1. What Happens When the Trend Ends?
Before Bryan Singer's
X-Men in 2000, comic book movies were never thought to be sources of sustainable income for Hollywood. Sure, Warner Bros. had a couple of hits by turning Superman and Batman into films, but those two characters are on their own level. You can make a Superman or Batman film in any year and it will be a hit because they're Superman and Batman.
X-Men changed a lot of things by launching the superhero film trend. In the 13 years since, we've had five
X-Men movies (six if you count the still-to-be-released
The Wolverine), four
Spider-Man films (including a reboot already!), two
Hulk films, two
Fantastic Four films, a
Daredevil film, a Batman trilogy that left a huge impact on the film industry as a whole, an
Iron Man trilogy, a
Thor movie (with the sequel set for a November release), a
Captain America film, an
Avengers movie, a Superman movie that disappointed (
Superman Returns) and a Superman reboot that looks to bring the franchise back (this year's
Man of Steel). And that's just scratches the surface of what's been released in the past decade plus. But this is Hollywood and things can change rather quickly. The film industry is defined by trends. Right now, comic book movies are the big thing. However, eventually, they will be replaced by something new. Whether
Pacific Rim and next year's
Interstellar are at the forefront of the reemergence of original sci-fi films, we see a new genre (like video game adaptations) take over, or something else entirely, the superhero movie era will eventually end. It doesn't look that way now, but it will be over one day. Just like the macho action flicks of the 80s, the first part of the new millennium will be remembered for making comic book characters cool and bringing us all sorts of amazing things. Some (
The Dark Knight,
The Avengers,
Man of Steel? ) will be held in a higher regard than others (
Spider-Man 3,
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer), but it won't change that one day the trend will end. A studio like Warner Bros. (who is not dependent on the revenue of superhero films exclusively) will be in good shape when this happens. Marvel Studios will not be. If/when people stop going to these things in droves, they're in serious trouble because if they're not making comic book movies, then they have no reason to be around. They need a plan for the future and I don't mean plotting out Phase II. I mean what happens when Michael Fassbender's
Assassin's Creed film is a hit and everyone starts churning out video game movies? It's something they need to figure out and they need to do it soon. If the rest of Hollywood moves on to other things and Marvel is still stuck in the superhero era, they'll fall behind. Maybe Phase III (complete with
Ant-Man,
Doctor Strange and God knows what else) is the last hurrah for the studio as they empty out their vault and beat out the end of the trend. Who knows. Admittedly, this is a bit out of Marvel's control. Feige doesn't have a crystal ball to see what the new trend will be five years from now. But if they map out a game plan, at least they'll be in good shape.
How do you think Marvel should deal with these problems? Let us know in the comments!