Following the simultaneous landing of Marvel’s “Black Widow” on Disney+ last month.On the 6th of this month, that is today, DC’s annual masterpiece “The Suicide Squad” is also officially synchronized on the hospital network and launched on streaming media HBO Max.
At present, judging from the ratings, this new version of “The Suicide Squad” directed by James Gunn has gained quite a good reputation.
Related Post: “The Suicide Squad”: DC uses strength to teach Marvel how to be a “superhero” movie.
Compared with the previous film “The Suicide Squad” directed by David Ayer but hit the street, it can be described as “a shame before the snow”, which made DC fans “raised” again.
Even compared to “Black Widow,” which disappointed fans a month ago, word-of-mouth can be said to be much better than that.
Related Post: “Black Widow” dropped to 6.7 overnight! The ultimate battle of the first goddess of the Avengers was messed up by Marvel?
It can be said that in this smoke-free PK battle, DC won a lot.
In a blink of an eye, half of 2021 has passed, and the two superhero film giants Marvel and DC have already handed in their first answers this year.
Now that the synchronization of large-scale movies has gradually become normal, what are the results?
James Gunn angered Martin Scorsese, then upgrade?
Before discussing, we might as well take a look at the latest news.
According to foreign media reports, with the release of Rolling Guide’s “The Suicide Squad“, he once again expressed his views on the old director Martin Scorsese’s previous remarks about “Marvel movies are theme parks”.
Two years ago, with the popularity of Marvel movies around the world, Martin Scorsese publicly criticized: “Marvel movies are not real cinema. Although these movies are well-made and the actors are very careful, they still look like watching them in a theme park. Image.”
This remark was opposed by many people, including James Gunn, who directed the first two parts of the Guardians of the Galaxy series.
At that time, James Gunn was the first Marvel director to stand up and reply. He thinks Martin Scorsese is one of his favorite five living directors today.
He was very sad for Martin Scorsese’s behavior of evaluating the movie without watching the whole movie.
However, he said that he will always like Martin Scorsese’s movies.
In the eyes of sir, this reply is actually quite decent.
In truth, Martin Scorsese’s position in film history naturally does not need to be repeated.
As a master who has made a great contribution to the history of world cinema, it is understandable to make some self-interpretation of the pop culture phenomenon on the market today.
As a powerful junior, James Gunn, while expressing his emotions, also showed respect for the old director.
It was originally two generations, and it’s normal to have different concepts.
However, recently, James Gunn once again talked about what happened two years ago.
He said that Martin Scorsese has constantly stood up against Marvel, because this is the only way he can win media attention for his films.
Therefore, he has to stand on the opposite side of Marvel, create his movies under the shadow of Marvel movies, and bring publicity to his movies, and get attention that he could not get before.
As soon as this remark came out, netizens expressed confusion.
Many people joked that James Gunn belongs to “Moon Landing and Porcelain”.
Not to mention whether directors of Martin Scorsese’s level still need to use this method to gain attention.
Even if he needs to keep up the heat, isn’t James Gunn’s own new film released, isn’t what he does is to catch the attention of the film?
Besides, James Gunn is now working for DC, and it seems a bit out of date to get involved with the former boss.
You know, James Gunn had been picked up by netizens for inappropriate remarks related to “pedophiles” published on the Internet many years ago, and was subsequently expelled by Disney.
Then, DC quickly hired James Gunn to direct the restarted version of “The Suicide Squad“.
With the intercession of many actors and fans, and considering the huge commercial value of the “Guardians of the Galaxy” series, Disney has re-appointed James Gunn to direct “Guardians of the Galaxy 3“.
On the DC side, due to the reputation of “The Suicide Squad” is also quite good, DC also decided to continue to hire James Gunn to direct the next DC comic film.
It can be said that James Gunn has truly achieved the “two blossoms” of Marvel DC.
In short, James Gunn’s series of remarks do have a “failure” for many movie fans.
For what purpose, everyone must have their own judgment.
In any case, James Gunn’s talent as a commercial film director is undeniable, and the success of the film is also a certain proof, but Martin Scorsese’s criticism is not entirely unreasonable.
I believe that in the future, there will be more debates on this issue.
“Embracing streaming media” is accelerating, how does the Marvel/DC blockbuster perform?
Whether Marvel/DC movies can withstand the test of time is still uncertain.
But whether streaming media can withstand the impact of the epidemic on movies, I am afraid that there is already a certain answer to this question.
As we all know, under the influence of the epidemic, Hollywood’s major film companies are still accelerating the process of embracing streaming media, and even Oscar has modified the nominating rules for this purpose.
Although it is a last resort when theaters are closed during the epidemic.
But with the full resumption of North American theaters today, the trend of “moving theater to webcasting” does not seem to stop.
Since Universal Pictures’ “Trolls World Tour” started in April last year, to “The Suicide Squad” released this week, more than 30 cinema movies in Hollywood have been released online or simultaneously.
And many of these Hollywood movies are actually waist-sized movies.
In other words, if these films are normally put on the commercial theater market, it is still possible to get a lot of returns.
That being the case, what are the results of those super blockbusters who switched to streaming media?
Let’s just take Marvel and DC, the two latest super-British blockbusters, as examples.
Both “Black Widow” and “The Suicide Squad” chose to meet the audience in a synchronized hospital network.
