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Warner Bros., DC Comics Look to the Future of Superman and Batman

When it comes to comic book supremacy at the box office, it's still pretty clear that Marvel has done a better job manufacturing hits than has its rival, DC Comics. Even with the towering success of The Dark Knight, there have only been four DC films to ever gross over $200 million in the U.S., and two of those feature Batman and the Joker. Marvel, on the other hand, has four franchises that have posted a total of seven $200 million flicks since 1997, in the form of Spider-Man, X-Men, Men in Black, and Iron Man.

There has been some question for a while about what DC Comics will do moving forward; Superman Returns was not what everyone thought it could be, and that franchise may now be in for another retooling. Anne Thompson at Variety says that Warner Bros., which has enjoyed all of this Batman success, may want to similarly freshen up The Man of Steel. "Today I was told that it is a priority at the studio to find the right direction and if Bryan Singer is willing to do that, fine, but if he gets in the way, he may not stay on the project," reports Thompson. She also reveals that there are currently no writers attached to the project.

I'll say it now so I don't have to put up with a dozen comments later: What about Kevin Smith's script?

There. Happy?

Anyway, the point is Warner Bros. may want to take a mulligan on Superman, the same way Marvel did with The Hulk. Although you'd have a hard time convincing anyone that the New Coke version of the Hulk made a noticeably deeper impression with audiences.

Do you find it surprising that they can't figure out what to do with Superman? I don't.

I've been of the opinion since seeing the Bryan Singer flick that Superman is just not a contemporary hero. We don't like superhumans, or super-Kryptonians, or whatever the hell you want to call Clark Kent's alter-ego. We like 'em real, flawed, and dark these days. And Superman is not those things. His weakness is a rock. On the plus side, he can reverse the rotation of the planet. See? We don't respond as well to God in a cape as we used to.

Yes, there are dark corners in the DC canon for Superman to pursue, but will that please enough people? Maybe it's just best if DC bides its time with Superman and searches for another more complicated hero instead.

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Posted on Wednesday, August 20, 2008 at 12:46AM by Registered CommenterColin Boyd in , , , , , , | CommentsPost a Comment

Box Office - 'Dark Knight' Second All-Time, Second This Weekend

The 31-day stranglehold on number one is over. The Dark Knight has finally surrendered the top spot at the U.S. box office, but it did not go quietly. In fact, while most every analyst predicted a drop to third place, the Batman sequel stood its ground and only slipped to second place, passing Star Wars on the all-time list of top-grossing movies in the process; it now only trails Titanic.

The new champeen is Tropic Thunder, which did not put up great numbers over its first five days. As a matter of fact, Pineapple Express, last week's number two film, opened more strongly over the same number of days. But the Ben Stiller comedy did outperform the rest of the field each day, so it sits with $37 million so far, according to Box Office Mojo, about five million less than I would have expected.

The Dark Knight wound up in second place for two reasons: The new Star Wars movie, The Clone Wars, opened very soft, generating only $15 million, and The Dark Knight only lost 35% of its audience from the previous weekend. That number is significant because it represents the second-smallest drop in the top ten - for the movie that's been in the top then the longest - and that means, of course, that the Batman sequel is getting a lot of return business.

The weekend's third new release, Mirrors with Kiefer Sutherland, opened in fourth place, ahead of Pineapple Express, which had a 57% freefall compared to last week.

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Posted on Sunday, August 17, 2008 at 11:07AM by Registered CommenterColin Boyd in , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments3 Comments

Box Office - 'Tropic Thunder' Suffering Olympic Fever?

We scoffed at last week's run-and-hide approach employed by Pineapple Express and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, hoping to avoid Olympic Fever by opening on Wednesday. It's hard to say whether or not the Olympics really would have caused a lot of damage to a traditional weekend, but we're not laughing this week. Michael Phelps has been in the water.

Yes, the swimmer's assault on history may come at the expense of Tropic Thunder. The new Ben Stiller-directed comedy co-starring Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. has not exploded the way a movie of its caliber normally would. There are really only two logical explanations: Michael Phelps and the Stiller Backlash that also sunk (pardon the pun) The Heartbreak Kid last fall.

Tropic Thunder will most likely still be a big hit, but its numbers since Wednesday are nowhere near what I would've thought. According to Box Office Mojo, we're looking at $8.2 million on Friday and a three-day total of right around $20 million. The five-day weekend is below $40 million for the new comedy, which I predicted would beat the $41 million performance last weekend by Pineapple Express. It's still possible, because these numbers are just estimates, but if the prospective audience stayed home to watch Michael Phelps win gold medal number seven on Friday, why would they run out and watch a movie on Saturday when he's bucking for his eighth?

The Olympic storyline has some teeth across the board this weekend, as nothing has done overwhelmingly strong business, and no, the teeth reference has nothing to do with our Olympic hero's constantly agape mouth. Star Wars: The Clone Wars opened in second place with an estimated $6.2 million, which would give it an opening weekend number in the $20 million range; Mirrors opened with $4.2 million, and is on pace to barely crack the top five horror movie openings in 2008; even The Dark Knight showed some vulnerability, although its $5 million Friday will still guarantee at worst a third-place weekend finish.

