CB Cebulski teases Marvel work by famed manga and fine artist Junko Mizuno.

Dick Kyacinth returns and looks at this week’s sales numbers:

I certainly have had my reservations about Final Crisis, but I found the first issue to be pretty good, mostly due to the pervasive, foreboding atmosphere that Grant Morrison and JG Jones established. Of course, my reaction to the comic has very little to do with Direct Market sales, but it’s still kind of surprising to see this kind of differential. I was under the impression that folks were underwhelmed by the whole Skrull infiltration storyline, especially compared to the prospect of a Morrison/Jones epic. And DC has been promoting Final Crisis as the culmination of several years worth of stories for quite some time now, whereas Secret Invasion just seemed like the sort of by-the-numbers crossover that would have been relegated to a summer’s worth of annuals back in the early 1990s.

But maybe that’s what people want right now, for whatever reason. I think it’s worth considering that something as simple as an Invasion of the Body Snatchers rehash might seem somewhat appealing compared to what DC has been dishing out over the last year or so. In fact, it’s probably time to consider the damage done by the Countdown miniseries and its related spinoffs. As Marc-Oliver Frisch and others have noted, a book selling 70,000 copies every week is nothing to sneeze at, even if DC expected those numbers to be about 15,000-20,000 higher. On the other hand, Countdown may have done some substantial harm to DC as a brand in the Direct Market.

Val rounds up more chatter.

To no one’s surprise, THE INCREDIBLE HULK came in #1 at the box-office this weekend, keeping up the latest run of #1 openings for comic book movies in general. Ol’ Jade Jaws took in $54,538,000 beating KUNG FU PANDA and THE HAPPENING. Over at Variety, Anne Thompson has the most complete report yet on just what went down between star Edward Norton and Marvel:

Marvel realized they didn’t have time to hire a new writer and asked Norton to do it, offering him an uncredited producer credit as well. With about two months to go before the movie started filming, Norton did a page one rewrite–knowing that he couldn’t do anything radical, because sets were being built, locations found, etc. The entire Brazil sequence was already story-boarded. So Norton mostly changed dialogue, filled in gaps of motivation and developed character. For example, the scenes in Brazil about finding a serum in the Amazon to cure him, and Banner’s emails with Tim Blake Nelson, were Norton adds. Marvel agreed to shoot Norton’s script.

Thompson concludes, “Finally, my sense is that Norton’s issues were with Marvel, which misled him into believing that he would have more control over the picture than in fact he did.” and that Norton didn’t go to the press with the story, save for his explanation in EW. An LA Times story on Norton cements his current rep as “talented but difficult” and many are suggesting he concentrate on directing his own movies, since he seems to like being in control. At any rate, expect a LOT of extras on the DVD.

Nikki Finke rounds up the big picture for Marvel:

Even though The Incredible Hulk is Marvel’s 2nd best-known character (with Spider-Man No. 1), the reboot is only the 5th or 6th biggest pic for a top Marvel character in a non-sequel opening. (To recap: Spider-Man broke the bank with $115M and so did Iron Man with $98.6M. Hulk opened to $62M. Fantastic Four to $56M. X-Men to $54M, GhostRider to $52M (4-day wkd) and Daredevil to $45M (4-day wkd).) In this desperate-for-another-franchise business, that’s probably good enough for Marvel Studios to try to make a sequel.

Bonus: Physicians are smokin’ mad at cigar-chompin’ General Ross in the film:

Dianne Fenyk, president of the advocacy group, A.M.A. Alliance, is particularly infuriated because General Ross did not smoke in “Hulk,” the 2003 film directed by Ang Lee, though he always smoked in the comic books. Moreover, the editor of Marvel Comics and the film’s star, Mr. Norton, have both previously criticized portrayals of smoking in popular culture, Ms. Fenyk said. “Hollywood studios should be especially embarrassed for using comic-book movies, which they market to children and know youth will want to see, to promote tobacco,” Ms. Fenyk said. She spent last week encouraging her 27,000 members to alert local media about the matter.

