Gimli the Elf wrote:
As far as Sith and Batman go, they're kid friendly. I don't buy into this whole 'dark' shit. We grew up watching arnold, sly, van damme kicking people's asses 24/7 and parents today with their whole "ooooh, dr Octopus was scary for my kids and all .." I don't buy into that. Kids today are still watching whatever they want to.
There's pretty solid facts on this "dark shit". Let me ring up a quick comparison between expected huge blockbusters that were dark and lacking in humor versus ones that had some comedic elements to remove the tension and were bigger crowdpleasers. Here's the movies that have grossed over 200 million this decade. The ones that lacked much comedy and in blue, and ones that I think are debatable either way are green. Otherwise, I left the rest normal:
Shrek 441 million
Spider-Man 403 million
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 377 million
Spider-Man 2 373 million
The Passion of the Christ 370 millionLord of the Rings: The Two Towers 339 million
Finding Nemo 339 million
Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone 317 million
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 313 million
Pirates of the Carribean 305 million
Star Wars: Episode II 302 millionThe Matrix Reloaded 281 millionMeet the Fockers 278 million
Shrek 267 million
The Incredibles 261 million
How the Grinch Stole Christmas 261 million
Monster's Inc 255 million
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 249 million
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 249 millionBruce Almighty 242 million
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 241 million
Cast Away 233 millionSigns 227 millionRush Hour 2 226 million
Million Impossible 2 215 million
X-Men 2 214 million
Austin Powers in Goldmember 213 million
The Mummy Returns 202 million
See, right off the bat look at the decline in the Harry Potter movies. Unlike the Lord of the Rings movies, despite getting good/great WOM they've steadily declined in box office take. What other pattern do they share? They've been progressively darker and less kid friendly. I saw several parents have to leave Chamber of Secrets, and over 10 with The Prizoner of Azkaban. Or how about the Matrix movies? Reloaded could be considered darker, but it made almost half it's total in the first four days since the first one had some comic relief every now and then to relieve the tension. The result was Matrix Revolutions could barely even pass those first four days of Reloaded - total. Hulk, Troy, AVP and The Village all had big openings but relatively shitty legs due to having bad WOM due to being downers or so lacking in anything funny in them that they became unintentionally funny for audiences. Star Wars Episode II opened higher then Episode 1 but made over 120 million less (150 million with inflation) since it had much less appeal to kids due to being darker. The last movie to be #1 for the year and not have side comic relief was Saving Private Ryan in 1998. And this is just 200 million. Of the movies in this decade that have made 150-200 million, all but 4 of over 30 movies (and five debatable ones) weren't dark and tragic, and many of those were surprise hits like National Treasure, Elf, Hitch, Ice Age, Catch Me If You Can, What Women Want, Scary Movie and Meet the Parents. However, a number of those were also darker movies like Pearl Harbor, Planet of the Apes and The Perfect Storm which people were predicting 200+ million for ahead of time. Some of the expected huge blockbusters couldn't even clear that margin, such as The Matrix Revolutions, The Patriot, Minority Report, Hulk The Last Samurai and Troy. And with about two rare occasions... er, anomalies
, they always have terrible multipliers too. Like it or not, all the arguing in the world can't deny the simple plain truth: Dark don't sell.
Gladiator had a serious tone but had great legs thanks to the fact that in the end Maximus gets his revenge and his family. The Passion of the Christ ended on an uplifting note even though it was very serious as well. But either way, I think that Batman and Episode III both are dark and have serious tones, whereas Four has neither. That's not to say it'll make more then either (Episode III might double it's gross) but I do think that it gives Four more breakout potential and those more of a chance to dissapoint, especially considering the levels of hype for them.