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Posted on Saturday, August 16, 2008 at 12:31PM by Registered CommenterColin Boyd in , , , , , , , , , | Comments3 Comments

Seriously, Brian Austin Green Wants To Be The Riddler

You can probably gauge an actor's level of heat by how their casting rumors are circulated, particularly for a movie like the follow-up to The Dark Knight. If you're Angelina Jolie and the rumor du jour is Catwoman, it's probably because Angelina is in the running for every role: Who wouldn't want her in their movie? The same goes for Johnny Depp playing The Riddler. There's zero evidence indicating any of that is true, and yet, because it would be a big role in a big movie, the chatter starts and it's hard to stop.

When your career resembles that of Brian Austin Green's, however, you have to start your own rumors. Yes, the former beau of Megan Fox and the one-time 90210 cast member told MTV this week his grand plan to crash the Batparty:

"I would love to be the Riddler,” says BAG boldly of the yet-to-be-determined next Batman movie. “I hope to God that they don’t try to replace Heath and have the Joker. And Two-Face is gone. So they need a new villain, and the Riddler makes sense,” Green reasoned.

OK...assuming we were intrigued by that possibility in the slightest, how would Green approach the role of the Batman villain? "That’s impossible to answer now,” Green said. “That would take years of preparation. It’s tough. Heath set the bar at a new level, which I think is fantastic for comic book lovers and movie lovers. He changed the face of what people expect out of those films.”

I've heard worst casting ideas - like yesterday's shot across the bow that Mike Myers may be in Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards - but I think I'd rather have Tori Spelling play the Riddler, honestly.

Posted on Friday, August 15, 2008 at 01:54PM by Registered CommenterColin Boyd in , , , , , | Comments9 Comments

Fearless Forecast - It's Simple, Jack: 'Tropic Thunder' Will Dethrone 'The Dark Knight'

Four and done for The Dark Knight? Yeah, I think that's accurate. Should the Batman sequel win a fifth weekend in a row at the box office, I'd be overwhelmed by how wrong I am (which happens less often than you might believe).

We've covered ad nauseum the film's pursuit of Titanic, which was number one for a dozen weeks or so back in 1998. Why can't The Dark Knight do that? If you've followed our box office reports, you're no doubt tired of hearing me say it, but it bears repeating: Competition. At this point, there are just too many movies to see for the first time. I have no idea what percentage of The Dark Knight's potential audience has already seen it, but I'd wager it's close to 75 or 80%. Seeing a movie again, no matter how much you like it, is a tastier notion if there aren't other options you also want to check out.

This week, three new releases hit theaters, all of which could steal a chunk of the Batman crowd. It's as crowded as any weekend this summer, actually, and by now, enough of The Dark Knight audience has eroded, clearing the way for a new number one movie.

I see Tropic Thunder doing well, probably outperforming Pineapple Express over the weekend itself, spurred on by very good reviews, the controversy about its insensitivity toward people with mental disabilities, and the Depp-like goodwill toward Robert Downey Jr. Although we're reading its Wednesday numbers aren't as strong as Pineapple's - it's not even close - this movie skews much older, and by that, I mean people who have regular full-time jobs and can't just go see a movie on Wednesday night. No offense.

I think it's going to have a stronger Friday than Wednesday, which Pineapple Express did not, and I think its Saturday will be even stronger. If those two days follow that course, we're looking at around $20 million before we get to Sunday. So, I figure, $27 for the weekend, and right around $40 - $42 million for the five-day total.

What about Star Wars: The Clone Wars? This is a movie that reviews can help and hurt. If they're overwhelmingly positive (and so far they aren't), then it could attract the casual fan who's aware of the Lucas universe - the Lucasverse, if you will - but if the reviews aren't very good, then we'll probably see its target audience hit the theaters hard on Friday with drop-offs after that. Can it make $100 million with just its die-hard fans? Doubtful, but it could definitely finish in second place this weekend.

The horror movie Mirrors is the third major release of the week. I think it's a mistake by Fox to not screen it for critics. In a weekend with this much competition, in an industry fueled by debut performances at the box office, any front page news is better than nothing. "Don't they usually do that with horror movies," you ask? Yes, but when that horror movie is the big movie of the weekend, it doesn't matter. It'll get on the front page of the paper anyway and it gets the most advertising by default. That's not the case here. Movies like Halloween will make the most money because they're in the preferred position that weekend, and for horror movies more than just about any other genre, the opening draw is a huge factor.

I can't believe, given the success of The Strangers, that the studio is not letting the film be seen, even though it stars one of Fox's biggest names (Kiefer Sutherland). Why not just hold the movie until the new TV season starts and run ads during your first week of premieres? It won't cost you anything and it'll probably generate more buzz and more money.

As it stands, despite appearing in over 2,000 theaters, Mirrors, whether it's good or not, will have to fend for itself. Terrible mistake, and I think the studio will regret it.

The Top Five:

1 - Tropic Thunder ($27 million)

2 - Star Wars: The Clone Wars ($18 million)

3 - The Dark Knight ($16.5 million, $473 million total)

4 - Pineapple Express ($12.5 million)

5 - Mirrors ($9 million)

Posted on Thursday, August 14, 2008 at 10:39AM by Registered CommenterColin Boyd in , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments1 Comment
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