Two years ago the big winner to come out of Comic Con was Warner Bros. and 300. Following its massive presence it went on to gross $210 million. A tally that could not have been matched had it not been for the massive buzz following a hard R-rated preview reel that left audiences asking to see it over and over again.
Last year it was Paramount’s turn with Iron Man. Many, such as myself, were hesitant to believe a metal suit of armor could fly. We were proven wrong and the preview reel presented by Jon Favreau blew us all away and then went on to earn $314 million at the box-office, which is a highly impressive number for a non-Spider-Man/Superman/Batman superhero.
So, the big question is what was this year’s big hit? I am sure some of you guessed it by the headline, but let’s take a peek at a sampling of what was shown and a reading for each on the Hit vs. Miss scale.
Summit Pictures:(Almost a Hit) – I am working on an article for either later today or tomorrow talking about the onslaught of teen girls at Comic Con thanks to men such as Rain (Ninja Assassin) and Gerard Butler (RocknRolla), but nothing could have prepared the convention for Twilight. Little girls lined up at 8 PM Wednesday night for the Summit Pictures panel that began at 1:15 PM on Thursday afternoon. It didn’t matter what was shown from the film, the audience was going to go insane as you can see from my video presentation of the cast/director/author introductions. Unfortunately, the film footage they showed still looks terribly cheap, but it doesn’t matter to the Twilight fans. Had it just been Twilight, the Summit panel would have been a huge miss based on how bad the film looks, but the presentation for Pushmade me interested and it was also nice to hear from Alex Proyas for his new film Knowing, which could also be interesting.
20th Century Fox:(Miss) – This is a miss for one reason and one reason alone… The Summit panel screwed Fox. By placing the 20th Century Fox panel in front of the Summit panel the studio was basically pitching its goods to a crowd of 6,500 insane 14-year-olds. Two such little girls sat next to me during the panel and all that interested them was that they got to see Keanu Reeves, Mark Wahlberg and Hugh Jackman. What movies were they previewing? Who cares. Wahlberg said he knew why people loved touring in Japan, “You don’t even have to say anything and they scream,” he said. Hugh Jackman presented the first look at footage from Wolverine, but the fans of the franchise were most likely standing outside in line while Twilight-ers hooted and hollered in anticipation that the Fox panel would soon be over and Summit could begin. The Fox panel was actually a hit, but the timing of it was a major miss.
Disney:(Near Hit) – Disney followed up Summit’s panel with a panel that was only said to be promoting Race to Witch Mountain. Guess how many people were interested in that… Yeah, not a lot. The room was probably half-filled and of that half maybe only half was paying attention. It was one of the only times during the weekend Hall H wasn’t packed to capacity with people waiting outside. Wanna know what would have helped… Perhaps letting people in on the fact that you were going to preview the first look at footage from Tron 2 (description here)! Oh, and Jeff Bridges is in it! What a blunder, the footage looked AMAZING, and even though Race to Witch Mountain looked generic and redundant, the Tron 2 footage definitely raised awareness that Disney was actually at the convention.
Dark Castle Presentation:(Miss) – Two things killed this one. 1) Joel Silver and 2) calling it the “Dark Castle Presentation” and not a “Warner Bros. Presentation”. People don’t know Dark Castle from a hole in the wall so it’s not a huge surprise when Joel Silver steps up on stage with his cue cards and bumbles through is presentation he is only doing it to a half-filled room. It is even more embarrassing when he refers to his producing partner, Susan Downey, saying, “No one knows who she is so I had this made up special [places a name card in front of her that reads ‘Robert Downey Jr.’s wife] this is Robert Downey Jr.’s wife.” I actually don’t think he ever said her actual name. She didn’t look happy. Following that we had a number of questions for Rain the Korean popstar now starring in Ninja Assassin to which he answered in broken English with statements such as, “Hopefully now everyone will see how great I am.” The highlight was more for its comedy than anything to do with the films being presented and that was when a woman dressed in some whacked out costume asked Gerard Butler a question and before answering he says, “What the fuck are you wearing?” while laughing his ass off. It was only a highlight because I couldn’t believe he said it, I think the woman almost cried. That, too me, is a miss…
Watchmen:(Soft Hit) – There isn’t a lot to say here. The footage for Watchmen that was shown was very good on a visual level, but we still didn’t get any dialogue. When I told a Warner Bros. rep that I was disappointed in what was shown I think I was close to being assaulted until I explained that I thought it was impressive visually (description here), but I was looking for some dialogue, maybe give us an actual scene from the film. That seemed to calm them down. However, the footage alone and the Q&A with the talent was a hit, but it isn’t a big surprise.
