Summer movie season kicked into high gear with the release of Iron Man last weekend. It’s a moment that Marvel Entertainment has been looking forward to with nervousness for a long time now, as it’s the first in a long line of recent superhero blockbusters that the company’s financed solely by itself (and distributed by Paramount). It was a gutsy move, and, if Iron Man’s $100 million first weekend gross is any indication, the gamble has paid off. For now.
Ever since the start of the big screen’s recent embrace of Marvel’s comic characters, the company has watched from the sidelines while studios like Sony and Fox have walked away with the lion’s share of profits from the Spider-Man and X-Men franchises, among others. Tired of playing second fiddle, Marvel launched its own studio and announced a line-up of coming features. While it might seem risk free on the surface, it really wasn’t. Most of the big, well-known superheroes, such as the aforementioned arachnid-infused teen and the band of mutants, have already come and gone. This left Marvel to bet the house on Iron Man, a popular character in comic circles but not too well known by the general public, and June’s The Incredible Hulk, a do-over for the not-so-jolly green giant following Ang Lee’s rather horrible and boring version in 2003. (I mean, really, it takes a lot of effort to make such a slam-bang character dull, but Lee managed it.)
So why did Iron Man hit gold with audiences? Because Marvel actually made a good movie. I haven’t seen it yet, but many of my friends have and they’ve all raved. I read tons of movie reviews and they were all very positive as well. (A brief rant: I love that a summer movie season started off with a well-reviewed movie. I think the big blockbusters often get a bad rap. It’s been beat into our heads so often by the media that the Summer Movie is automatically synonymous with crap that it’s become a self-defeating prophecy. Are there bad blockbusters? Sure. But most of the time they’re fun if you just relax and let them serve their purpose: escapist entertainment. OK. Rant over.)
Iron Man also succeeded because of that simple, yet elusive, ingredient — perfect leading man casting. (Call it the Johnny Depp/Pirates of the Caribbean phenomenon.) Marvel took a big gamble on choosing Robert Downey Jr., a gifted actor but one who’s usually relegated to supporting roles. Not to mention his high-profile drug problems of the past. But he proved worth the risk and deftly carries the movie.
Not long after opening weekend, Marvel announced the inevitable sequel, slated for release in 2010. They also took the opportunity to announce a slew of other projects, everything from a Captain America flick to a Thor movie. While there’s still plenty of development work that needs to be done, Marvel should be careful and take a breath. There’s every bit of a chance that their high will soon wear off soon if the bad buzz on The Incredible Hulk is true, and tossing too many second tier characters onto the screen probably won’t score you Iron Man grosses every time out. (Seriously, no one’s clamoring for that Ant-Man adaptation.)
Still, for now Marvel has plenty of cause to pop the champagne and drink up. Excelsior!
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