It may be the first Superman film in 19 years, but we've had live action TV series about him since 1988. The Superboy TV series with John Haymes Newton ( and whoever took over from him), the Lois & Clark TV series with Dean Cain & Teri Hatcher through the 1990's, and the still-going Smallville.
Has this TV presence affected the success of Superman Returns? Would people be going in greater numbers, if their appetites weren't already being fulfilled by the various TV series?
Take a look at Star Trek: when they went back to making a regular series, starting in 1987 - The Next Generation - it started to affect the box office success of the films. Less well, to the point the last two were embarrasing financial bombs. No more series, either.
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Yes it does sound plausable that hype and desire to see the film may have been staggered by the exposure of Smallville and others. Entirely possible it did hold such result.
On the other hand, Hulk had not been seen on television for 13 years so one would naturally assume that minimally the opening box office would have been overwhelming yet people did not charge theatres everywhere. (Regardless of how bad it was, the opening would still have been much larger).
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People are just into other things now.
The different TV shows may have had some effect, almost certainly, but the general public has had its share of Matrix, X men, Spiderman, and other things, that Supes doesn't quite have the hold on the American public that he used too.
I think most of the older Superman fans saw this film, or those that like me (age 23) grew up as kids with it.
Anybody 16 or under, probably didn't give a shit.
I've heard from my younger brother-in-law (14) that both him and his friends found it boring, and said "It sucked."
They've been playing too much Grand Theft Auto.
Most adults, and certainly most adult film critics (8 out of 10) think the film was awesome.
The situation reminds me of when I took my wife on our first date 4 years ago, to see Star Wars Episode II: ATOC.
She had never seen any other SW movies before, and while she liked it, she said: "Thats just like the Matrix" when Jedi or Sith used the force.
I wanted to smack her.
But I understood, as she hadn't grown up with the old ones, she didn't understand that all the new pop culture stuff that interested her was either influenced by Starwars, or was a direct result of it.
There is a history there, a nostalgia, and a continuance of things set up in other movies, long ago.
I believe its the same with Superman Returns.
Older fans get it.
The younger crowd, and a few of the older ones that never got into the Chris Reeve's movies, just don't get that X-men, Spiderman, and even every version of Batman, came from Superman: The Movie.
That may be why the film has made lots of money (180 mil. to date, including over-seas), but hasn't exploded like X3 or POTC.
I still have hope that the film will cary itself well through the summer, remaining in the top 5 for quite awhile, and being seen by people later on when all the popcorn stuff is over with.
i think smallville is good for the superman movie franchise just because it explains how superman became who he was. how he realized what he must do and not do. how he realized he could do anything he wanted, take over the world, but was raised by the RIGHT people. superman is an overgrown boyscout and smallville exposes that.
but smallville needs to move on. having lois introduced and then KEPT in the storyline is ridiculous. at this point in the superman story there should be no season 6. this is when superman becames the hero. when he learns what he is. and what he must do. he spends almost 5 years in the fortress of solitude. please end smallville. it was a great run. but they are ruining the superman myth. I still think Welling would be a better superman though.
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word, i'm part of the young generation (i'm 18) but i completely agree with you. I feel that my generation and the younger ones are so (as you put it used to GTA) and so accustomed to instant satisfaction that seeing movies like Superman (the original) and Superman Returns seems "slow" to them. It's sad actually because they miss out on these brilliant movies.
I'm glad I grew up when I did because I was exposed to all those great mid 90's superhero cartoons and i loved them all (except x-men). So i got my comic book history and background from watching those shows. I'm not a comic book reader (I have about 3) but i'm relatively knowledgable about superheros from those shows. And I love these movies because of those shows.
I just wish people could see the beauty behind these movies. They're not just mindless blockbuster movies, but movies with big budgets (thank god) that are based on timeless characters, historical characters.
The producers of Smallville had a two-word mandate since the beginning: No Costume. They want to explore every story angle possible; the day they run out of stories for Clark before he puts on the costume, they said, is the day the series should end. Tom Welling, I understand, never wants to put on the costume anyway. Even if he did, it would confuse people into thinking Smallville was canon, when it's far outside. All the things like, Smallville being right outside Metropolis etc. People would think that's true.
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I'm talking about what we've had since the last movie, in 1987.
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Yes, that's right.
But ignore the fact Supes II was the 1980's, and everything in SR is modern, up-to-the minute, even though he's been gone for only five years.
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Hulk actually had the largest three-day opening for a non-holiday weekend. But, the film's arty side would limit its appeal in the weeks following.
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smallville is ruining the original superman story which i dont like
as ive said... lois should not be on this show. Braniac and General Zod should not be on this show. Adding Bart was cool. And Aquaman as well("We should start a Junior Lifeguarding Association, we could call it the JLA").
Smallville did a great job showing how clark grew up and dealt with the struggles of being different. Its done wonders for Lex Luthor and his jealousy of anyone better or more well liked then himself. More importantly its done a great job of showing the early friendship and eventual break up of clark/superman and lex.
But its time for smallville to end the shenanigans. Theyve already gone too far. Superman didnt go back and forth from the Fortress of solitude after he discovered it. He studied and learned to accept his job.
Give Tom Welling the suit in a Superman TV show 5 years from now. Give him time to shape up even more. Hes the only one who has the rugged look that the comics show of superman. Hes big so if he gets a little bigger and more ripped we have SUPERMAN: THE SERIES.
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"They are good people, Kal-el... They wish to be."
Then the continuity doesn't really matter that much because the Supes movies aren't canon either. That whole time thing takes all the drama out of the situation when you can just go back & fix everything. Smallville has @ least made Superman interesting. If Welling doesn't want to put on the costume, that's fine w/me. Superman's costume is lame anyway.
The Hulk opened in 2003. The record it set - for a non-holiday weekend - has been broken since then, of course.
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Keep dreaming. They will never make a Superman movie where he doesn't wear the outfit.
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Jul 12th, 2006 06:17 PM
