Death of the Modern Blockbuster

let's say you're a studio executive and you have one goal you want to achieve you want a billion dooll Blockbuster you want a movie to be a part of the Zeitgeist to be talked about and be iconic of course you don't want just one hit but the foundation for more you want sequels that do even better fuel for your theme parks and streaming services you don't just want a billion dollar Blockbuster you want a billion doll franchise the 2010s were the decade of the billion dooll franchise and over the course of the decade developed rules for billion dooll success the first rule is that Nostalgia sells if you can't tell a great original story you can always build off of or plagiarize a film that audiences already adore the second rule is that action speaks louder than words if you want to sell the movie to a global audience you need over-the-top spectacle that everyone can understand the third rule for success success it's to prioritize franchises above everything making a movie isn't enough anymore you need a whole interconnected Universe you need movies that build upon each other that keep the audience engaged these worlds worked wonders for the studios Crescendo in 2019 were nine films made over a billion dollars seven of which were from Disney but we're firmly in a new decade now and to quote the tagline from scorum new decade new rules I've already covered the downfall of these rules in the 2023 Blockbuster Reckoning Nostalgia no longer consistently sells spectacle doesn't consistently wow and the connected universes no longer connect with the audiences they're built for now these Mega franchises that have recently disappointed aren't exactly dead at least not all of them but the rules for Hollywood are similar to the rules of NASCAR as portrayed in Talladega Knights The Ballad of Ricky Bobby ain't first you're last so much of the conversation has been about how superhero films Star Wars nostalgic reboots and dumb spectacles are all equally last but that begs the question who's first what is the new dominant Trend taking over if the king is dead who's the new king let's start by looking at the 6 billion films since the start of the new decade now the outlier here is Jurassic world Dominion which only barely made a billion dollars while taking a significant drop from Fallen Kingdom it's also terrible so for the purpose of this discussion I'm admitting it it's not a growing franchise this leaves us with5 Billion Hits over the course of 2 years Spider-Man no way home top gun Maverick Avatar the way of water the Super Mario Bros movie and Barbie in order to determine the new rules for Success we need to examine how each individual film broke out and how they differ from their peers and the Blockbusters of yester year the first film on this list is Spider-Man no way home which is the only superhero film to be on this list the former Blockbuster King the superhero genre is of course all in on the Multiverse Trend which is already exhaustive but no way home struck while the idea was still fresh by now we expect heroes from different universes to show up like jump scares in a Conjuring movie but when no way home brought the three Spider-Man together it genuinely felt like doing so was impossible even though we all know it was coming like 5 months earlier the copycutters think that just bringing back these characters will work but no way home works because of the specific circumstances of its crossover most franchises are hindered by behind thes scenes drama but no way home is the rare movie that benefited from it both the original Spider-Man trilogy and the amazing reboot ended on sour notes for audiences and the creatives involved involved this led to premature reboots from both series The creatives reluctantly moving on and a web of hting threads and missed potential no way home then swooped in and used these drop setups from these rebooted universes finally giving them a place to pay off from Peter 3 saving MJ to Peter 2 getting to reunite with Otto and finally save Norman these are the moments where no way home source however these added elements never completely take over the story at the end of the day this is still Holland's film and by merging these multiple worlds Holland transforms into his best version of Spider-Man yet the most important thing no way home does is that it quits while it's ahead it shows us unlimited possibilities but then focuses on closure it fulfills the promises of the Spider-Man stories of old but then says goodbye to them for Good by Design you can only do no way home once but the MCU wants to do it again and and again and again here's a question I've been wrestling with since mid July why did Mission Impossible dead reckoning part one underperform while top gun Maverick soared both films St Tom Cruz are written by Christopher mccor and center around lovable characters in breathtaking action sequences well top Cod Maverick did have a few obvious advantages for one a better title top gun Maverick got it Mission Impossible dead reckoning part one cultural learnings of America for make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan okay I think I know what happened here second Advantage competition Maverick only had Jurassic world Dominion to deal with for the entire month of June dead reckoning on the other hand what up against barbon Heimer on weekend 2 ouch so Maverick had better luck sure or perhaps Top Gun is just a more lucrative brand but I don't don't think that paints the full picture dead reckoning part one is a great movie audiences loved it critics loved it the 2hour and 43 minute runtime feels like an hour and 30 what did this movie do wrong nothing however Mission Impossible fall it's just a little bit better yes the worst thing about dead reckoning part one is that it's barely outclassed by its relatively recent predecessor there's very little that dead recking does amazing that Fallout also doesn't do amazingly the motorcycle jump is the most dangerous stunt in Cruz's career but I can't say it tops fallout's helicopter finale or Henry Cav's reloading arms as spectacular as the film is as a Die Hard Mission Impossible fan it was more of the same Top Gun fans on the other hand have been starving they had one iconic movie in 1986 and for 36 years nothing the pressure was immense especially after the film worlds lost Tony Scott a Top Gun sequel had to be great and the only way Cruz would jump on board a sequel is that they found the right idea and Joseph kazinski had it not only did they write a script that was you know good but camera technology had progressed to the point where each actor could have an IMAX quality camera in their cockpit having a bit of extra time in the oven due to co the editing in the film is as sharp as a knife with each aerial dog fight being effortless to follow and every moment of action being built from character topun Maverick didn't just pay off the invested Nostalgia from the original it surpassed it in every conceivable way now comes the real Shocker on this list the sequel to Avatar made over a billion dollars who could have seen this coming now I wouldn't call it an outlier but the way of water certainly plays by its own rules Avatar 2 would have made $2 billion in any decade of release it's directed by James Cameron frankly he's