I don't totally disagree, but I disagree.
Tell a good story, cast the right folks, focus on details, stick to your guns, and good stuff will happen. The genre really doesn't matter.
My example to prove this point would be all entertainment. One could argue that at its core, pretty much all entertainment is the same, at least in its own area. So all music is the same, all movies are the same, etc.
Look at horror movies. They're all the same. Protagonists, the folks who will die, a couple of yucks and/or boobs, unstoppable killer, deus ex machina, wait for sequel to repeat. Yet it's the most profitable genre of movie. Sure, there are bombs, but overall if you want to make money on a movie, make a horror. They're like a U.S. Treasury Bond. Usually low profit, but also low risk.
Superhero movies are all the same. Hero. Villain. Some issue that keeps the hero from winning in the first 5 minutes. Resolve it and wait for the sequel. Sure, the powers, settings, and actors change, but isn't this the core?
We can repeat this for romantic comedies, war movies, westerns, fantasy (D&D type), SciFi, etc.
Hell, you can even compare actual movies and how they're basically EXACTLY the same, like Battle Royale/Hunger Games or Aliens/Avatar.
So the genre doesn't matter, and I can be completely honest? I'm not sure casting does either. Ok yes, RDJ as Iron Man was fucking brilliant. He is playing himself. Just like how Sean Penn won Oscars for playing a retard and a thug. Sometimes you just cast the person as themselves.
However, the devil is in the details. RDJ was a perfect Iron Man, but other actors would have been acceptable Iron Men. The real success came from behind the camera. No, not the director, although not discounting their contributions. In Marvel's case, it was Kevin Feige. In many other properties' cases it's JK Rowling, Stephen King, J.R.R. Tolkien, George R. R. Martin, Ian Fleming, etc.
Now Kevin didn't create the Marvel characters, but he absolutely did know and understand them. Disney execs get all the credit in the world for handing him the keys and saying, "Do your thing". Kevin took that power and made a franchise for the fans. He didn't make it for all audiences. He didn't try to cater to every demographic. He catered to Marvel's audience. He made it so good and so true to the characters that non-Marvel fans couldn't ignore it. "Tell a good story..."
Star Wars is dead. Murdered by Rian Johnson's inability to understand the franchise, J.J. Abrahm's overconfidence, and Kathleen Kennedy's mismanagement. Yet, here comes Jon Favreau who writes a show for the fans that's true to the franchise. Now Star Wars has a pulse.
Game of Thrones is considered legendarily good early on. Every character served a purpose. Every action made sense. Nothing was rushed. Stories played out properly and you cared because time was given to them and the characters. Then HBO ran out of source material and started to wing it. All of a sudden the series became a rushed shit show. Characters started acting unlike themselves. Stories were rushed and had no payoff. It sucked and fans turned on it.
And FYI, these last two examples occurred in genres where success had already been found. That lightning had already been caught, yet more lightning was found.
So long winded fun answer short: There is no reason that success cannot continue. The stories just have to be solid and the studio execs need to keep their noses out of it. But yeah, there's absolutely a "lightning in a bottle" factor, but you dramatically increase your odds when you put a singular mind in charge who honors the property.
thibodeaux wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:53 pm
And until the MCU, Marvel really only had Spidey and X-Men.
FYI, these are not Marvel movies. They are movies from other companies who owned the rights to Marvel characters. Only the Tom Holland Spider-Man films had Marvel's actual approval and help. All the rest were made without any input from Marvel whatsoever, ditto for the FF and Ghost Rider (am I forgetting a property?). All the movies prior to Iron Man were made without Kevin Feige, and thus, were not part of the MCU, which includes Ang Lee's Hulk.
And Hulk has it's own issues. While Incredible Hulk was profitable, it was not a massive success. It also had some big controversy surrounding it with Ed Norton replacing Eric Banna, then fighting with Marvel as he's a massive diva, and so on. That's why Marvel kind of shoved that movie under the rug.