Are Shared Movie Universes the Next Big Thing?

Marvel Cinematic Universe

In 2012, the film press held its collective breath as it waited to see whether people would actually turn out for the culmination of Marvel Studio’s grand experiment in cinematic storytelling.

Joss Whedon’s Avengers Assemble saw the leads from three different film series join together for a comic book action movie which went on to gross more than a billion dollars. Now it seems that film studios were also holding their breath, and some of them have clearly concluded that shared movie universes are the next big thing to fill their coffers with.

Since Tony Stark and friends managed to take down Loki in the battle of New York City, the major Hollywood studios have been rifling through source material and have made some curious announcements. It was probably not that surprising when DC and Warner Brothers last year announced a slate of comic book films through to 2020, but what about the rest? Sony are in early development talks to bring a shared universe of Robin Hood films – some based on adventures of individual merry men along with an Avengers style team-up flick – to multiplexes as well as a planned multi-picture Ghostbusters franchise. Then there’s Universal’s plan for a monster movie mash-up, which began last year with Dracula Untold.

The movie studios, like a lot of businesses, are never just satisfied with making lots of money, and this is their new way of making all the money. But there are a lot of reasons it’s not going to work.

Don’t get me wrong, any of these proposed universes could make multiple good movies if the right creative team is making smart decisions. But with the possible exception of DC and Warner Brothers I just can’t envision these other franchises doing what Marvel has done.

See, as far as I can tell, there are basically two interconnected reasons the shared continuity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe can deliver two box office hits per year without succumbing to audience fatigue. The first is the source material. Most of the characters Marvel are adapting have existed for fifty years and some, like Captain America, have been around since World War Two. There’s decades and decades of comic continuity to pick and chose stories from. I’m not a comic book expert but somewhere in those decades there’s probably a blueprint for how any two characters can interact with each other in a way that would work on the big screen.

Furthermore, all the characters Marvel have allowed to headline a film have been allowed to succeed or fail in the comics on their own and have proved popular enough to survive. Thor has had literally hundreds of stories separate from the Avengers, but how many solo adventures has Friar Tuck had? Certainly it’s possible to make a good Friar Tuck film – one of my favourite critics always says you can make a good movie out of anything. But in his comics Thor’s filmmakers have a pretty good guide of what sort of adventures and interactions work for him. As far as I know Tuck has always just been one of the merry men (feel free to correct me in the comments – I’m genuinely interested to hear how the Robin Hood thing might work).

Marvel Cinematic Universe
The Marvel Cinematic Universe

And while Thor and Iron Man exist in the same comics world, unless they’re teaming up as the Avengers they generally have different sorts of adventures. And this translated to film.

That’s the second reason the MCU works. Marvel can get us to the cinema twice a year because they can offer us something different every time. They give us comic book movies, but they’re always comic book versions of something. In 2014, they gave us a spy thriller and a tongue in cheek space opera. This year we’re getting a set piece action film and a heist movie. Their source material allows them to do this in a way that works. Will audiences trudge to theatres twice a year to see a different merry man in another medieval swashbuckler?

Which is not to say I’m not excited to see how some of these experiments turn out. It may have been before my time, but Ghostbusters is still one of my favourite comedies. I am really hopeful for the all-female version, but I also think Ghostbusters films can only really be action comedies. It’s in the DNA.

Then again maybe I’m being too harsh. Maybe the studios know they can’t give us two Ghostbusters instalments every year. I’d quite happily watch a trilogy of female Ghostbusters films provided they’re the sort of thing I like watching. And even if not I’d have no real reason to take against them.

But, and this is more important to me than it really should be, how often can I go and see a new Star Wars before they all start feeling the same? This is a question I thought I’d never have to ask. The Expanded Universe of books, comics and video games has certainly shown there are a lot of different stories to tell in that galaxy, but how long before the yearly instalment of Star Wars stops feeling special? In two years time, we’ll have already seen two new Star Wars releases with a third only weeks away.

I’ll admit I’m thinking more like a film nerd than a studio executive here though. Are studios really planning to drench us with multiple movies per franchise every year? Or are they just using the popularity of certain film series to boost the chances of a spinoff, as with the Despicable Me side project Minions or the planned Star Wars: Rogue One? Is it even worth calling these cinematic universes? I mean The Scorpion King wasn’t part of some grand shared universe plan for The Mummy was it? It was just a spinoff.

It’ll likely be a decade before we know how this all shakes out, and I could be way off the mark. But my gut tells me that there will be just as many failed cinematic universes as successful ones. Looking at all this as a movie-goer I think the ones which will succeed will be the series who can offer something different for every new outing, especially the studios who want us to visit their shared universe more than once every couple of years.

If you disagree with me, by the way, don’t keep it to yourself. Please tell me exactly why I’m wrong in the comments. Yay, internet!

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