Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
To say that the blockbuster movie dominates the box office during the summer is a little bit of an understatement as CGI laden movie after CGI laden movie parade into cinemas from May to August.
Thor, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and X-Men: First Class have already topped the box office and there is still plenty to come - including Transformers: Dark of Moon, Captain America: the First Avenger and, who could forget, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2.
So I suppose my question is this is the big business for sequels damaging and clogging up the movie industry or is the power of the franchise just what the industry needs?
A second or third movie to a successful debut is, without a doubt, a great way for studios to make the big bucks exploiting the general public to buy into a franchise two or three times over, and yes I have done it myself.
Takes Pirates of the Caribbean for example Curse of the Black Pearl was a top of the range action adventure movie that created one of the biggest cinema icons, in Captain Jack Sparrow, of the last decade.
It succeeded where so many other pirate movies had failed that Disney pressed forward to produce two more films: Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End.
While both movies are in the top five biggest grossing films of all time, Dead Man’s Chest took just over $1billion at the global box office at three and At World’s End at five grossing just over $958 million, they failed to match Curse of the Black Pearl’s critical response.
This summer saw the franchise return for the first time since 2007 - once again the movie didn’t do well with the critics but it has been a rip-roaring success at the box office.
The movie has only been on general release for a handful of weeks but it is already closing in on the $1 billion mark - it is currently the tenth biggest movie is all time.
There’s a famous saying that the first is always the best. But why is this? Why can’t the quality of the first movie be replicated in those to follow? Did Disney’s haste to cash in on this unexpected success have a detrimental effect on the quality if these three movies?
And Pirates is not alone George Lucas’ second Star Wars trilogy, Shrek the Third, Spiderman 3 and Harry Potter and have all suffered from critical negativity despite most of them appearing in the top twenty biggest grossing films of all time.
But all of this these movies never find themselves fighting it out for the big Oscars always overlooked in favour of the serious movie.
And while these movies are making big bucks the majority of them will never win more than technical Oscars on the biggest night in the film calendar.
And while I don’t actually have a problem with the idea of sequels it’s some of the second rate filmmaking that is being released in order to make money and exploit cinema goers that I have a major problem with.
But 2008 did buck this trend as The Dark Knight, the sequel to Batman Begins in 2005, was far superior to it's predecessor and director Christopher Nolan didn't sell out in order to make a box office hit.
The Dark Knight is a blockbuster film that should have been nominated for Best Picture and The Dark Knight Rises - the third film in the franchise could be even more successful when it is released next summer.
But every now and again there are some blockbuster movies that come along that bring together box office success and critical acclaim - Avatar and the Lord of the Rings series being the movies that spring to mind.
Avatar has gone on to become the biggest grossing movie of all time - however it did miss out on Best Picture to The Hurt Locker.
As you may imagine a sequel is in the pipeline, let’s hope that the first movie is always the best idea doesn’t apply to the James Cameron movie.
I personally am a big fan of the blockbuster movie and 2012 promises to be one of the best with The Avengers, The Hobbit and The Dark Knight Rises all on the horizon.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Thor