Will Marvel ever have a box office failure?

So, since the Disney aquisition Marvel studios has been doing pretty well (huge understatement) Every Marvel movie has made a decent profit and the studio has yet to experience a failure at the box office. The same cannot be said for other studios that have made superhero movies in this recent boom.

I dare say that this sucess is making Marvel take risks that other studios would shun. Who would have thought any studio would be willing to drop 150+ million on a action-comedy sci-fi movie with a CGI racoon and anthropomorphic tree fighting aliens? Which is also based off a comic book with very little mainstream recognition.

Now, it seems that Marvel is getting to the point where a box office failure is guarenteed. Not saying it will be Guardians, but it is bound to happen at some point; no studio goes without a failure. At that point do you think Disney will begin to exert their authority more heavily over Marvel Studios, just as WB is with DC? Will Marvel studios begin to go the safe route with their characters like WB has done?

I doubt it, I could see a low budget Black Widow movie doing fine. It's hard to say, look at IM3 it wasn't as good as other Marvel films, but still made a lot of money.

I do not know Guardian's got a lot of mainstream attention because people are enamored with his crazy misfit cast of characters. I think if it delivers the fun factor, it should be a mid level hit.

Possibly.

Probably Ant-Man.

Define....failure.

Ant Man for sure.

Iron Man wasn't a household name either prior his movie, but RDJ made Tony appeal to the average movie goer. I think the right formula is in the casting and not character recognition.

I'd be happy with Black Panther or Dr. Strange as just a supporting character.

It depends what is considered a failure for them.

At this point Marvel is like another Disney property, Pixar, its a brand name people recognise and trust. It was golden before they made the cash grab, Cars 2, the rather disappointing Brave and the okay Monster University which could happen to Marvel. They have a string of hits before falling and flat and another company could take their place as the golden but former older child like Disney animation which in this case could be possibly be WB/DC since like Disney animation they have a legacy but has been mixed in the recent years just as Disney animation was for a few years.

But then again we don't know what their definition for failure is.

If daredevil made a good amount of money then I am inclined to say anything can. But I don't know if that's true for ant man and guardians of the galaxy. I see those flopping

ironman 3 wasn't a failure?

Failure as in the movie doesn't recoup its budget + marketing costs.

There going to slip up at some point it's just a matter of when really, I think the upcoming ones should be ok but when they start adapting some of the lot more lesser known stuff then it could happen.

@rdclip: Ok. In that sense...

...uhmmm

..I think it'll depend on how well Guardians of the Galaxy goes. If that is a great movie, and non-comic book readers see that, then I think movies like Ant Man will have a good chance at enticing people outside of the intended audience. They'll watch it, not to get comic book references, but just because it's a good movie.

@rdclip said:

Oh well never then. I mean GotG and Antman maybe, because they're not mainstream characters. But I feel like the comicbook community is big enough to support any live action comic book movie

@oni_bane: Why does that matter if they aren't mainstream or not?

Really I have a hard time trying to follow that logic, EVERY single movie that is put out there either

1. Has a chance to do good

or

2. Fall flat on its face.

I don't see it making a difference weither or not the characters are mainsteam or not, what makes a movie is how well it is written, the characters are written and what goes on within the movie.

Maybe someone can explain this to me. Every character isn't known to the general audience, so why would this affect movies?

Not as long as they're owned by Disney.

john carter and the lone ranger..

With the worldwide spread of profits and marketing blitz, it seems to be very difficult for big corp movie to not make their money back. That is unless they made stupid decisions, a terrible movie or over budget.

In the words of the Govt.they are "To big to fail"

GOTG could be a flop.

I don't think that Ant-man will flop. I think it will be moderately successful, and will probably gain around 600 million at the box office

Disney Honestly didn't care about the production of those movies but now marvel is their new cash cow and they'd never let one of those fail.

@wolfrazer: It really does matter, if you put out a Spider-man and a GotG movie at the same time, who is going to do better? Exactly. Why do you think that they have put out so many Wolverine movies? Because he is recognizable and he makes FOX lots of money.

I'm betting it'll be GotG.

@oni_bane: I was speaking more in general really not just CBMs.

If they keep to their successful formula, not anytime soon. But all formulas run stale, GOTG won't be the stinker since The Avengers 2 will follow and make everyone forget(See TFA).