probably disappointed it didn't make 3 billion when James Cameron releases a film you know you're seeing the absolute Pinnacle of what film technology can do at that point in time the Avatar films are so funny because they have zero online presence you know the one thing every other franchise has built around only to run circles around the mall at the box office everyone goes to these movies trips balls in IMAX 3D and then never talks about them again I I love it still the power of immersion cannot be overstated Pandora has only gotten more interesting as a setting and Cameron's action skills haven't missed a beat the next film on this list is the least interesting narratively but the most interesting financially the Super Mario Bros movie video game adaptations have been a naughty ward in the industry for a very long time but between this and The Last of Us HBO show they're starting to make their way to the big leagues there's not much I can say about Mario Bros creatively as a movie it's fine but that's that's a film critic in me Talking Now Let's have the Mario fan and Me Talk the things that impressed me the most about the Mario movie weren't the characters or storytelling or anything like that it was the details it was the way Mario's arms flew to his side as he ran through the levels how the blue shell from Mario Kart actually got used in an interesting way or how the score pulled from every era of Mario's history and Blended them into a beautiful Symphony certain Nostalgia buttons have been pushed so aggressively over the years that we've grown completely numb to them but these are Nostalgia buttons I've never been pushed on before certainly in a movie theater lastly we have Barbie if there's any indication for what the next wave of billion dooll Blockbusters will look like this is it it's high concept creator-driven filmmaking hijacking unknown intellectual property Barbie's not just different from the safe franchise Blockbusters of last decade it's a direct response to them where many films pretend to tackle real world issues Barbie centers the entire conflict around the patriarchy while never losing its comedic touch it's bold it's pink it swings for the fences and it can knock it out of the park huh yeah weren't we supposed to vote today what so these are the five breakout hits of the 2020s so far let's use them to create the three new rules for Blockbusters rule number one Nostalgia cells but with a Twist it's not enough anymore to just show the audience something they're nostalgic about there needs to be a hook if the 2010's Blockbuster is about taking something familiar and doing something slightly different then the 2020s Blockbuster is about taking something familiar and throwing it on its head novelty is everything as the last decade taught us that Nostalgia has a sharp halflife the second rule now is that Innovative action speaks louder than words many of the wouldbe action Blockbusters have failed to reach their 2010's heights whereas topen Maverick and the way of water thrived because of the Pinnacles of their genres if you raise the bar the audience will come the highs of big budget spectacle are here to stay but the grading curve is far more steep lastly we get to the third rule prioritizing franchises above everything was the rule of last decade and looking at this list it no longer applies all of these films are new branches in their respective series or have come so late that they're basically franchise relaunches the one exception of course is no way home however it stands out from its peers because it pulled off the Multiverse event film before it was expected prioritizing the constant stream of content with these franchises has hurt their competitive prospects for one you can't make a billion dollars if you only make TV shows for a streaming service that bleeds money but second few of these shows or movies actually bring new elements to Their audience they all exist to extend their series status quo by their nature they're uneventful I want to propose a new rule for the Post 2020s Blockbuster prioritize events above everything the diversity in these films speaks to their event status they all beat out their competition Barbie isn't trying to be Mario Bros which isn't trying to be Avatar the lack of audience overlap is their advantage something that's hurt a lot of wannabe Blockbusters is that they're aiming to please everyone are the dis liveaction remakes made for kids or the parents who saw the originals as kids the answer of course is both but when every movie he's made for everyone eventually no one gets anything that belongs to them what I see with this new crop of billion dollar hits are movies that Target specific demographics and knock it out of the park for them I don't think the Mario Bros movie is that great of a film but if I were seven it would be the best movie in the history of forever Maverick was largely carried by Boomers just as Barbie was carried by Millennial women ultimately I think this is a far more lucrative strategy than the traditional four quadrant Blockbuster while the 20110 Blockbusters were scared of leaving any potential audience left out the truth is that if we see a friend or family member excited for a movie we'll get excited too lastly if the event is everything then taking your time is Paramount the harsh truth that Studios don't want to hear is that the audience wants to wait the way water was meant to be a direct sequel but took 133 years to realize it took 15 years to see Toby again in that costume Mario Bros took 30 years between attempts and again top gun Maverick waited 36 years this time away wasn't a hindrance it was an investment and it's not just the time off that's important but that this time was used to polish each story and ensure they were ready this has been the real downfall of the former Blockbuster Titans as the rush to create a steady pipeline of content has directly affected their quality VFX artists get less time to perfect their shots writers have less time to actually right and gradually with time your precious worlds become Bland monotonous content the thing about Trends is that they're reactionary just as a sequel is a response to the previous film's reception so too is a current hit a response to the previous year's hits I loved many of the last decade's Blockbusters but it's clear from the past three years that we're all sick of the repetition the worst thing any wouldbe Blockbuster can do right now is give us something that's already been done before if you're a studio executive and you want a billion dooll franchise I've got one piece of advice slow down this is a marathon not a Sprint and it's far easier to kill a billion dollar franchise than it is to build one so I'm recording this outro right as the Marvel's is completely tanking at the box office and we really are witnessing a power shift in Blockbuster entertainment and what audiences want and that will be the bulk of my coverage here on this channel for the foreseeable future you know just as the Blockbuster is evolving and changing so too must my coverage of it uh and if you want to be around for that well you know what to do you

Channel: Films&Stuff

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Length: 15min 30sec (930 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 17 2023