Hot Toys to make Keaton 1966 Batman style costume

[Lou Szabo]

They probably had an editor...

[BATWINGED HORNET]

Those rubber underpants can't be too comfortable! And it looks like I was right about The Flash not being a hit-- in fact it's dubbed the biggest superhero failure of all time by this article.

https://www.dexerto.com/tv-movies/the-f ... e-2207388/

The superhero film appears to be on the decline with the franchise "darling" Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania underperforming, the Disney+ Marvel TV series are not the major ratings winners, with Secret Invasion (the springboard for the supposed next "phase" of the MCU) launching with low viewership, similar to Ms. Marvel, which has the lowest debut numbers of Marvel streaming shows. There's next to no enthusiasm for the release schedule musical chair-playing The Marvels or Captain America 4.

Entertainment business bloat and repetition is sinking many films beyond the superhero genre, such as the shockingly poor performance of the 5th Indiana Jones film, which opened with an embarrassing $60 million, and a 56% drop in its second week.

https://variety.com/2023/film/news/disn ... ket-newtab

The fantasy movie gravy train appears to have dried up, or is trending that way.

[BiffPow]

The fantasy movie gravy train appears to have dried up, or is trending that way.

Won’t dive too deeply here but, while I agree that there’s a “superhero fatigue” factor, I think much of the decline in interest and box office receipts is due to public backlash against the studio and/or content owner’s political/“social” activism.

I say this because every one of my friends who are into this genre, including merely friendly acquaintances, have told me that this is the main reason they will not see the movies. They are boycotting. They also believe that the studios ended Steve Rogers as Captain America JUST because he was a patriotic white male. They killed off Tony Stark JUST because he was a patriotic, white male capitalist, etc. Pushing gender and other politically charged ideology onto fans of escapist content is going to alienate half of your audience. The success of “Top Gun: Maverick” (which took the opposite approach) seems to prove the point. You can’t mess with beloved heroic icons for political or “DEI” reasons and expect loyalty from longstanding fans.

I’ll drop it there.

[AndyFish]

The box office for Indiana Jones 5 is only surprising if you didn't see Indiana Jones 4-- I was in New Haven when they were filming it and had turned downtown into a 1950s set piece, I even ended up staying in the same hotel room Harrison Ford had the night before-- as an Indy fan I was excited to see #4-- and it was possibly the worst big budget movie I've ever seen-- keeping in mind that I don't see a lot of these modern movies. So no way was I seeing #5.

As for superheroes-- The Batman was a big hit, and I thought that was a bleak monstrosity with a whiny lead. So who knows what works-- I was really hoping for a shift to fun in superhero movies. I thought the first Guardians was pretty good but not enough to see #2 or #3.

Justice League turned me off right from the posters so I never saw it-- I thought it was bizarre how all the heroes matched, they all had the same shade of red, the same shade of blue-- like they bought their suits from the same Wal*Mart.

Just make good movies and people will go see them. Make bloated CGI amusement park rides that you forget the second you walk out of the theater and you're only going to appeal to people who want a thrill, not a story.

[BiffPow]

Andy - agree. Storytelling. Just give us a good story with good actors. Also agree with your assessment of the latest Batman film.

[Batman65]

Another look, we need this
IMG_2126.jpeg
IMG_2142.jpeg

This is cool!

[Lou Szabo]

Hot Toys in Asia across from the inart booth

IMG_2278.jpeg (39.62 KiB) Viewed 3781 times

[Yellow Oval]

I really like that blue and grey version. I have both Keaton and both Nicholson Hot Toy versions, but unfortunately collecting - especially pricey ones - just isn't on the agenda anymore.

Regarding the movies I agree with many about their various reasons why the films are failing, but I think it's actually because it has run it's course and the superhero trend was lucky because most movie trends only last a decade or so. Roughly 15 years of film-noir from the '40s into the mid'50s, then from there to the end of the '60s were cowboy films, the spy-movie craze was from the mid-'60s to the late '70s, the gritty law enforcement movies were from the early '70s into the early '80s, the over-muscled-military hero and ninja films were only through the '80s, and then comedies of different sorts were in the '90s until the superhero movie trend started in the 2000s and has finally run out of gas almost 23 years later. Superhero movies were lucky as they went way past their expiry date.

[Yellow Oval]

I’d like this one with the 66 logo
IMG_1553.jpeg

I'll take this one as this is how Keaton should have looked in the '89 film.

[Lou Szabo]

I guess in real life (movie realism), a black getup strikes fear into the villains. On the other hand, you can’t see the chest bat emblem any longer. Make Mine Blue!

[BatToys]

The decline of superhero movies and superhero fatigue is really more about CORPORATE superhero movies. What they need to make is independent superhero movies.

Corporate superhero movies play it safe.

Just like in comics how the independent ones say from Alan Moore are much more interesting. They don't play it safe.

I think that's one of the reasons Barbie was so successful was that they addressed hatred toward Barbie. They weren't afraid.