According to statistics, until the middle of last month, 89% of movie theaters around the world have resumed work, which is the highest value since the epidemic last year.
From the release of “Black Widow” on July 9th to the end of the first weekend on the 11th, the film opened in 47 markets around the world, won 44 weekend championships, and the global box office totaled more than 215 million U.S. dollars.
Related Post: “Black Widow” breaks the $100 million record at the fastest American box office since 2020.
Among them, 80 million in North America, 78 million in overseas box office, and 60 million on Disney+ pay-on-demand.
This result set the best box office result for the first weekend since the outbreak in North America.
At the same time, with the help of the simultaneous launch of Disney+, this film has also become the only film since the epidemic that local consumers spent more than 100 million US dollars in the first weekend, second only to “Black Panther” and “Captain America” in Marvel movies. 3″.
From this point of view, this result is quite a surprise.
However, this excitement did not last long. By the second week, the trend of the film showed a cliff-like decline.
From the next weekend of 7.16-18, the global box office revenue of theaters was only 55 million, a drop of more than 60%.
This set a record for MCU’s largest second-week decline in North America, where the local box office was only $26 million.
In response to this phenomenon, NATO, the Association of Theater Owners of the United States, issued a long article saying that Disney’s simultaneous streaming media behavior has greatly harmed the interests of theaters.
Related Post: U.S. theaters criticize “Black Widow”‘s simultaneous online streaming strategy.
There are several reasons why theater owners feel uncomfortable: First, Disney+ greatly diverts theater box office revenue. Such a decline in the next week is completely abnormal, not to mention the proliferation of piracy resources that has not attracted enough attention from Disney.
Moreover, Disney only released part of the streaming media data, and the on-demand data for the second week was not released, which also made the theaters very passive and unable to adjust the film schedule accordingly.
Just the second week after NATO’s announcement, Scarlett Johnson, the lead actor and producer of the film, also filed a lawsuit against Disney.
Related Post: Why Scarlett Johansson sued Disney？
Scarlett Johnson claimed that the simultaneous online streaming of the film violated the contract and caused her huge economic losses.
One stone stirred up a thousand waves. Subsequently, Emma Stone and Emily Blunt also joined the “battle” as the starring actors of the Disney films “Cruella” and “Jungle Cruise“.
However, NATO did not issue a statement against HBO Max for the same simultaneous landing of streaming media.
It is reported that this is because the number of subscribers to this streaming media owned by Warner is not as wide as Disney+, and HBO Max has never published online ratings data.
In this way, regardless of the market performance of “The Suicide Squad“, it may be possible to “evade the catastrophe.”
How about Warner DC’s performance?
Up to now, the film has been opened in advance in five European markets outside North America, including Britain and France, and its box office performance has been tragic.
Compared with “Suicide Squad” five years ago, the film fell by 74%, and the box office revenue was only $6.7 million.
Related Post: “The Suicide Squad”: US box office wins.
From this point of view, the good reputation did not bring sufficient blessing to the film’s overseas market performance.
However, this weekend the film will also land in 64 markets around the world, including the largest North American market. Whether the film can achieve market performance beyond expectations remains to be seen.
Faced with the epidemic and streaming media, it is necessary for the film and television industry to change its mentality
From the above data, we seem to be able to temporarily conclude that even in the current epidemic, choosing streaming media has become a last resort.
But even for superhero blockbusters under big labels like Marvel/DC, the performance is still not outstanding.
Of course, this problem has its own complex causes.
There are many reasons that can affect the box office performance of a film. The shortening or even disappearing of the window period, of course, provides an opportunity for various pirated resources.
However, the quality of word-of-mouth of the film itself is also an important reason that cannot be ignored.
Take “Black Widow” as an example, Douban just passed the score of 6.3 points, basically ranking first among all the MCU movies.
Many people believe that as the epidemic has passed, public places have reopened and more and more people are vaccinated. During the epidemic, this method of “simultaneous screening in theaters and streaming media” should also be gradually abandoned.
But in fact, now is the time to change this mentality.
From a rational point of view, the epidemic will not pass in the short term.
For the film and television industry, especially the Hollywood market and the big bosses who are accustomed to traditional cinema distribution, they may also be accustomed to coexisting with streaming media.
What we should do now is actually thinking about strategies to deal with streaming media.
For example, readjust the window period, or further discuss the split account model.
In short, the ultimate goal should be to ensure that the film achieves the greatest benefits, so that the film party, platform, and theater owners are “profitable.”
After all, at a time of crisis, “eliminating dissidents” does not guarantee a stronger position. Only mutually beneficial symbiosis can achieve a virtuous circle of the industry.
We have repeatedly called for the market to be rescued by large films.
But precisely because the heat is too cold, no film is willing to set the file, and the only large-scale film has to reassess the risk and release it on a scheduled date.
This is understandable, but in fact, practitioners should also adjust their mentality.
It is still very necessary for the cinema and the audience to stimulate the demand for movies as much as possible while meeting the requirements of the policy while doing daily epidemic prevention.
In short, epidemic prevention is a protracted battle. For an industry that focuses on content and values long-term development in the future, neither too calm nor too radical is actually desirable.
After “Black Widow” “The Suicide Squad“, there will be a series of box office superhero blockbusters such as “Shang Qi“, “Venom 2“, “Eternals” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home“.
In any case, I hope these films can be seen in the theater as much as possible.
