Luke Cage to possibly be Marvel Studios first sub-$50m movie

[Shazam!]

A movie from a character that is not real known outside the hardcore comic crowd might not be such a good idea.

Yeah, because there's never been a successful movie featuring characters we'd never heard of.

 

[clint g]

Then that would mean:

*Iron Man

Iron Man was well known

To people who read comics (or familiar with comics), yes he is well known....

I don't read comics and I knew alot about him. He is much better known than you realize, especially since Iron Man had a cartoon in the early 90s that alot of people in my age group watched

*Kick-Ass

As much as I loved it, this one did not perform that great in theaters

It didn't do as well as the small hype thought it would, for certain silly controversial reasons...but, it may recoup its costs on DVD.

Maybe. But as of right now, it has not done that great.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Iron Man was well known

To people who read comics (or familiar with comics), yes he is well known....

I don't read comics and I knew alot about him. He is much better known than you realize, especially since Iron Man had a cartoon in the early 90s that alot of people in my age group watched

Okay. Each to his (or her) own opinion...

Maybe. But as of right now, it has not done that great.

Ah, but it still was a great film.

 

[N-121973]

^Same thing with The Crow. A lot of people are unaware that it started out as a comic.

And MEN IN BLACK and THE MASK and HELLBOY . . . .

Name recognition is not always the deciding factor in whether a film succeeds. The world is full of successful movies based on obscure characters . . . .

Its not just obscure characters that people don't realise started out in comics. When I was a kid I didn't know Batman was a comic character, I discovered him through Saturday morning screenings of the Adam West TV show, it was only by chance I discovered the truth.

 

[Skywalker]

A movie from a character that is not real known outside the hardcore comic crowd might not be such a good idea.

Then that would mean:

*Iron Man
*Kick-Ass
*The Crow

...were bad ideas since they weren't known outside the 'hardcore' comic book world.

I always thought Blade was the best example.

 

[captcalhoun]

^prexactly!

and Blade is basically the model Marvel are looking at: tier 2 or 3 characters, medium budget, hopefully box office success.

 

[Greg Cox]

Heck, GHOST RIDER made money, too, and he's not exactly a household name . . . .

 

[Joel_Kirk]

A movie from a character that is not real known outside the hardcore comic crowd might not be such a good idea.

Then that would mean:

*Iron Man
*Kick-Ass
*The Crow

...were bad ideas since they weren't known outside the 'hardcore' comic book world.

I always thought Blade was the best example.

Exactly...

Heck, GHOST RIDER made money, too, and he's not exactly a household name . . . .

Very true...

 

[Captain Craig]

I always thought Blade was the best example.

He is in all fairness to Iron Man. I recall over on the Box Office Mojo boards those self proclaimed know-it-alls of the box office cited many times by numbers of posters that "Iron Man is either not known or too little known" to be bankable. Some went so far as to call Marvel Studios dead in the water with Iron Man as their first choice.

Heck, GHOST RIDER made money, too, and he's not exactly a household name . . . .

Another Bingo. Made money to the point that Columbia wants to do another but is currently fighting a scheduling conflict with Nic Cage. Apparently National Treasure 3 is currently slated to start shooting in November and that is the same timeframe Columbia wants to start GR:2.

Let's not forget that Daredevil has never been a deeply known quantity outside the comic rack set and that made money also.


Marvel is clearly going that route with the Luke Cage idea. Take a 2-3rd tier character that can be translated to screen. Regardless of the public's knowledge use a template(like Blade=vampire film) and adapt it.

Luke Cage=Shaft taken up a few notches.

 

[Othello]

It was more an expression as to why this would not make money

If a nerd like myself has never heard of this guy, neither will Joe American.

Regular Joe's on this board will from time to time go "Whaaat Blade was based on a comic book, didn't know that."

It just needs to be good enough to get butts into seats.

There it is. Right on point.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I wonder how many fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are aware of its comic book origins?

 

[RobertScorpio]

They'll make it a dumb comedy with Chris Rock and Will Ferrell....

Rob

 

[A beaker full of death]

Power Man can only work as a movie if they bring the character back to his blaxploitation roots. He needs to be in a yellow silk shirt. I vote for Tarantino to direct.

Did someone say Duane Johnson? As this??

Wow.

 

[Hermiod]

^Twenty or thirty or so years ago I would have suggested his father for the role.

 

[A beaker full of death]

^ Now that would work.

(He's the one on the right, folks.)