We’re sure to be in the minority, but Louis Leterrier’s new THE INCREDIBLE HULK reboot made us appreciate Ang Lee’s 2003 version more. The new HULK is a perfectly serviceable and entertaining superhero movie — Bruce Banner huddles in his ratty purple pants, an outcast from society, before morphing dramatically to a mediocre–CGI rampaging behemoth. The action moves along well, the characters aren’t too campy or too serious, Ed Norton and William Hurt holds their ends up, and Tim Roth and Liv Tyler don’t stink. No, there’s nothing wrong with it, but it’s just a little TOO by the book.

By now Marvel movies have a formula that they stick to religiously. Sometimes, as with IRON MAN, it’s done really really well. Sometimes, as with THE INCREDIBLE HULK, it just hits all the beats as plastically as a big summer Usher hit. IRON MAN and HULK are pretty much the same movie, they even have identical “Lab montages” set to almost identical music and starring actors in almost identical wife-beaters.

As misguided as Ang Lee’s angst-filled father saga was, after seeing countless superhero movies rehashing the same formula, you have to give him credit for at least thinking and trying to reinvent something. It was, in the end, bolder and more daring than anything Leterrier’s Hulk could ever be.

Plus, Eric Bana is about 85,000 times hotter than Ed Norton. but that’s just us.

A few more spoiler notes in the jump.

(more…)

Our good friend Nomad braved the security at the Marvel Booth at the Licensing Show to eke out news of all Marvel’s new animated projects:

Hulk: Gamma Corps:: Set to hit in 2009, provided the movie does the numbers required. Remember, there was a series planned the last time a Hulk movie hit and it never saw the light of day due to poor numbers at the box office. This series sees Hulk teaming with other Gamma powered individuals to fight the good fight. So..Hulk..She Hulk..Doc Samson…who else would be in there? I wasn’t aware there were that many Gamma powered people to form a group with. I’ll assume there will be some original creations in there. Fingers crossed, Marvel hopes for 26 episodes on the table, but nothing is in stone yet.

Also listed: Iron Man: Armored Adventures, a Planet Hulk DVD for Lionsgate and Marvel Superhero Squad and Marvel Extreme- Wolverine
[LInk via Blog@]

§ Early Hulk reviews are sneaking out, including this one by Glenn Greenberg at The Vault of Buncheness:

Now THIS is more like it! Let me say right up front: THE INCREDIBLE HULK is good! Much like STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN was to STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE, THE INCREDIBLE HULK is a vast improvement over its predecessor. It gets right what the previous one got wrong. It has its head and its heart in the right place. Most of all, it feels like a Hulk movie should. Now, I’m not saying that THE INCREDIBLE HULK is as great as STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN, but it’s a giant step in the right direction. THIS is the movie we should have gotten five years ago.

We saw The Incredible Hulk the other day as well, and didn’t like it as much as Greenberg, but have little doubt that it will make some bucks and open strong.

§ Meanwhile, IRON MAN was a certifiable smash hit in every way for the fledgling Marvel Studios, and a sequel is already being teased with a Robert Downey Jr/Tony Stark cameo in The Incredible Hulk and an announced 2010 release date. However, one person is being left out of the party: director Jon Favreau, who wrote this over on his MySpace page:

“It’s been five weeks since the one and only phone call my reps have gotten from Marvel. I know their hands are full with the Hulk and I’m sure they will get into it shortly, as they tell me they intend to … I am concerned, however, about the announced release date of April 2010. Neither Robert nor I were consulted about this and we are both concerned about how realistic the date is in light of the fact that we have no script, story or even writers hired yet. This genre of movie is best when it is done thoughtfully and with plenty of preparation. It might be better to follow the BB/DK, X/X2 three year release pattern than to scramble for a date. It is difficult because there are no Marvel 09 releases and they need product, but I also think we owe it to the fans to have a great version of IM2 and, at this point, we would have less time to make it than the first one.

