Why are there so many Spider-Man Movies? I’ll tell you why there are so many Spider-Man movies! We do a box office and critical analysis of all of the Spider-Man movies up to the present day. Find out why the stories are recycled so much, why they keep recasting the character, and why he’s suddenly started showing up in the Avengers movies.
Ross’ Notes:
- The tangent I mentioned actually occurred in the second Doctor Who episode and is not an out-take.
- In 1967 National Periodical Publications, which was the official company name for DC Comics, was acquired by the Kinney National Company. That same year Kinney began negotiating with Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, the movie studio. In 1969 the deal was finalized and in 1972 the conglomerate was rebranded as Warner Communications Inc.
- The Matrix hired two comic artists to produce conceptual art and storyboards for the movie: indie creator Geoff Darrow and mainstream artist Steve Skorce. Skorce would go on to draw for X-Men, and Darrow would create Shoalin Cowboy.
- Bryan Singer made a conscious decision to dial back on the more flamboyant elements from comics, particularly the costumes, and also made decisions to underplay character elements as well, cutting characters like Mystique and Sabertooth out of back stories (later retconned). Marvel overtly rejected this approach, deciding to turn everything up to ten when it came to costumes and storylines borrowedfrom the comics.
- Colin does raise an interesting question — did Spider-Man (2002) lay groundwork for Batman Begins (2005)? I can’t draw an artistic line between them, but the superhero appetite was certainly expanded by both, and the groundwork laid for the ridiculous Marvel Cinematic Universe (fans) vs. DC Expanded Universe (fans) “debate”.
- The Incredible Hulk end credits scene is interesting in that it leads to absolutely nothing. General Ross isn’t seen again until the third Captain America movie, and there’s been no hint that he’s been involved in anything Stark discussed with him in that seen. But it was a hugely important scene in underscoring the shared universe because although Jackson had clout in his end scene, Downey jr. was coming in as the star from the previous movie.
- I get my box office figures from boxofficemojo.com. Here are the Spider-Man in film ones. Bear in mind as well that a studio can often spend twice a budget on advertising, but then there are things like merchandising that aren’t taken into consideration when calculating a movie’s grosses.
- Although the first five Spider-Man movies have a similar tonal feel, I think there is a concerted effort in the Garfield movies at world building with a view to making a franchise as opposed to a series. A series means just Spider-Man movies, a franchise means a kind of cluster of movies that would include Venom, Sinister Six, etc.
- I apologize to everyone who tuned in to hear about the 1970s Spider-Man movies starring Nicholas Hammond. These movies really fit when discussing Spider-Man in film since they were shot for television and re-edited as movies for the international market.