Faster than a speeding bullet...into a barrel of fish

By Steven Zeitchik

A $10 million opening weekend is hardly a remarkable number in either direction for a midrange, star-light comedy. But it's telling in all sorts of ways for "Superhero Movie," the MGM-Dimension sendup of all things Marvel and DC that debuted this weekend.

Previous David Zucker confections have topped out in the $90 million-$110 million range, and even arguably redundant sendups like "The Naked Gun 2 1/2," earned $87 million in 1991 dollars. This one, it's pretty safe to say, won't come close.

Distribution execs say that the key to a succesful spoof lies with the freshness of the satire. That may be true, though it doesn't fully explain the $90 mil for Zucker's "Scary Movie 4." (Surely if there's some new serial-killer joke to unearth, some don't-answer-the-phone reference to mine, it could have been done in five previous hours of screen time?)

There may be a more specific rule governing how and why a genre sendup succeeds, one that has more to do with the maturity of the original genre. Looking back at at the spoof hits over the decades, it seems that in order to work a genre has to be at just the right stage, developed enough to be ripe for satire but not so tired the genre has already begun poking fun at itself (see under Zucker's 1980 "Airplane," which came at just the right post-"Airport" moment).

The first part is probably why one-off hits can't be effectively sent up, as Bob Saget learned the hard way with his straight-to-video "Farce of the Penguins." (And yet he never seems to learn...) The second part is why "Superhero" will eke out $40 or $50 million instead of twice that. Most actual superhero movies these days are post-superhero movies -- see the self-mocking postmodernism in everything from "Superman Returns" to "The Incredibles" -- so who needs a spoof? Not to mention that the definition of a superhero movie is a lot more expansive these days, as likely to encompass an anti-hero like "Hellboy" as fearless fighters in cape and spandex.

As Carl Diorio reports in his incisive box-office report Monday, nearly three-quarters of "Superhero" ticket-buyers were under the age of 25 -- that is, moviegoers who were not yet eye-glints when Zod first terrorized Metropolis and only barely out of the fingerpainting stage when Tim Burton first envisioned Gotham. Movigoers of that age may want and appreciate an onscreen reminder of  how much the genre has evolved. The rest of us need no such bat signal.

Comments

[Couper]

This doesn't exactly explain why Scary Movie (which after all was the original title for Scream) succeeded when the Scream series was clearly already bit of "self-mocking postmodernism."

[Marco Milone]

Interesting!

[Dick Yamashita]

Dear Steven Zeitchik,

On Nov. 14th the detnews.com published your article re "Michael Moore to tackle economy in next film" and I sent my response to detnews.com regarding the SOCIO ECONOMICS/ECOLOGY SYSTEMS for economic prosperity of the U.S. that was developed during the 1970s - 2000

It was developed during my work with the former Administrations of former Pres. J. Carter and former Pres. R. Reagan.

As an American from North Hollywood, and a former consultant/adviser to the U.S. on social and political economics, I wish to have Michael Moore see the historical contents for consideration.
Sincerely,
Dick Yamashita

[sneakeralley]

Great information..

[sneakeralley]

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