This post over at Jim Hill Media is of interest for a few reasons; first, to box office watchers who like to see how the major studios squirm when their summer blockbusters underperform, especially when compared to mega-hits like The Dark Knight. Hill takes a look at Disney’s summer, specifically Prince Caspian and Wall-E, both of which pale in comparison to the performance of the new Batman flick (Then again, what didn’t? At least they didn’t release the X-Files sequel or Speed Racer). Maybe I’m a little jaded after watching too much Entourage, but I imagine behind closed doors quotes like “sucked the air out of the room” probably have a different meaning.
Second, it’s a reminder that studios react to what’s hot by trying to do more of the same. Hill says that Disney’s response to this summer is to look at doing its own comic book-y movies, whether they be new properties like Time Jumper developed with Stan Lee, or adaptations of comics from their upcoming Kingdom Comics division. Which, if you’ll recall, is looking at revitalizing some of Disney’s older live-action movie properties in graphic novel format.
And third, the post is a reminder that once upon a time, Disney employed Jack Kirby to draw a newspaper strip based on their snoozefest of a film, The Black Hole, in the late 1970s. Some of the strips were collected last fall in one of Disney’s checkout aisle digests, in an issue that also featured Art Baltazar and Matt Feazell (a quick search on eBay turns up nothing, alas). Hill ends his piece by saying comic fans would probably rather see all those Kirby strips collected than a new Black Hole graphic novel by Kingdom Comics, and I’d say he’d be right.
September 8th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Stan Lee and POW! Entertainment will become the next Pixar….only with a comic book look.
Watch out Marvel & DC….Stan and the Mouse are coming
September 8th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Disney had a great property with Gargoyles which incorporated by magical, sci-fi and superhero elements. The last season featured a panorama of global superheroes and villains.
September 8th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Disney developing cranking out comic book-style flicks isn’t surprising. After all, The Incredibles was not only a major blockbuster, but was a better “family superhero” film than the Fantastic Four.
September 8th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
How can anyone call Wall*E’s performance disappointing? It’s the biggest animated film of the year so far (and I would hope that likes of Madagascar 2, Bolt, and Beverly Hills Chihuaua aren’t going to beat it), grossed over $200 million in the States, outperformed the last Pixar offering (Ratatouille), is probably the best reviewed film of 2008 (just ahead of TDK on Rotten Tomatoes), and it’s sure to be a big hit on DVD as well.
Considering the glut of big movies released before and after it, there’s no way Wall*E can be seen as a disappointment. Especially when you consider that the film had very little dialogue and was probably going to appeal much to the littlest of children. My only disappointment is that with so many movies to see this summer I only got around to seeing once.
September 8th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
I see now from reading the article that the supposed “disappointment” of Wall*E is that performed below expectations. I’m not sure how they determine ahead of time what a film should make, so that seems silly. $170 million to make and another $55 million to market (according to the article) is a better way to judge it. In that respect, Wall*E wouldn’t be profitable on just its domestic run. But what did the movie do internationally?
I’m guessing it pretty damned well all over, though it’s never a certainty (who knew TDK would disappoint in Japan?). But with the global take, and once you add in merchandising and DVD, I don’t think Disney will have any complaints about Wall*E. If it gets any Oscar nods, and it might, so much the better.
Anyhow, Disney jumping into the superhero game is a gamble. How long until the market is saturated? We might be there already. After TDK and (soon) Watchmen, It might be hard for anything else to succeed. At the very least, Disney won’t have recognizable names like Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Iron Man and Hulk to rely on.
Disney’s best bet is to stick with their greatest asset – Pixar – and make another Incredibles movie. If it’s as good as the first, people will come.
As for Stan Lee & POW! becoming the next Pixar… Well, if “Who Wants To Be a Superhero” is any indication I don’t think they’re there yet. Did they even do a third season this past summer? If so, I (thankfully) missed it.
September 8th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
The disappointment around Wall-E, which Hill notes is a small disappointment, comes from Disney itself, which expected it to make around $260-270 million. And once everything is calculated, it’ll make money, just not as much as Disney was hoping for. They were expecting $40-50 million more from its domestic box office alone, which is a pretty significant chunk of change. And yeah, that doesn’t include international sales, but then again, neither does the estimate of what they were expecting.
September 8th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
Doesn’t Disney also own the rights to Abadazad and all the Crossgen properties? Because I think most of these (Meridian especially) would be a perfect fit for Disney.
bt
September 9th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Mea culpa… I meant to say that Wall*E “… was NOT going to appeal much to the littlest of children.” It definitely didn’t have the loud, slapsticky, flatulent nonsense of so many kid movies. Not a lot of dialogue, a story with some depth, a lot of heart, and a great message. Oh, and clips from “Hello Dolly” too! No, this was definitely not a typical kiddie flick. I think that makes Wall*E’s performance in this crowded movie summer all the more amazing.
January 17th, 2011 at 4:42 pm
Things like this are incredibly disturbing to me and should be to everyone.