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Sony Spider-Verse discussion thread

I'm not convinced Venom's success has that much to do with the character. I really think that entire franchise is built on Tom Hardy committing and just really, really going for it. Without the boldness of his performance I'm not sure the first film fares any better than the rest of Sony's output. Hardy's ability and willingness to just be weird and sometimes offputting while also being charming and vulnerable kind of carry what are not really great movies.,

Yeah, I find the whole approach to the Venom movies weird, turning them into a buddy comedy rather than a psychological horror and body-horror story. So I agree that whatever success the movies have inexplicably had is more about the performances and actor appeal than anything to do with the intrinsic concept.


All this talk about how much a character can or cannot be the protagonist of a movie on their own I find absolutely inconclusive and even useless. As if there was some kind of curse connected to their essence that affects the finished product.

I'm always bewildered when people argue that a movie can only succeed if it centers on a character who's already famous. If that were so, where would new characters come from in the first place? Every famous character started out obscure. It's a nonsensical argument, and it gets the cause and effect backward. Good movies make their characters popular, even if they never existed before.



The truth is that Sony has simply made movies between mediocre and bad. Even from a purely technical point of view (see Madame Web). Why, I have no idea. There are not many rumors or behind the scenes about it. Maybe it could simply be excessive interference from the studios. These are not seen as movies, but money-making machines like their MCU counterparts. And money makes people crazy.

I've always felt the problem is that studio executives are business people, not creative people, yet they get to tell the creative people how to make their movies. So they have absolute authority over a process they don't understand at all.
 
Silver & Sable was the one project of the myriad of potential ideas Sony had that people were genuinely excited about (at least around here)...and it never went anywhere.

Knowing Sony, the whole thing would've been a fetish film about Black Cat's sexiness. Not saying that wouldn't sell but...there should be more to a film than that.
 
I'm always bewildered when people argue that a movie can only succeed if it centers on a character who's already famous. If that were so, where would new characters come from in the first place? Every famous character started out obscure. It's a nonsensical argument, and it gets the cause and effect backward. Good movies make their characters popular, even if they never existed before.
One of the most successful movie franchises is John Wick, where the essence of the character is "I'm going on a killing spree because my dog got killed."

But you always find someone who says "This movie didn't work because the character wasn't right for these reasons:"

Bah! It's all in the execution.
 
Bah! It's all in the execution.

Yes. People always try to peg one simplistic factor that can explain success or failure, but if it were that simple, success would be easy to achieve. It's not something you can dumb down to a pat answer. It depends on countless interacting factors. Even a well-executed movie can flop through no fault of its own; heck, many of the most well-regarded classics were commercial failures upon their release.
 
Anyone know why they decided to basically cut out Ann Weying/Michelle Williams from the Venom movies after the first one? She had a smaller role in 2 and then was gone completely
 
One would assume that if they went into production with a script that featured Spider-Man then it was because they had reason to believe they could use Spider-Man.

Even if the Sony productions are a complete mess. ;)

There was an interview with Tom Holland a little while ago (or it might have just been quoted when he was posting about Spider-Man 4) where Holland said that he'd had to make some choices to turn down some movies/scripts because he cared about the character and gained more confidence with the popularity of the movies that he could do that. I imagine Sony lining everything up in pre-production of the movie and somebody raising their hand to ask if anyone spoke to Holland about his new movie yet.
 
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And a lot of comments on this video are like "The problem is they chose the wrong characters! Without Spider-Man these movies make no sense!".

Is it that hard to understand that they are just bad movies?
 
Budget obviously isn't a concern, but then why is it this hard to make a proper superhero movie that has years of backstories to fall upon?
Is it a rights issue to the older stories?

Outside of Tom Hardy, these other movies aren't passion projects for anyone. Then you hear Dakota Johnson's story about how the Madame Web movie she signed up for isn't the movie they made. There's a difference between "I have an idea for a movie" and "this IP needs to be turned into a movie."
 
