7 Predictions for the Future of the Comic Book Movie
6 Even Bigger?
'The Avengers' made money, lots and lots of money. Established successful characters warrant a boost to budget because they've established their name and the studio can then predict the character's pulling power with audiences to some extent. It's always a gamble putting a film out but there are certain things that help the studio predict how things are going to pan-out.
'The Avengers' cleared the 1.5 bn mark with its labour day push so I guess that gamble paid off, probably even more than the studio predicted. But 'The Avengers' wasn't a continuation of just one character's story as we all know, which is why it had the $220 million budget it had. Whether it turned out to be a good or bad film there was always a certain sized fan-base that was going to go and see it no matter what. It was always going to make a certain amount of money and the same safety net is more or less assured for the future of all its main characters.
Iron Man movie budgets (estimated)
Iron Man 1 - $140 million / Iron Man 2 - $200 million / The Avengers - $220 million / Iron Man 3 - $200 million (rumoured)
Out of 'Iron Man' and 'Iron Man 2' the first was arguably the better film despite the smaller budget but the second film did make more because the fan base was established by the first. Audiences were invested in Tony Stark, as it were. However it's rumoured that 'Iron Man 3's budget would be back down to $140m which was then bumped up due to the success of 'The Avengers'. By that indicator it looks like Marvel aren't just throwing money about but are being careful even with their most financially 'safe' character.
However Marvel has some new properties on the way aside from its big 4 (Iron Man, Thor, Captain, Avengers) with the 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' Series, 'Guardians of the Galaxy' and 'Ant-man' which all need funding and could all potentially flop so keeping belts tight could be necessary.
DCIn my mind the 'Dark Knight Rises' actually presents the best case for this; the spectacle was just ludicrous and on unprecidented scale and it was all so much more real feeling than 'The Avengers'. You could literally feel Gotham's fictional insurance companies shiver and cringe as things got destroyed.
Nolan trilogy budgets (estimated)
Begins 150 million / Dark Knight 185 million / Rises 250 million
We can see an increase in investment much more clearly here and rightly so with 'The Dark Knight' making over five times it's budget ($1,001,921,825 (Dec 2010)) which showed the Batman fan-base wasn't just established it was rabid and was going to multiple viewings and buying up DVDs like no tomorrow.
Superhero films need big budgets to pay for all the amazing bells and whistles that come with the stories but what should be apparent is that great writing and acting pays off. 'The Avengers' was huge but it was Joss Whedon's pithy dialogue that got much of the attention likewise 'The Dark Knight' had a front-flipping truck but it wouldn't be what it was without the fantastic script and Heath Ledger's performance. Maybe things have gotten big enough? Maybe what we need now is more and more depth.
Here's the big guns we've got to look forward to ( All dates from IMDB.com):
Iron Man 3 April 26th 2013 (UK) (trailer on October 23rd)
Man of Steel - June 14th 2013
The Wolverine - 26th July 2013
Thor: The Dark World - 8th November 2013
Captain America: The Winter Soldier - 4th April 2014
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - 18th April 2014
X-Men: Days of Future Past - 18th July 2014
The Avengers 2 May 1st 2015