The Marvel of Hollywood Blockbusters

 

Movies that are deemed blockbusters gross millions and sometimes billions of dollars at the box office. Take the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for example. For numerical reference, the average Marvel film makes roughly $7.1 billion globally which if you break that down further totals $716 million per Marvel film. Look at that even deeper and you see that the MCU is the biggest film franchise in cinematic history. While to the fan and the consumer buying tickets to see Chris Hemsworth do his thing as Thor that sounds great, from a financial and studio-based side that is not great. What that means is that studios are not willing to take a financial risk when it comes to blockbuster films when they are not Marvel films. The Fast and the Furious films which will soon mark the 11th film in the 20+ year old franchise makes a lot of money but let me compare that franchise gross to that of a Marvel film.

The total revenue of the Fast franchise is globally at $7.32 billion. That is a large number but take it consideration that the franchise was the first major film franchise to be created in the 21st century and the fact that the franchise is older than the MCU then you can see that both franchises add a large revenue to the studios that back it. This is where the problem arises. The era of the Hollywood blockbuster is going away because the films are running out of ideas. What makes the MCU as well as both the Avatar and Fast and the Furious franchises different is that they are bringing in new eyes and at the same time changing the concept of the blockbuster to add new characters, new ideas, and new worlds.

Avatar is unique because it is unlike anything ever done in cinema from a technical standpoint. Also, the films are the biggest non-Marvel films in movie history. If you view the films in different ways then you can see why. Some may argue that the era of the Hollywood blockbuster is over but I just mentioned why that is not the case. Filmmakers are bringing these large-scope concepts to the big screen and from a character and world-building standpoint changing how cinema is viewed. Blockbuster movies are called that because they are larger than life and know how to bring in big money. There have been multiple franchises born from the ones mentioned, to Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings(both releasing their first film in 2001, the same year as the first Fast and the Furious film). I firmly believe that cinema is objective, not subjective, you can view a film in different ways, and not every film can be viewed one way. You can enjoy Avatar casually but then look at it from a science and ecology standpoint and you see it as a metaphor for colonialism. The point I am trying to make is those blockbusters should not be looked at as the enemy of the rest of cinema. You do not have to like a Marvel movie for example, but from a money standpoint, they know how to bring in viewers who then add to the revenue not just for the studios but then the actors who worked on that film. Like anything else, cinema is about the bottom line at the end of the day, and that bottom line is money.