Batman's Stinky B.O.
BoxOfficeMojo.com has a nice article examining why Batman "failed to begin" as Asa put it. God, BB's underperformance makes me sad. I mean, is Batman really a lesser pop culture figure than Spider-Man? I'll never accept that. Never!
The new approach led to a meditative marketing campaign that was light on dazzling action and effects. Sure, the trademark darkness was on display, but moments of levity and shots of the toys, like the new Batmobile, were muted or overwhelmed by the serious tone. This was in stark contrast to the original Batman, which had a trailer going back and forth between the spectacle and the one-liners (mostly from Jack Nicholson as The Joker).
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I still don't consider this movie a failure, but one reason it might not be shattering records is that the major villains are dudes the general populace probably hasn't ever heard of. If the next movie has the Joker, then I expect it'll do much better.
Superman Returns, however, wisely has Lex Luthor instead of say, Metallo or someone.
Superman Returns will also be marketed as a full-on epic, with color and humor.
Despite being a movie with enormous scope, Begins was marketed as stripped down and rather humorless. That appealed to people like us, but it might explain why parents and sisters still haven't seen this film. And they saw the first three Bats in the theater opening weekend.
I think this bit from the article sums it up for me:
"Sure, the trademark darkness was on display, but moments of levity and shots of the toys, like the new Batmobile, were muted or overwhelmed by the serious tone. This was in stark contrast to the original Batman, which had a trailer going back and forth between the spectacle and the one-liners (mostly from Jack Nicholson as The Joker).
Batman Begins' trailers, for the most part, stayed true to what the movie is—dramatic action for adults with comic book trappings. They were clear on Bruce Wayne's internal conflict but murky on the external threat Batman was fighting, and thus lacked the thrill of being a superhero that drew audiences to Spider-Man and the first Batman."
They very intentionally set out to make a non-super-hero super-hero movie and they succeeded. The price, though, is that super-heros sell better when they get to be super-heros. Ahem, Hulk.
Hopefully the Joker movie can spend more time with Batman being Batman and less time worrying about why he's Batman. You know, have it be an adventure/mystery instead of a psychodrama crammed into an action movie.
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