I realize now that a lot of these characters have had their own solo comic runs that have proved to be at least moderately successful, so clearly if you know what you're doing, it is possible to do tell good stories with these characters without Spider-Man. So that would have to mean that the issue is Sony just not knowing how to tell good stories with these characters.
 
But did Sony think that these films would be successful only thanks to the "notoriety" of the characters?

Ugh.

I seriously how much money Sony would accept from Disney to put an end to their (mainly) travesties and sell the rights to the competitor.

That would indeed be a good question...and any SOny shareholders OUGHT to pressure the comapny to do so. Or just let Marvel do future stuff.... 25% (or whatever fraction they signed on for) of $1 billion in net profits is better than 100% of $100 Million net loss.

Silver & Sable was the one project of the myriad of potential ideas Sony had that people were genuinely excited about (at least around here)...and it never went anywhere.

And even if they went the business minded route -- sure;y such a movie would not cost THAT much to make...and thus be profitable to do. Which makes their refusal to do it even sillier.

Yeah, I find the whole approach to the Venom movies weird, turning them into a buddy comedy rather than a psychological horror and body-horror story. So I agree that whatever success the movies have inexplicably had is more about the performances and actor appeal than anything to do with the intrinsic concept.




I'm always bewildered when people argue that a movie can only succeed if it centers on a character who's already famous. If that were so, where would new characters come from in the first place? Every famous character started out obscure. It's a nonsensical argument, and it gets the cause and effect backward. Good movies make their characters popular, even if they never existed before.
exactly WHO here on this board has said it can "only succeed " with that???? I think CLEAR evidence, especially in 2024 , that a familiar IP sure can HELP A LOT. 9 of the top 10 in 2024 are sequels. The one "original" is a movie version of an uberpopular current Broadway play.

It's been a while since we've seen something like the Matrix take off.

I've always felt the problem is that studio executives are business people, not creative people, yet they get to tell the creative people how to make their movies. So they have absolute authority over a process they don't understand at all.
This is a very valid point...and we see that faiure at DC as well as SOny.
Yes. People always try to peg one simplistic factor that can explain success or failure, but if it were that simple, success would be easy to achieve. It's not something you can dumb down to a pat answer. It depends on countless interacting factors. Even a well-executed movie can flop through no fault of its own; heck, many of the most well-regarded classics were commercial failures upon their release.
WHO on this very BBS (or heck, ANYWHERE) is saying this??? Familiarity sure as heck can be a HUGE HELP, as again, evidenced by 2024's top 10....
Outside of Tom Hardy, these other movies aren't passion projects for anyone. Then you hear Dakota Johnson's story about how the Madame Web movie she signed up for isn't the movie they made. There's a difference between "I have an idea for a movie" and "this IP needs to be turned into a movie."
This right here says it all.... it's why i soured on the Amazing Spiderman movies -- i knew it was mainly to keep the SPiderman IP... not becuase of a passion like Raimi....or with Tom Hardy, it owuld have been right around the time that Maguire would have retired anyway, and Marvel proved they truly care...so it felt logical
 
But even that isn't the full picture - because many of the most successful and well loved films are just commercial productions not works of passion.

So even with all the IP situation, it's baffling how many of these things lack any sort of basic level of craft or care.
 
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Deep inside this article is the news that Sony has no plans to release the next Spiderverse movie in 2025. The writer says that it’s because they’re taking tender loving care with it, which hopefully is true, but I don’t see a direct quote to back him up on that. Though given how good the last two were, it’s hopefully a given. Just pay your animators and SFX people properly.
 
Since there's nothing that's going to change the chart positions now, we can officially say that 'Venom - The Last Dance' was the 9th highest grossing movie of 2024 worldwide.

Or to put it another way, its box office was 53% higher than Morbius, Madame Web & Kraven's was combined.
 
Since there's nothing that's going to change the chart positions now, we can officially say that 'Venom - The Last Dance' was the 9th highest grossing movie of 2024 worldwide.

Or to put it another way, its box office was 53% higher than Morbius, Madame Web & Kraven's was combined.
I wonder what lesson Sony will take from this...
 
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