Reelist: X-Men’s Wolverine, Innovating Film Franchises
So begins the inaugural summer blockbuster release season: Wolverine, the X-Men origins backstory or prequel on the immortal, was superhuman enough to pull away from the pack with $87 million or $21,225 per theater average. From Hugh Jackman’s Oscar hosting to the leaking of a screener, the latest Marvel franchise had plenty of build-up, and many are already saying the leak either didn’t hurt or cost the film $20 million.
Compared to last year’s Iron Man ($98.6 million) or X-Men 3 ($102.8M over Memorial Day weekend) – and for the fact that franchises start to fall apart after the second or third – the numbers are satisfying. Fox can certainly point to the leak bringing attention and curiousity to the film, while the online pirates can point to the film opening regardless of their early viewings.
There are several analyses of what the online piracy leak might have meant to the blockbuster, but this one seems most in line, via Business Insider’s The Biz and THR Esq:
$7.18 million [loss] - Reports following the leak suggested that about 1 million people viewed at least part of the workprint. That number seemed low to us, given the publicity, the Web savvy of the film’s core audience and how easy it is now to access torrent sites via Google. But accepting that number and multiplying it by $7.18, which is the average North American movie ticket price, the early availability might have shaved about $7.18 million off the opening weekend numbers. Sure, many of those who cared enough to look at the leaked version no doubt donned their muttonchops and plastic claws to see the finished film on opening night. And plenty of lookie-loos never would have seen the film anyways. (Plus, the 1 million presumably refers to views worldwide) But the leak also contributed to some negative buzz about the film, which–like with Universal’s leaked “Hulk” in 2003–reverberated beyond the pirate community (“Wolverine’s” RottenTomato rating ended up at a splattering 38%).
I took in a matinee, and my mini-review was that the opening sequence of the film, showing Wolverine and his brother Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber) as boys was light in actual backstory. However, it was followed by an exception title sequence showing the brothers fighting through three US wars.
Directed by Tsotsi director, Gavin Hood, the film walked a fine line between Wolverine’s separation from the early/governmental-backed X-Men, and then bundling 5 or 6 new mutants to fight black-ops battles.
While Jackman pulled it off, the supporting cast felt forced: from will.i.am as a teleporting John Wraith to a character called ‘Tank’ (enough said) to Gambit, a mutant magician/card player. Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool character is given a good early opening, but his mutant quickly becomes muted, so to speak.
These new mutant superheroes come off somewhat as mere action sequence asides since director Bryan Singer left the franchise after X2: X-Men United. Juggling an emsemble cast becomes treacherous when films like this latest one start ‘mutating the mutant’ into second-generation characters before they even define the first-generation mutants.
Hence, lots of theoretical black-ops chemistry with a lack of on-screen chemistry.
3Ways to Innovate: Superhero Franchises
- When prequeling a superhero, spend more time on his or her early backstory – the original Superman did this well with his Krypton parents and Earth parents, building into the run-up of the superhero accepting their super-role in life. With Paramount’s Iron Man and its sequel(s), the biggest character innovation is that Tony Stark comes “out” as Iron Man, i.e., there is no Clark Kent subterfuge; and Stark has to see how it redefines his Larry Ellison-like lifestyle.
- Spin-out the supporting superheroes appropriately. To will.i.am’s role (spoiler alert!), don’t let these roles die predictably. If they are worthly characters, they should roll through the piece, building their own mythologies with each cameo. The big rule: pick one or two major villains, not twelve.
- There must have been hours and hours of pre-roll on Wolverine; hence, find a way to place that footage with the pirates or online video sites. The fans (and fanboys) will eat it up; and even if it warrants DVD bonus feature inclusion, the fans will still want it in HD-format, and there’s plenty of room on the new discs.
###
And the weekend box office:
1. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Fox) OPENER [4,099 Theaters] $87M Wkd
2. Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past (NL/WB) OPENER [3,175] $15.3 Wkd
3. Obsessed (SG/Sony) [2,514] WEEK 2, $12.2M Wkd (-57%), Cume $47M
4. 17 Again (NL/WB) [3,255] WEEK 3, $6.3M Wkd, Cume $48.4M
5. Monsters v Aliens (DWA/Par) WEEK 6, [2,626] $5.8M Wkd, Cume $182.4M
6. The Soloist (DW/Par) [2,033] WEEK 2, $5.6M Wkd (-42%), Cume $18.1M
7. Earth (Disney) [1,804] WEEK 2, $4.1M Wkd (-53%), Cume $21.8M
8. Fighting (Rogue/Uni) [2,312] WEEK 2, $4.1M Wkd (-62%), Cume $17.5M
9. Hannah Montana (Disney) [2,819] WEEK 4, $4M Wkd, Cume $70.8M
10. State of Play [2,445] WEEK 3, $3.6M Wkd, Cume $30.8M
