As we speed toward the opening of Iron Man on Friday, we’re collecting the related stories in a feature we like to call … “Stark Ravin’.” (If you don’t like the name, blame J.K.)
‘I would love to keep directing these,’ Favreau says
We’re still four days away from the official premiere of Iron Man, but director Jon Favreau is already thinking about a sequel.
“I would love to keep directing these,” he told Sci Fi Wire over the weekend.
Favreau said for a sequel he’d like to follow Tony Stark’s development in the comic books.
“I think what needs to be explored next … is how the weight of being a public superhero is going to affect Tony Stark’s personality and start to expand on the hairline fractures in his personality and his spirit,” he said.
But what’s the early word on Iron Man?
Okay, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. What are the critics saying about this movie?
Well, Variety’s Todd McCarthy and The Hollywood Reporter’s Kirk Honeycutt both like Iron Man.
McCarthy calls it an “expansively entertaining special effects extravaganza” that “should reap big B.O. rewards.” And while Honeycutt acknowledges his disappointment with the film’s climactic battle, he notes that “the whole package is distinctly its own, a tale originated in the ’60s cleverly and logically transposed into today’s world.”
Meanwhile, New York magazine’s Vulture blog handicaps the summer superhero movies, giving Iron Man 5 to 1 odds that “it won’t be super.”
A lesson in marketing a second-tier superhero movie
Variety also takes a look at something that’s long interested me: the nearly year-long marketing campaign by Marvel and Paramount Pictures.
Because Iron Man isn’t nearly as recognizable to the general public as Batman or Spider-Man, the two studios had to treat the movie as if it were a brand-new property. They courted comic fans early, at Comic-Con International, then hit the general public with a Super Bowl ad, magazine covers featuring the movie’s stars, and high-profile TV spots.
And that’s just for starters.
Rapid Fire
• Robert Downey Jr., on becoming Tony Stark and Iron Man [ The Seattle Times ]
• Terrence Howard, on James Rhodes … and War Machine [ ComingSoon.net ]
• How will Grand Theft Auto IV affect the Iron Man movie and video game? [ Variety ]
• “Iron Man’s suit defies physics — mostly” [ Wired.com ]
• Commentary: “Marvel’s moral compass needs righting” [ ComixTalk ]
• Macy’s Iron Man window display [ Marvel.com ]
April 28th, 2008 at 11:10 am
I think the promotion for this movie has been smart, well-paced, and effective. Iron Man is unlikely to make Dark Knight or Indiana Jones money, but even if it turns out to be a complete turkey (which I seriously doubt, as it looks pretty good to me) it’ll still do pretty well. Look at how well Fantastic Four did in spite of(deservedly) terrible reviews.
Also remember that the first X-Men movie did solid, but less than spectacular business. Box office was decent, but it really shined on DVD and the interest built up for the sequel. I wouldn’t be surprised if much the same thing happens here. $100 million+ at the box office in the U.S., but bigger interest on DVD and cable. Then expect a bigger sequel, perhaps with The Mandarin as the villain.
At the very least, it seems poised to do a lot better than the new Hulk movie. Though I hope that movie will end up being pretty good as well.
April 28th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
My prediction:
Opening weekend: 107.5 million dollars.
Total domestic BO: 255 million
Iron Man is the model for future movies. Interesting concept. Perfect casting. Plenty of time to make it (not rushed because of x, y, or z reason), slow boil on advertising building to an explosion right before the movie premires… It will be big. It probably won’t beat Indy or Narnia, but I think it’ll come in #3 ahead of Dark Knight.
April 29th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Spoken like a true Marvel Zombie, Rolando.
You might be right about $200 million take if the movie is as good as most of the advance reviews I’ve seen… But beat Batman at the box office? No way.
Aside from Batman being a household name where “Iron Man” is not (unless you’re talking about the triathalon), there’s been three years of anticipation for The Dark Knight. And talk about a slow boil on advertising? Well, we’ve had the viral marketing campaign to beat all viral marketing campaigns with TDK. That started last year, and it just keeps building up. The “Harvey Dent” rallies in various cities have been a stroke of genius. Now consider that there’s still almost three months of marketing to come before TDK finally hits.