That sounds dire enough with a mental picture of Favreau waiting anxiously by the phone enough to cause some sympathy. However, IESB.net reports that it’s a bit worse than that:
Marvel hasn’t even signed Favreau for a sequel. It seems that Favreau signed on for only one movie, and after IRON MAN’s blockbuster status, his price has gone up a bit. According to IESB, Marvel has its own ideas:

So according to our source at Marvel, Jon was expecting a moderate bump in his fee for the sequel but apparently Marvel has other plans.

Our source continues that Maisel believes Iron Man 2 will be a success regardless of Favreau’s involvement and feels the studio does not need to pay Jon a higher fee for his services.

This is the most disappointing news that I have heard coming out of Hollywood in years, is Marvel out of their Vulcan mind?

Hm, no way to know how much truth there is to this, but if it is true, it’s a little sad. Marvel’s superhero films have (with a few exceptions, like the FF films, Daredevil and Elektra) been a lot better than they had to be. IRON MAN was a very fun enjoyable movie, and it would be nice to see a sequel just as good. These aren’t nickels and dimes we’re dealing with, but hopefully even Marvels shareholders would agree that a good movie is a better investment than a mediocre one in the long run.

By Paul O’Brien

The event season is upon us again, and Marvel hit the ground running with the first issue of SECRET INVASION. There aren’t too many tie-in issues in this first month, but the crossover still gets off to an impressive start. If you’ve been waiting for event fatigue to set in - well, it looks like you’re going to be waiting for a little while longer.

April also saw the debut issue of YOUNG X-MEN, the final title to be launched on the back of the X-books’ recent “Messiah Complex” crossover. Otherwise, though, Marvel had gave SECRET INVASION #1 a pretty clear run. To be quite honest, once you start heading further down the chart, it’s not a particularly eventful month.

As usual, Marvel dominated the direct market, beating DC by a whopping 44% to 30% in unit share, and 40% to 27% in dollar share. Of course, that partly reflects the fact that FINAL CRISIS hadn’t started yet - and, to be fair, the unit share would probably have been a lot closer if DC UNIVERSE #0 had been eligible for the charts.

Thanks as always to Milton Griepp and ICV2 for permission to use their figures for these calculations.

1.  SECRET INVASION
04/08  Secret Invasion #1 of 8 - 250,263

An excellent start for the latest big event book. The first month sales for CIVIL WAR #1, back in May 2006, were 260,804, so we’re very much in the same league here. Last year’s WORLD WAR HULK, in contrast, debuted with only 178,408. So from the look of it, this is a winner. And when the tie-in books really start to roll, Marvel should have another sales juggernaut on their hands.

2.  NEW AVENGERS
04/03  Avengers #66     -  58,312
04/04  Avengers #81     -  54,987
04/05  New Avengers #5  - 162,412
04/06  New Avengers #18 - 121,550
=====
04/07  New Avengers #29 - 125,378  (  +4.9%)
05/07  New Avengers #30 - 126,425  (  +0.8%)
06/07  New Avengers #31 - 172,684  ( +36.6%)
07/07  New Avengers #32 - 122,991  ( -28.8%)
08/07  New Avengers #33 - 117,906  (  -4.1%)
09/07  New Avengers #34 - 112,815  (  -4.3%)
10/07  New Avengers #35 - 111,481  (  -1.2%)
11/07  New Avengers #36 - 107,715  (  -3.4%)
12/07  New Avengers #37 - 105,545  (  -2.0%)
01/08  —
02/08  New Avengers #38 - 104,140  (  -1.3%)
03/08  New Avengers #39 - 103,046  (  -1.1%)
04/08  New Avengers #40 - 110,470  (  +7.2%)
                           6 mnth  (  -0.9%)
                           1 year  ( -13.5%)
                           2 year  (  -9.1%)
                           3 year  ( -32.0%)
                           4 year  (
+100.9%)
                           5 year  ( +89.4%)

This is a Secret Invasion tie-in, and at first glance the climb might seem a bit low. After all, issue #31 was promoted as the first major issue of the storyline, and it sold 172K. But that was a lynchpin issue, and this is simply a tie-in. We saw something similar in 2006, when NEW AVENGERS had much smaller gains from its CIVIL WAR tie-ins than other books - presumably because it was selling so well to start with.