But with Iron Man out of RDJ and Thor never picking up much traction, Cap might be their only winning series left and thatwhen you'll start seeing stinkers.

If they keep to their successful formula, not anytime soon. But all formulas run stale, GOTG won't be the stinker since The Avengers 2 will follow and make everyone forget(See TFA).

But with Iron Man out of RDJ and Thor never picking up much traction, Cap might be their only winning series left and thatwhen you'll start seeing stinkers.

I doubt GOTG will be the failure with its current star lineup.

I'm worried about Guardians. I believe it may flop because these characters aren't known by the general public at all. Hopefully people will see its a Marvel movie and check it out. I also hope it attracts the usual action/sci-fi movie fans.

Anything is possible. Unfortunately, it may have little to do with Marvel or Disney. Since there are other companies making superhero movies, all those companies have to do is put out a terrible movie and it could have the potential to turn away moviegoers from all films.

Simple answer...In due time it's bound to happen. It's the law of averages. Eventually one of these movies will flop, whether it's sooner or later, I would bet my money on later rather than sooner.

To answer other questions/statements in this thread. Iron Man was a household name before his film. He just wasn't the most popular character at Marvel. Iron Man would be the equivalent of DC's Wonder Woman in terms of popularity pre-RDJ.

Blade also wasn't a mainstream character before his film, but the franchise did nicely critically and financially. Given that success I see GotG as following a similar path.

Disney's $$$ + Marvel's name brand = they'll definitely make more money than they'll spend at the box office. Add in blu-ray/DVD and toy sales and it's guaranteed that all of their CBM projects will make some sort of profit.

This. Not that they didn't sell before, or that other companies don't sell super-hero toys well...but Disney's magnificent ability to market to little kids is a HUGE boost for Marvel. I was in the local "Disney Store" recently - hadn't been since I was much younger, and it was such a trip seeing all the super-hero merch.

GOtG is a big risk maybe the biggest risk tht Marvel/Disney has taken so far with comic based films. So far in their MU they have had success but ony using their big three characters. The next wave of films will include lesser known heroes so there is always that risk when you try to introduce these chracters to the audience. The risk is part of the process of making films. DC/WB haven't really taken that many risk in their films outside what? Catwomen ? So they have stuck with the Batman and Superman films but eventually they too will have to take the risk and expand to other characters. Will Marvel make a bad film? It's possible but it's necessary to take risk because all films are risk at some point.

I think eventually they will have a box office failure if they didn't promote the movie enough or made the movie too terrible to watch.

@rabbitearsblog: I don't think promoting is a problem for them.

I doubt Guardians will be a flop. It has a solid cast, is tied to the MU (which spells $$$ right there alone) and heck, just having it in the trailer, sent the song "Hooked on a Feeling" sales up 700%

I think they've been successful enough to this point that people will be watching their movies for a long time, they won't have a box office failure until the movies start significantly dropping in quality until people have decided they've had enough

Maybe Antman

GOTG seems really risky...Antman seems risky as HELL...A Hero who could get joked on about his powers is very risky....I like Antman...but I'm not the average consumer that makes fun of heroes like Aquaman...

I think that fall is going to be Ant-Man, he was a really bad choice for a solo movie. There are like at least 100 another more sellable characters than him.

I don't think we should judge Ant Man so quickly, they only announced the cast so far. With the casting the way it is now, I'm very optimistic, the casting is great so far imo. Plus the leaked video of Ant Man was awesome.

Didn't the Hulk movies not do too great?

I heard somewhere that technically none of the MCU phrase 1 films (minus Iron man) made as much as money as Disney thought until The Avengers saved everything, Disney could've easily pulled the plug but they were saved and so we now we have risks such as GOTG and Ant-man but still doesn't mean they will succeed. The same thing is happening at DC/WB, while Man of Steel was a hit but if you inflate it, it made the same money as Superman Returns not exactly the numbers you expect when he was the original iconic superhero. So DC/WB are bringing back the hero they know makes them money, Batman and is reintroducing a hero people might have forgotten about, Wonder Woman. While its less of risk in some cases (Batman alone is basically the pull here) its defiantly a gamble.

@wolfrazer: I thought you meant CBMs