With Marvel also hoping to land a major hit with Captain America: Civil War and Fox still to release X-Men: Apocalypse this year, and Suicide Squad still to come from Warner, 2016 is a busy year when it comes to superhero movies. According to comic book writer Mark Millar, it could also prove to be a pivotal year for the genre’s future in Hollywood. “Every boom eventually has to become a bust and the only way to delay that bust is to make sure the quality of the work is really good,” Millar said. “When something like Deadpool comes out and defies all expectations, it shows us that the trend is clearly not over yet: there’s still an appetite for these movies, but the audience has to connect with them.” Batman V Superman, unlike the relatively inexpensive Deadpool, cost anywhere from $250m upwards to make, according to which reports you read – some put the price tag at over $400m including marketing. With figures like that hanging over the movie, you can see why Hollywood’s accountants and investors would be looking closely at its weekend numbers. Millar also suggests that, while Marvel are in a stronger position than DC-Warner with their proven success, the smaller-than-expected gross of Avengers: Age Of Ultron could, he says, indicate a cooling of interest in the largest, most bombastic superhero movies. “I don’t wanna say Marvel had a bloodrun, but they’ve definitely had a slowing down of their momentum last year, on pure box office (as well as critical reception) level. Avengers: Age Of Ultron was expected to be bigger than Avengers. And the fact that, in America, it was 25% smaller, that it was about globally $200m less, when taken price inflation has gone up, plus there’s more cinemas than ever because of China… Well that’s interesting because that’s the way any economic boom has started. Ant-Man is a very good and very fun movie but it kind of showed Marvel’s fallibility: the movie made a little bit more than $500m worldwide, whereas Guardians Of The Galaxy made almost $800m, so it will be interesting to see how their next movies make. All eyes are on Captain America Civil War now. If this movie makes less than the last Captain America movie, I think there will be a problem.” “The incredible success of Deadpool must be an interesting model for studios because the grosses for superhero movies are either staying the same or getting smaller, but the cost are going up and up,” Millar said. “These movie historically cost between $150 and $200m to make. And then they are now reaching the $400m+ threshold for cost. One of my best friends is a banker, and he said to me, ‘This is starting to smell a lot like banks in 2007.’” While Millar’s quick to point out that the superhero genre’s in no danger of going away, he maintains that “the genre has got to evolve” in order to retain its mass audience. “I have a feeling that eventually everything will be fine, but that is very interesting to see that, after 16 years of massive success, people are starting to get a little nervous.” Only time will tell whether Millar’s right about the future of superhero movies in Hollywood. The iconic status of such characters as Batman and Spider-Man means that audiences will surely flock to see them for years to come. A dip in profits could leave the fate of lesser-known characters like Shazam and Aquaman hanging in the balance. Le Point Pop
