Rebooting Spider-man
The second three Star Wars movies (The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith) have made more money than any other film trilogy in US history, with $1.122 billion in total grosses. At $1.113 billion in total grosses, the Spider-man movies fall just 9 million from that record. In fact, Spider-man and its sequels are the only films from Sony Pictures to make it on the list of the top fifty biggest domestic box office grosses (coming in at #9, #13, and #18) You have to go all the way to #54 to find the next most successful Sony film, Men in Black, which was released more than twelve years ago.
So a fourth Spider-man film with the director and stars that made the first three so successful should be a no-brainer, right? Well, whoever’s running Sony Pictures officially has no brain.
Although there’s debate over which of the Spider-man movies is best, the first or the second (I liked the second better myself), most people agree the third one had some major problems. So it’s no surprise that Sam Raimi has been demanding a great script before production begins on the fourth movie. But now that his quest for perfection has cost the movie the chance to open in May 2011, Sony has decided to drop the whole thing and reboot the franchise with a new cast and director.
“Spider-Man will always be an important franchise for Sony Pictures and a fresh start like this is a responsibility that we all take very seriously,” said Michael Lynton, Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures. “We have always believed that story comes first and story guides the direction of these films and as we move onto the next chapter, we will stay true to that principle and will do so with the highest respect for the source material and the fans and moviegoers who deserve nothing but the best when it comes to bringing these stories and characters to life on the big screen.”
So let me get this straight. Sam Raini was not comfortable with the script for Spider-man 4, so Sony Pictures dropped him, then announces “that story comes first”? Bullshit, thy name is Lynton.
The last time an active movie franchise dropped its original director and star, the world ended up with a Batman and Robin that had hard plastic nipples built into their costumes. I think Sony Pictures’ decision to reboot a thriving franchise makes that decision look genius.
For those who are curious, the original Star Wars trilogy grossed $1.060 billion in total, the Pirates of the Caribbean movies grossed $1.038 billion, The Lord of the Rings trilogy grossed $1.034 billion, and the three Shrek movies grossed $1.032 billion. These are the only trilogies to make more than one billion dollars combined at the box office domestically.
What makes the original Star Wars trilogy gross so impressive is that the last of the films (Return of the Jedi) opened in 1983, back when ticket prices were a fraction of what they are today. With the exception of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999), none of the other movies in any of the other trilogies opened before 2001.
