The flight to classier blockbusters may be about insecurity.
LOS ANGELES - When negative Twitter commentary seemingly destroyed the Sacha Baron Cohen film “Bruno” in July 2009, movie executives started talking in solemn tones about the ability of social networking to sway attendance. The era of using marketing to trick consumers into seeing bad movies was drawing to a close.
It was mostly just talk.
As Hollywood plowed into 2010, there was plenty of clinging to the tried and true: boring remakes like “The Wolfman” and “The A-Team”; star vehicles like “Killers” with Ashton Kutcher and “The Tourist” with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp; and shoddy sequels like “Sex and the City 2.”
All arrived at theaters with marketing thunder intended to fill multiplexes, no matter the quality of the film. But the audience pushed back. These expensive yet mediocre pictures delivered disappointing results or flatout flopped.
Meanwhile, gambles on original concepts paid off. “Inception,” a complicated thriller about dream invaders, racked up more than $825 million in global ticket sales; “The Social Network” has so far delivered $192 million, a stellar result for a highbrow drama. And the animated “Despicable Me” was a surprise hit.
As a result, studios are finally conceding that moviegoers, armed with Facebook and other networking tools and concerned about escalating ticket prices, are holding them to higher standards.
Of course, there are always exceptions . And as “The Last Airbender” demonstrated, with $319 million in ticket sales, there may always be room in the summer for a mindless action movie .
Still, the message is real enough that studios are tweaking their operating strategies. Sony Pictures Entertainment, the studio behind “The Social Network,” is relying on new directors with quirkier sensibilities. To reboot its “Spider-Man” franchise, for instance, Sony hired Marc Webb, whose only previous film was the independent comedy “(500) Days of Summer.” The studio has also entrusted a big-screen remake of “21 Jump Street” to Phil Lord and Chris Miller, whose only previous film was the animated “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.”
“Original is good, and good is commercial,” said Amy Pascal, Sony’s cochairwoman.
At Walt Disney Studios, which has traditionally not worried much about directorial artistry (at least in its liveaction films), a new executive team has brought in David Fincher, who directed “The Social Network,” to work on an adaptation of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” Guillermo del Toro, the “Pan’s Labyrinth” auteur, is developing a new movie around Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion ride.
The model for Disney is Tim Burton’s arty adaptation of “Alice in Wonderland,” which sold $1.02 billion in tickets in the spring to become the year’s number two release. (The critical darling “Toy Story 3” was just ahead with $1.06 billion; “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1,” is third with $831 million.)
“In years past,” said Sean Bailey, Disney’s president for production, “most live-action films seemed like they had to be either one thing or the other: commercial or quality. The industry had little expectation of a film being both. Our view is the opposite.”
The future for 20th Century Fox is largely about James Cameron, who will direct two “Avatar” sequels. But Fox is also seeking more original material. Fox, which remained profitable in 2010 but suffered a string of major disappointments, including the expensive “Gulliver’s Travels,” is also trying to be more creative with its marketing.
“Movie marketing can’t settle for good anymore ? it has to be great,” said Dennis Rice, a consultant who has held senior positions at Miramax and Disney.
All of this talk about originality and quality is partly a studio response to the closing over the last two years of art-house divisions like Paramount Vantage and Miramax. Because the Academy Awards depended so heavily on their films, there was suddenly a vacuum for the big studios to fill. Sony is in the Oscar race with “The Social Network,” for instance, while Paramount has “The Fighter” and “True Grit.”
The flight to classier blockbusters is also about insecurity: when in doubt, flee to quality. Studios are having a hard time reading what the audience wants. Animation is not as infallible as it has been. Stars are not delivering . The sequel strategy still seems to be paying ? until you notice flops like “Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore.”
“I believe there is a long-term danger to moviegoing if familiarity becomes too pervasive in the films we make,” said Chris Meledandri, the founder of Illumination Entertainment for Universal Pictures. “The industry has a responsibility to its audience and to itself to make films that allow people to have a sense of discovery in the cinema.”
By BROOKS BARNES
