Thus far in the course, we have yet to talk much about big Hollywood blockbusters that make up a lot of the industry today. For this reason, I decided to review one of these blockbusters. Superhero movies are rapidly becoming more and more popular, and one might argue that this craze skyrocketed with the release of Joss Whedon’s “The Avengers” in 2012. If we talk about a Hollywood blockbuster as a film with big-name stars, huge budgets, large-scale production, and a thrill-packed narrative, “The Avengers” seems to fit the bill exactly. In its own way, “The Avengers” is able to not only satisfy the usual audience’s desire for a classical blockbuster film, but to also draw in new viewers while executing an overall enjoyable film.
Many blockbusters are able to achieve success in today’s movie market, but not all of them achieve success at the same scale that Whedon achieved with more than $200 million opening weekend. This success ultimately comes down to the film’s ability to reach more than just the target audience of Marvel fans. The beginning of the movie consists of what is basically a very long exposition sequence. One by one, the audience is introduced to each of the heroes. During this introduction, we are provided with necessary background information either through dialogue, through character interaction, or through flashbacks. Tony Stark, for example, is given a background through his conversation with Pepper Potts and Phil Coulson during his opening sequence. Captain America, on the other hand, is given a backstory through flashbacks. These flashbacks are in fact scenes from a previous film, shown here with a distinct filter to notify the viewer that we are seeing glimpses of the past. For the Marvel fan, it is easy to catch these flashbacks as actual clips of another movie. For new viewers, this sequence flows into the story. It not only gives them important character information, but it allows them to quite easily jump into the storyline without having seen any other Marvel film. And that is the key. Any casual viewer can decide to see the movie right now, and nothing would be lost on them. The film easily provides this information in a way that is clear to new viewers, and not tiresome to old ones.
It is impossible, of course, to talk about this film without talking about the star-studded cast. Though obviously a trait held by most modern-day blockbusters, ‘The Avengers” provides another twist. Audiences are more willing to pay to see a film in theaters if it has a long list of actors they know. What “The Avengers” manages to do is not only provide a long list of actors that are popular and familiar, but a long list of characters as well. By bringing together Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, and other loved heroes into one movie, “The Avengers” kills multiple birds with one stone. And not only are the characters present, but they are all written distinctly and individualistically. A fan of Thor is going to see “The Avengers” and see his or her favorite character recognized equally and acting perfectly in character. If he or she falls in love with Iron Man throughout the course of the story, so be it.
Lastly, at the end of the day “The Avengers” provides a wholly satisfying story. Though classical in its structure, with no surprises to be seen, the audience is left on the edge of their seats with action to spare. The thrill-seeking blockbuster-goer will be ecstatic at the excitement of the storyline, while others will find enjoyment in the wit and humor exchanged between the characters in what turns out to be quite a funny script. Some might be drawn to the politics of S.H.I.E.L.D., while others enjoy the dynamic between brothers Loki and Thor. “The Avengers” has something for everyone, and won’t disappoint no matter your preferences.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0848228/
Holy cow do I love superhero movies! I love the way that The Avengers brings in everyone’s favorite Marvel superhero’s into one movie where they can fight evil together. One good thing that The Avengers does is that it makes the movie cohesive and so that if a person has not seen the individual movie that the superhero is part of, they get an idea of who they are and where they came from. However, when you have seen their own title films, you create a deeper connection with them and understand their struggles even more. I agree that The Avengers is a movie that everyone can enjoy and definitely won’t disappoint when you watch it.
Thanks Suzanne – great analysis of what makes this film a blockbuster. We’ll talk a little bit more about the Hollywood blockbuster next week alongside Tropic Thunder…
You’re absolutely right about the broad audience for The Avengers – it made 1.5 billion dollars! Part of this success is something you point out: that each film is like an advertisement for all the others. One of the other things that’s fascinating to me is how much of that total came from countries outside the U.S. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Avengers_%282012_film%29#Box_office) Comic books are kind of a worldwide phenomenon, but it’s remarkable to me that these films seem to translate so well in so many different cultures.
Meanwhile, comic book movies have been box office gold for more than 10 years (since the Sam Raimi Spiderman in 2002 showed that comic movies could be super profitable again . . . Christopher Nolan’s darker reboot of Batman, Batman Begins (2005), was also a key film). Do you think the box office dominance of comic book movies will come to an end soon? What do you think are the historical/cultural/political reasons behind the success of comic book adaptations in the past 10 years?
Quite honestly I think that at some point this comic book craze will come to an end, or at least fall in popularity. I do think, however, that it has quite a long life ahead of it yet. The comic book industry is absolutely huge and very old, with Marvel publishing its first comic in 1939. So within this industry are literally thousands of characters with thousands of story lines and thousands of villains and thousands of possibilities. Not all of these are hugely popular, like the X-Men for example, but they have all survived this much time and show no signs of stopping. So if you imagine that the comics themselves have lasted this long, especially considering how difficult it is to actually read and keep up with a comic series from the beginning let alone joining later on, movies have the ability to last even longer. Marvel is giving each viewer sort of an entryway into their world with these films, assuming no prior knowledge of any part of their universe. Basically what I’m trying to say with this long and wordy response is that these movies are here to stay, at least for a while.
