For a while now we’ve been hearing filmmakers lament about the death of traditional Cinema.
Martin Scorcesi even claimed Superhero movies were more akin to theme park rides than “Cinema”.
The truth is, however, that no matter what you think about this new landscape, audiences
are enjoying these films.
At the time of writing, Spider-Man no way home has already grossed $609 Million domestically
in just its first couple of weeks, and 8 of the top 10 highest grossing films of all time
are films from pre established IP.
I’d imagine that it could make it into the top five by the end of its run.
But even if it doesn’t quite break into the top five, this particular film, guaranteed,
will be the superhero movie that changes everything for good.
It will be the final nail in the coffin for traditional theatrical experiences.
Here’s what I mean.
Let's take a look at Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritc, two of the most popular sites for judging
how well a piece of work was received.
On Rotten tomatoes it's currently sitting at 94% Critic Approval and 98% Audience approval.
Metacritc, which uses a bit of a different rating scale has the film sitting at a 71
Critically and a 8.8 User Score.
Compare that to Avengers Endgame, the second highest grossing film of all time, that film
is at a 94% Critic Approval rating but only a 90% audience approval, with a slightly better
Metacritic score of 78 but a lower audience rating at 7.8.
Studios want their movies to break box-office records, that’s no surprise, but a well-received
movie brings just as much value to the studios when they are considered in the context of
the franchise.
Sony and Marvel have already announced another Tom Holland Trilogy.
If you think about each movie’s performance as a barometer of how audiences feel toward
a particular franchise, then Spider-Man is as healthy as any of them.
“Ok, got it, all that is great,” I hear you say, “but how will this particular movie
be the one that changes things forever?”
Well, For the past 20 years or so, studios have been dipping their toe in what’s called,
intertextuality.
Intertextuality is basically a literary device that creates meaning between multiple pieces
of work.
In the past, this intertextuality was expressed mostly through sequels.
Sequels aren't a new thing, but they were often just a continuation of the story.
Trilogies of movies have become the big thing to do too, with each movie in a trilogy being
tied chronologically to the others.
Now though, with this particular Spider-man, we are seeing a version of intertextuality
that goes far beyond being just another sequel.
This is the part that has spoilers so if you don’t want Spidey spoiled, I suggest you
click away.
Where the MCU tied a whole bunch of films together through the infinity saga, this Spider-Man
film takes a bunch of movies that had absolutely nothing to do with the most current version
of Spider-Man and jams them into No way home, and the somewhat scary part is that it actually
kinda works, it made for a really enjoyable film.
The thing is though, No way Home literally cannot exist without The Sam Rami trilogy
and the Amazing spider-man movies.
Most of the big villains from these 5 films and both versions of spider-man return in
No Way Home and they aren’t just subtle fan service.
All of these characters are intricately woven throughout the story.
Despite not being a sequel in any way, shape or form, To truly be able to enjoy No way
home, you really need to have seen at least some of these other films.
If you haven’t seen them, then half of the big character moments are meaningless.
There are so many jokes and call-backs to the old movies, and the film heavily relies
on your knowledge of who these characters are to be able to enjoy the moments they share,
especially between the three spideys.
For example, in one scene MJ falls off this big scaffolding and Andrew Garfield’s Spiderman
is able to save her from falling to her death.
When he catches her at the end, he’s almost crying with her in his arms.
This is a payoff from his failure to catch Gwen Stacy as she fell to her death in the
Amazing Spiderman 2.
They actually managed to give Andrew Garfield’s character a truly transformative moment that
was setup in a completely unrelated movie almost 8 years ago.
All of the failures of Toby Macguire’s Spiderman and Andrew Garfield’s Spiderman were used
as character devices to help Tom Holland’s Spidey through his failures in No Way Home.
These other versions of Spider-Man who had been through hell and back, were able to guide
this new Version of Spider-Man to help his character grow and change.
And because it was so well received, and was such a box office success, I think this particular
movie will be the blueprint that studios will use to finally just go all in on huge intertextual
cinematic universes and I mean for everything.
Sure you can argue that this isn’t anything new.
Harry Potter, Star Wars, All the superhero universes, they’ve been doing these big
franchise films for a while, but I think the difference now is that we’ve seen that even
older iterations of characters from other movies made by other studios can be weaved
into films to create massive universes and they don’t have to narratively relate to
each other.
They don’t have to be chronological stories.
This will be the movie that everyone points to as the “correct” way to pay off the
franchise thing.
Imagine a world where every big film in theaters is part of a larger universe that comes together
to make huge mega-films.
We won’t see hardly any stand-alone movies on the big screen unless they are intended
to start a new “cinematic universe”.
I’d imagine that even older franchises will start doing the intertextual thing.
Imagine New James Bond teaming up with old Jame Bond somehow to make this massive epic.
Or maybe we will get the Inception cinematic Universe.
Instead of being contained stories that have a beginning, middle, and end, in theaters,
we will get two and a half hour episodes of the most expensive television you can imagine.
Each film serving as another chapter of the 5 year long “season” of the franchise.
Not only does this make for some really huge tentpole flicks that fans end up loving, but
it also serves to reinvigorate older movies.
I can guarantee you that prime rentals of these movies are way up in recent weeks.
Things have clearly changed, but I’ve intentionally tried not to complain about these changes.
To be completely honest, I really enjoyed No Way Home, and I don’t exactly blame studios
for doing this.
My love of movies is NOT tied to the theatrical experience.
As a kid most of the films I loved, I watched on VHS or DVD.
Going to the movies wasn’t something we did more than four or five times a year, but
we did watch movies almost every day on our TV.
I really enjoy watching things in my living room, and now, when I go to the movies, I
exclusively see them in IMAX.
I want a big theme park experience when I go to the theater.
But on my home screen, I want more intimate, character driven stories.
To me, this change is just a natural progression of the medium.
We are living in the golden age of television.
This subject definitely deserves its own video, but the 10 hour limited series has become
some of my favorite bits of television.
I love being able to sit with a character and watch them slowly develop.
I love the final episode of a mini series as all of the storylines come together into
a cathartic piece of television goodness.
The best part of streaming is that we will still get to have these smaller, contained
films; they will just be easier to access and easier to see.
The subscription model will allow these streamers to take risks on more niche content, and we
will get to experience more amazing movies and television than we ever have before.
Movies are changing.
We’ve known that for a while.
But I don’t see any reason these studios would produce a movie that isn’t a part
of a franchise.
They are just way more profitable.
42 of the top 50 highest grossing films were part of a pre-established franchise.
42!
In an era of constant stimulation, it’s nearly impossible to get people to pay money
to see a film unless there is some sort of familiarity to it.
Studios are just giving people what they want, you can’t exactly blame them for that.
Anyways that’s just my take, but what do you think?
Do you agree that cinema will likely never return to the way it once was?
If so, are you ok with that?
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Thanks again for watching guys, I’ll see you in the next one.