TDK will be the biggest film, box office wise, of 2008, with Indy IV close behind. I think Iron Man may very well finish #3, however, depending on how late in the year Harry Potter 6 is released.
Narnia won’t be as big. It’ll do well, but not as well as the first Narnia flick. That’s simply because everyone and their dog has read “The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe,” but few (by comparison) have read Prince Caspian. That, and most (though not all sequels) have a law of diminishing returns to them. I think TDK is one sequel that will buck that trend though.
April 29th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Oh, and casting? Well, I admit IM’s casting looks really, really good. I look forward to seeing Downey as Tony Stark. But any better than Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, and (in the new movie) the late Heath Ledger? I think not.
April 29th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Not a Marvel Zombie, Shaun. Just a fan of good movies. The reason I think IM will beat TDK? Batman Begins was rated PG-13, but when I went (to multiple showings), I saw LOTS of kids under 13. Most of them were there with parents/guardians who I think were expecting something along the lines of Spider-Man, the 1989 Batman or even the Batman animated series. All of those had violence, sure, but it was a level of cartoonish violence that made it seemingly OK. Like seeing Daffy Duck get shot by Elmer Fudd. Did someone just get shot? Yes, but it’s OK, because you know it’s all “in good fun.”
At the Batman Begins showing I went to, however, you could hear kids crying and see parents and kids leaving. Batman Begins (and TDK) went for the realistic violence and achieved something of an Uncanny Valley. On the one hand, it’s very real, grim and gritty, which is good for a Batman movie. On the other hand, it’s very real, grim, and gritty, which is very bad for a PG-13 summer tentpole movie where parents with long memories of their kids crying (or memories of disapproval of the movie despite their kids “liking it”) can say “No, you will not see that.”
In the end, I think both movies will make about 250 mil. I just see Iron Man edging out TDK, and only then because parents of young teens will either not let their kids see it, or will not allow repeat viewings (which make up a large part of a total BO).
April 29th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Fair enough, Rolando, sorry if I misjudged you. I was joking anyhow, but I apologize nonetheless. I still TDK is the film to beat this summer though.
The promotion has been, as noted, beating a steady (and building) drum since last year and it’s only going to keep growing. It’s also coming relatively late in the summer movie season, so a lot of the films all stacked up against one another in the weeks to come will have mostly played out by the time TDK hits. In 2005, Batman Begins was up against SW Episode III, War of the Worlds, the more kid-friendly Fantastic Four, and quite a few other big films. Then there’s just the name recognition, the anticipation and the good will created by the critical acclaim and fan approval BB got.
I do agree with you that BB was NOT a kid-friendly film. My daughter wanted to see it, but I made her wait until the DVD, so we could pause to talk about what was happening, skip a scene entirely if necessary, etc. I think the fact that it was much darker (note how there were no fast-food chains doing tie-ins with BB) is a reason why the film did only a little more than $200 million. But now, three years later, some of those same kids might be old enough to see it. Not the really young ones, but you know what I mean. My daughter will be able to see it theatrically this time.
Another reason BB just barely cleared $200 mil. is that a lot of people didn’t want to see another Batman movie after the Schumacher debacles. They thought it would be like those movies again! I know *a lot* of people who didn’t see it, that I talked into seeing it finally on DVD. They all ended up loving it, and now they want to see TDK in the theaters. BB really was a “word of mouth” movie, and I think that if TDK delivers (as it should), people will go see it again and again.
I’m curious to know if Iron Man will be a kid-friendly film… I’ve seen ads running on Nickelodeon on the one hand, but the Harry Knowles review over at AICN says NOT to bring the little ones. That could make a difference too!
All things considered, I still gotta go with TDK, Indy, and then Iron Man (or possibly Narnia) as the top films of summer. I’m kind of looking forward to Wall*E too, and I think that one might do really well. Never count out Pixar.
April 29th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Almost forgot… There’s the “wild card” factor of Heath Ledger’s passing. How will that affect things?
I don’t like thinking about that stuff, but I’d guess there will be people who go see TDK, perhaps people who might not have otherwise, simply out of curiousity over what happened. Not unlike The Crow.