“Billion-Dollar Babies to Superhero Busts: 5 Lessons of the Summer Box Office”
The Wrap just went live with this analysis. Their five lessons:
1. BIG GLOBAL FRANCHISES BECOME EVEN MORE IMPORTANT
2. THE SEQUEL WELL IS RUNNING DRY
3. EVEN SUPERHEROES NEED A STORYLINE
4. SAY GOODBYE TO THE QUICKIE 3D CONVERSION
5. THE ’90S A-LISTERS ARE ON THE B-LIST
This is an early entry into a loooooonnnnngggg list of articles analyzing the summer box office and what it means, so prepare for the onslaught.
Of the five on this list, I’d say the first three are the most relevant for screenwriters:
* We have already discussed the increasing importance of the international marketplace and how a writer would be wise to take that into consideration with their story choices.
* Sequels running dry? On the one hand that would be nice because it would force the studios to open themselves up to more original stories. On the other hand, this talk of ‘sequlitis’ has been going on for a long time — witness here. Besides sequels represent job opportunities for working screenwriters, so bottom line I’d rather the studios expand their development slates, rather than narrow them by scaling back sequels.
* Superheroes and storylines: This is more about snark than real analysis. I mean it’s not like a studio purposefully sets out to create a superhero franchise with the stated goal, “Hey, let’s do this one without a storyline!” In the development, pre-production, production and post-production process, shit happens. And the fine nuances of story as carefully crafted by writers can get tossed out the window to pump up the volume, trim run time, add more explosions, and so on. There is a larger point and that is if the general consensus in the Hollywood studio community is that even superhero movies are better with a well-crafted story like Captain America: The First Avenger, then that’s all to the better for writers in general. Perhaps then more support and time on the part of the studios for filmmakers to find a good story.
For more of the article, go here.