The Wolfman:(Near Hit) – I missed this panel due to interviews with the Watchmen folk, and I heard mixed reactions, but positive for the most part (David’s thoughts). Personally, this is one panel I really wanted to see since I really like the original flick, but I was left to see nothing. Booooooo!
The Spirit:(Miss) – I also missed this one, but I have not heard one good thing from the panel and it seems to me Frank Miller’s The Spirit may end up suffering big at the box-office. David didn’t like what he saw and it just seems like more and more people felt the same way.
EW Visionaries with Kevin Smith, Judd Apatow, Zack Snyder and Frank Miller:(Hit) – In terms of overall appeal, this panel was the absolute best one of the weekend. These four directors entertained the audience at every turn and when they weren’t entertaining they were giving answers you wanted to listen to. I recapped it all right here if you are interested.
Kevin Smith Makes a Porno:(Near Hit) – Following directly after the Visionaries panel this one couldn’t quite live up to its predecessor, but Smith is always fun to listen to and with Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Justin Long, Jason Mewes, Traci Lords, Katie Morgan, Ricky Mabe and Scott Mosier on the panel with Smith there were a lot of laughs.
Disney’s Bolt and Pixar’s Up:(Soft Hit) – If you have ever wondered what it is about a Pixar animated film that makes it different from any other animated film watch a panel on the making of one and then the other and you should have a pretty good idea. Personally, the trailer for Bolt looks 100% awful. It looks like a train wreck, but after watching a large sampling of footage from the film I actually believe it has the potential to be quite good. The hamster character is going to steal the show, but that’s a’ight. As for Up, it simply impresses. It looks like it is going to be just as visually appealing as was WALL•E and will, of course, have that Pixar touch when it comes to story.
Terminator: Salvation:(MAJOR HIT) – Here it is folks, the big Comic Con winner is WB’s Terminator: Salvation panel. This panel followed up a rather lackluster panel for the TV show “Lost” and it seemed all 6,500+ people in attendance weren’t quite sure if they should be excited or tossing rotten vegetables at the stage. Hesitation to have a positive opinion seemed to be the constant. Director McG hit the stage with a certain level of excitement and after a short intro, and phone call to Christian Bale’s voice mail, he previewed the footage he brought. It was raw and real and gave the audience a good idea what to expect. The audience clapped after the footage was shown, but it wasn’t a roar, it was generous but not ecstatic.
McG then introduced stars Anton Yelchin, Common, Moon Bloodgood, Sam Worthington and Bryce Dallas Howard. The panel Q&A went EXTREMELY well to say the least. One question from the crowd came from a man using mimicking Arnold Schwarzenegger. McG said to him through laughter, “That was awesome!” and the kids was brought on stage and given free rein to speak up whenever. Classy move and a smart move at that. McG’s excitement and his ability to involve the crowd had them screaming their heads off to see the footage once again, the same footage they had already seen and given a reluctant cheer only 30+ minutes earlier. The room darkened, the footage played and people went insane. McG won the crowd over and it was one hell of a great piece of excellent showmanship.
Oh, and I am 99.9% positive there is going to be some sort of an Arnold Schwarzenegger came in the film after having some discussions. Of course, I could have been given the run around, but following McG’s statements (or lack thereof) and some words I heard, I am saying this in a large manner of confidence, but I leave that .1% possibility as my out should I end up wrong.
Comic Con is a nightmare to negotiate for press members (a term to use loosely considering everyone and their mother can get press accreditation) and attendees alike. However, when you see something good it is all worth it. The entire weekend I wasn’t sure if I would be back again the following year, but who am I kidding? I know I will be there again next year and I am already plotting my attack.
If you missed any of our Comic Con coverage you can catch it here on the blog and here on the main site. I still have more to bring you so stay tuned.
