Holy HR!
Posted on 06/23/2019 6:26:45 PM PDT by EdnaMode
Today is June 23, 2019, making it the 30th anniversary of Tim Burton’s Batman.
[snip]
Looking back at its success, I maintain that Batman, not Star Wars (and certainly not Jaws), is the movie most responsible for the current Hollywood blockbuster.
[snip]
First, somewhat obviously, it showed Hollywood that they could make a film, a non-sequel film no-less, that could be a presumed guaranteed moneymaker by virtue of its source material. Sure, it wasn’t the first Hollywood blockbuster whose popularity partially stemmed from a book or a play. Think Gone with the Wind, Ben-Hur, The Godfather or Jaws. But Batman’s success signaled to the industry that they could raid their IP for potential movie material. As such, we had comic book movies (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), video game movies (Super Mario Bros.), films based on popular TV shows (The Fugitive), movies stemming directly from TV shows (Wayne’s World, X-Files: Fight the Future), and films based on theme park rides (Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl).
[snip]
The other trend that Batman began (sorry) was the notion of a kid-targeted property being fashioned into a movie aimed at older moviegoers. Yes, I saw Batman on opening weekend as a nine-year-old, and I wasn’t scarred for life. Nor was I among the kids traumatized by Batman Returns, but I digress. Nonetheless, At the time, the PG-13 rating was four-years-old and the idea a comic book superhero movie being both PG-13 and dark, violent and sexual enough to damn-well deserve that rating was a huge deal. Batman and (especially) Batman Returns were action fantasies pitched at adult moviegoers and filtered through adult sensibilities. It was considered “adult” enough that Disney successfully opened Honey I Shrunk the Kids ($14 million debut/$140 million cume) the same day.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
If I recall correctly, Tim Burton's Batman wasn't even very popular, though it had to have done better than the George Clooney Batman flick. The '80s were the decade of blockbusters, and Batman didn't come along until the end of the decade.
Now, we're in the age of the comic book movie. The Superman and Batman pictures were only a foretaste of that. Superman and Batman were already cult figures, familiar even to the older generation, and didn't rely on a movie to make them familiar. But this isn't the first batsh_t theory about the movie. Does anybody remember the "Batman anti-Semitic" controversy?
But that really doesn't matter. The person who wrote the article wants to get clicks and start a controversy, not to actually prove anything, and the author has probably succeeded at making waves and calling attention to himself and his magazine.
HA!!
I had to watch a couple times :)
>> Globalism is what ruined the blockbuster. <<
This needs to be shouted from the rooftops. So many movies were bombs in the U.S., but were funded again and again because no matter how bad they were, as long as they had enough explosions, they were monster hits overseas. Turns out the European movie-goers had all the sophistication of a toddler. As the 1990s drew to a close, movie companies learned to avoid risky movies like Forrest Gump, The Sixth Sense, Home Alone, Ghost, Dances with Wolves, and stick with noisy crap, like Independence Day, Water World, Batman Returns, The Lost World: Jurassic Park (2), Gidzilla (1998), etc.
No big-budget movie could fail, if marketed to un-American tastes.
Every big-budget, legendary crap sandwich made killer money overseas.
Terminator 3 made $283 million.
The Matrix Revolutions made $460 million.
The Fantastic 4 made $128 million.
Waterworld made $176 million.
Alexander made $133 million.
Troy made $364 million.
War of the Worlds made $357 million.
Mission Impossible 3 made $267 million.
Transformers 3 made $771 million.
2012 made $663 million.
Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides made $804 million.
In one of the the 40’s Batman serials Alfred is catching Batman’s girlfriend Vicki as she collapses and it’s pretty much the same as that gif.
This. Attending an ‘American’ movie in Asia is a unique experience...
Ultimately, yes. Leftism, politucal correctness, etc.
= political.
Excellent point. No one connects solidly that many times, and no one could possibly survive it.
This year is especially bad. Last movie I saw at the theater was The Mule and that’s only because Clint Eastwood is in it. Marvel movies......getting old now, just my humble opinion.
“So he doesn’t like a Batman movie”
Did you actually read it? He said it’s one of his favorite movies of all time. He just happens to think that’s it’s the blueprint for every blockbuster movie that’s come since (by taking recognisable kid’s material and making it’s edgy for older nostalgic audiences. I can’t say I disagree with him on that... well... other than the fact that I actually do hate Batman.
“If I recall correctly, Tim Burton’s Batman wasn’t even very popular”
P.S. You do not recall correctly.
What ruined Hollywood was, in part, the ruination of our educational system that dumbed down our population and their level of cultural interests and discourse.
Hollywood lost it way when...it became committed to using its powers to the further the fundamental transformation of the United States of America.
Bomb. This is Batman, not the Pink Panther.
Going leftist is what ruined Hollyweird.
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