So Bryan Singer’s Superman reboot wasn’t rebooty enough for fans, critics and (most importantly) Warner Bros.
A few days back, Anne Thompson reported in VARIETY:
(The studio) believes that the last movie didn’t break the mold and wound up in some kind of middle limbo. Today I was told that it is a priority at the studio to find the right direction and if Bryan Singer is willing to do that, fine, but if he gets in the way, he may not stay on the project. There are no writers working on a Superman script now. The studio wants to figure it out. “It might be better to start from scratch,” one exec admitted.
Limbo? Not exactly.
Warner Bros. Pictures Group President Jeff Robinov told The Wall Street Journal that the studio is going to be reintroducing Superman. Here is what the article says:
Warner Bros. also put on hold plans for another movie starring multiple superheroes — known as “Batman vs. Superman” — after the $215 million “Superman Returns,” which had disappointing box-office returns, didn’t please executives. “‘Superman’ didn’t quite work as a film in the way that we wanted it to,” says Mr. Robinov. “It didn’t position the character the way he needed to be positioned.” “Had ‘Superman’ worked in 2006, we would have had a movie for Christmas of this year or 2009,” he adds. “But now the plan is just to reintroduce Superman without regard to a Batman and Superman movie at all.”
The article also talks about Warner Bros. adapting other DC properties over the new few years. Check it out here. Who will do for the blue boy scout what Nolan did for The Dark Knight? Can DC match Marvel’s recent run of success (Spider-Man, Iron Man, et al). It will be fun to find out.
Hollywood Reporter points out what was likely a key factor in the decision to postpone Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for half a year.
For a publicly traded company like Warners parent Time Warner, earnings growth is vital. So moving Potter to next summer improves prospects of a decent revenue comparison with Batman-swelled ‘08.
This isn’t just about box office. If Warners releases Potter this fiscal year, it has to market it this fiscal year, which is a whole lotta dinero out of this year’s budget.
Analysts including Pali Capital’s Rich Greenfield noted that the film’s original November slotting would have weighted the fourth quarter with heavy marketing costs, while “Dark Knight” already ensures a healthy revenue haul for the studio in 2008.
So, if The Dark Knight hadn’t have been so darn successful, they might have had to release Harry Potter this year to make up the difference so, in a way, this is all Batman’s fault.
Anxiously awaiting the next Harry Potter film? Be patient.
Warner Bros. announced yesterday that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, scheduled for a November release, will now open July 17, 2009.
Alan Horn, President and Chief Operating Officer, had this to say:
Our reasons for shifting ‘Half-Blood Prince’ to summer are twofold: we know the summer season is an ideal window for a family tent pole release, as proven by the success of our last Harry Potter film, which is the second-highest grossing film in the franchise, behind only the first installment. Additionally, like every other studio, we are still feeling the repercussions of the writers’ strike, which impacted the readiness of scripts for other films—changing the competitive landscape for 2009 and offering new windows of opportunity that we wanted to take advantage of. We agreed the best strategy was to move ‘Half-Blood Prince’ to July, where it perfectly fills the gap for a major tent pole release for mid-summer.
So, because Warner backed off of a Justice League film (for now), Harry fans have to wait.
You can learn a lot by reading this article by L.A. Times blogger Patrick Goldstein.
- Warner’s President and COO Alan Horn can be brutally honest when he wants to be. On the release of Guy Ritchie’s latest, produced by Joel Silver:
Joel has an 800-screen deal, which we’ll honor, but we might not be willing to spend the marketing money he wants us to.
The filmmakers have every right to do what they think is best in support of their movies. But we have the right to do what’s best for Warner Bros.
- Even established filmmakers like Guy Ritchie and Danny Boyle can find their films all dressed up and nowhere to show.
- There’s such a thing as having too many movies on your slate.
- The big studio experiment with small indie arms may be coming to an end.
(That last point is really more my take on it, given how everything Horn is talking about here is predicated upon many of these wings, including two of his own, closing down.)
As the summer season winds down, each major studio seems to have at least one win this summer — a film that has performed above expectations.
Moolah!
Paramount has Iron Man ($315.6M) and Kung Fu Panda ($210.4M), not to mention Indy 4 ($314.3M).
Universal has to be pleased with Wanted ($131M on a $75M production budget) and the strong showing for Mamma Mia! ($87.4M after three weeks). Hulk and Hellboy are minor successes because they didn’t outright tank.
Warner Bros. is killing it with Dark Knight, of course, but also can point to solid takes for Sex and the City ($151.4M) and Get Smart ($126.5M).
Sony banked on Will Smith, and Hancock delivered with $215.8M. Save for I Am Legend ($256.3M), this is Smith’s highest grossing domestic film since the first Men In Black (1997).
The Disney/Pixar partnership toed the line. With $204M, the fantastic WALL-E so far has outgrossed Pixar counterparts Toy Story and A Bug’s Life. It’s about to pass Ratatouille ($206M), but might fall short of Cars ($244M … considered a disappointment at the time). DIsney’s Narnia sequel, meanwhile, underperformed at $140M. It cost a reported $200M, and its predecessor took home $291.7M domestically.
And then there’s 20th Century Fox, which struggled to find a home-run hit. Its highest-grossing summer film, What Happens In Vegas, couldn’t crack $100M (it made $80M to date). The Happening didn’t happen ($64M on a reported $60M budget). No one wanted to Meet Dave ($11.2M) and few believed in a new X-Files ($17M). Tough sledding.
In the season’s final weeks, a few small battles will shake out. Indy 4 might pass Iron Man for overall gross, and WALL-E could challenge the Panda for top animated dog. But when all is said and done, this royal summer belongs not to Prince Caspian, but to Chris Nolan’s Dark Knight.