As far as the timing of this success, I think a lot of it has to do with the state of the movie industry. At some point in time, movie writers run out of stories to tell. Call it lack of creativity, whatever you like, but there was, for a while, a distinct lack of ingenuity in Hollywood. So during a time when more and more film studios were turning to books to adapt (like Harry Potter, or the Hunger Games), comic books I think provided much needed inspiration, and more importantly, a much needed pool of characters and story lines.
I really like the point that you bring up about this movie not only having famous actors that are familiar to the viewer but also characters. I think this really helps to promote the film in a huge way because right from the beginning of the movie the audience, if they have seen the other movies or read the comics, then they already have an established connection. This helps the audience because they don’t have to form a new connection with new characters. They can already come into the movie with a fondness for certain, if not all, of the characters. This is a good selling point for a movie like this and a much easier way to promote it since there is an established connection with an audience prior to the movie even coming out.
I couldn’t agree more about your analysis that The Avengers has something for everyone. Movie studios today are focusing more on making money than making films, and I think The Avengers is a perfect example of that. The movie works for many reasons: the Marvel stories are decades old and are already very familiar, each character has it’s own fan-base, and VFX action sequences transcend cultural and language barriers with ease. Studios love these multi-genre films because of the commercialization opportunities, such as merchandising and franchising. However, I am a bit tired of the continuous release of super hero movies because it shows a lack of creativity in Hollywood.
I totally love this analysis of The Avengers as a huge superhero fan! You’re right that it’s a movie that can attract new and old movie goers because they don’t have to see the other individual superhero movies before seeing The Avengers. These are superheros that people are familiar with and grew up loving and young kids admiring now so it draws in a huge audience. It is the typical Hollywood blockbuster film just like you packed with action and also having Marvel’s witty humor. Definitely a movie that wont disappoint.
I rather enjoyed your post since I am one of those people who enjoyed Marvel’s “The Avengers.” I can relate to what you’re stating in your post about how the film easily flows. It is put together in such a way that it makes it easier for new viewers to be immersed into the movie without prior knowledge of each individual hero. What is it though that drew people to see this movie during opening weekend spending a total of over $200 million? You write that, “This success ultimately comes down to the film’s ability to reach more than just the target audience of Marvel fans.” I believe that Marvel fans were never the target audience because the film’s budget of $220 million demanded that the target audience was always far in excess of the readership of Marvel Comics and the film’s construction, as you describe, proves this point by making the film comprehensible to an audience that may never have read a single Marvel comic. We should also remember that the opening weekend gross of a film is also dependent, in part, on the number of screens on which the film is shown, the number of times the film is shown on any one screen during that opening weekend and also the amount of money spent on TV advertising, etc. I agree with your comments that “The Avengers” combined a long list of popular actors with a similar number of super heroes and so increased the film’s potential for financial success. However, if we compare the “Iron Man” series with “The Avengers” we find that “Iron Man 3” achieved a similar opening weekend gross of $174 million with only one super hero and one group of poplar actors. Therefore, the financial success of a film seems to depend on more complex variables than just the number of popular actors or the number of super heroes involved.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1300854/
Ok, it might sounds stupid but I think 9/11 could be one of the reasons behind comic book adaptations’ success.
What do you think? Am I crazy?
I’d be interested to hear why you think that!
First, if you just look at the dates, it makes sense. You can definitely see that the popularity of these kind of movies grew after 9/11. So after that comes this question: why?
I think superheroes movies filled a need, at that moment. I’m not going to enlarge on the subject because I don’t feel competent enough but here is an awesome article that I found: http://hopelies.com/2011/07/23/the-subversive-ability-of-popular-culture-superhero-movies-post-911/
Enjoy !
I really like that you chose to talk about the avengers for this blog post. I feel that it is in a short list of movies that appeals to such a large audience. I think one of the reasons it is able to do this is because of the history that is associated with Marvel and the Avengers. Also the series ability to create and tie together multiple films. It’s one of the only movies that use completely separate film series together to create one film. I think that this allows them to appeal to such a wide audience and stay relevant for so many years. I’m normally not a fan of super hero movies because I think that they are just repeated over and over again and are only made to make money are serve little originality in the narrative. However, I appreciate the avengers and marvel for their ability to repeat story lines that have been used for so long and still be able to reach the top of the list at the box office.
I really liked your description about how the characters were introduced. I think that is a significant indicator of a blockbuster movie. It aids in creating a clear “good guy, bad guy” kind of thing.
Very great post.
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