. To be fair, there wasn't a huge market nor profit margin, but the nature of the industry required them to pump out a lot of product, quickly - and, it was treated as disposable. The kids influenced by those comics grew up. As adults we often have both nostalgia for where we came from as well as a little disposable income. Because these original comics were treated as disposable, there's very few left, making them "rare." Rarity in the collector market translates to value. Now, these characters are also valuable because they are anthropological time capsules, teaching us about the people and the times they came from. There's an interesting rabbit hole about the symbolism of the superhero when viewed through the lens of the politics of the time and the fact that the majority of creators were Jewish. But the mythology and morals are universal and timeless... again, creating value. Flash forward several decades and you get to where we are now. Huge, global entertainment corporations now own the rights to these universally recognizable characters. In the specific case of Disney, they paid a fair amount to acquire those properties. Corporations are in the business of creating value for share holders. This means they need to continually crank out new product. They have no artistic integrity or vested moral interest in these characters (though, lucky for the audience, writers, directors and actors often do), only milking them for money. This means they will continually keep cranking out new product. The fact a fantastic movie was made 40 years ago doesn't earn them a dime right now. Sure, they legally own the rights to that old movie and make a few bucks when it's re-run on tv or streamed or a DVD gets sold... but the big money is in a big budget remake. New media also produces a new audience which will one day grow up, creating nostalgia for the remake that will happen 40 years from now... We just happen to be in a time where corporations see profit by pandering to the nostalgia of Generation X and the super hero genre is still selling tickets. I'd say we're just about at maximum saturation and we'll see fewer super hero flicks...

 

[RedCircle]

I don't know if that's true anymore. It sounds like, other than collectors, action figures aren't selling. I think the only toys that really sell now are LEGO.

Don't kid yourself. Action figures are still a huge market - but that demographic has shifted. Kids are no longer the target market, it's adult collectors so the best sellers are older properties. Internet sales have eclipsed brick and mortar inventory. I predict as the current demographic ages out the market will shrink if not disappear entirely. The future is in selling licensed 3d files and collectors printing their own collectibles at home.