(more…)

Just a few little notes here and there from stuff we picked up on the road over the last few days. Our sushi-sharing pal Matt Maxwell has a fabulous write-up of BEA which is a must read that includes this:

You’d also be out one farm. The only place Shellhead appeared was in the SECRET INVASION crossover. No name brand Iron Man material. No monthlies, no trades. No. Trades. The only big, lasting name they had out was THE ULTIMATES (in a pencil art variant that’s more likely to end up on Ebay than to convince any booksellers of the book’s quality). There was some AVENGERS/INVADERS crossover material, and some Classics Illustrated material. But there were no books. There was nothing to indicate that Marvel was going to be capitalizing on their media tie-ins.

IDW had a bigger and more professional booth than Marvel did. They featured trades prominently, though had some singles out for consideration. In short, they looked a lot more like a book company than a comics company (though to be fair, they were touting a lot of Transformers stuff with sticky window decals and signage all over the convention center). If I was one of those “Now what’s all this about comics not being for kids?” folks, I’d as sure as shooting have gravitated towards IDW and blown Marvel off. Oh, and I’ll add that it was pretty cool to get a chance to chat with Cory Doctorow (he of LITTLE BROTHER and BOING BOING fame) and to read over an issue of his recent IDW comic, which, believe it or not, was a great single comic that didn’t read like an isolated chapter. That’s how you get me to read singles.

If you’re wanting to take scores, DC came out smelling like a winner. Marvel, not so much so.

We heard this quite a bit: that Marvel’s dinky set-up, manned only by Jim McCann (whom we adore and who is truly one of the hardest working men in comics), was not very effective given the size of the show. In fact, Marvel sent everyone else to the sporadically attended Wizard World Philadelphia show and chose that venue to make its big Stand announcement (above). This shows a certain lack of investment in the book industry side of things, and everyone was commenting privately on Marvel’s tiny showing, especially compared to DC’s giant booth. However, Kuo-Yu Liang of Diamond Books, is a big defender of the “size doesn’t matter” view: ““Traffic doesn’t matter if you’ve got appointments with the people you need to talk to,” said Liang. The fact that marvel had THREE titles on PW’s latest Comics Bestseller list (not yet online) shows they are doing something right.

Also from PW, there’s this piece by Laura Hudson on how the success of Iron Man has broken the “movies don’t sell floppies” jinx:

For nearly a decade, comic book movies have been big business, with film franchises like Spider-Man and X-Men pulling in hundreds of millions of dollars per movie. Unfortunately for comics publishers, translating that big box office to comic book sales hasn’t been easy–at least when it comes to superheroes. But the recently released Marvel Studios film Iron Man has proved doubly successful; it’s not only earning of hundreds of millions in ticket sales, it’s also pulling off what most superhero movies never found a way to do: Sell a lot of comics.

The bottom line is that Marvel seems to be stumbling from success to success. Chronically understaffed and hamstrung by their own internal budgetary concerns and corporate hierarchies, Marvel’s long term strategy of just throwing things against the wall is paying off — for now.

Sill, you’d like to see a LITTLE more dedicated manpower for the book industry from Marvel. One other interesting rumor from the BEA floor: Marvel is hiring a new Bookstore Sales manager.

The Hollywood Reporter reports that a movie based on RUNAWAYS may be coming:

Brian K. Vaughan, who co-created the series with artist Adrian Alphona, is writing the adaptation, for which Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige will act as producer. Vaughan is also a co-producer and writer on ABC’s “Lost.”

As opposed to other Marvel characters getting the silver screen treatment, such as the Hulk and Spider-Man — who have been around since the 1960s and are pop-culture fixtures — the heroes in “Runaways” are relatively new, with the comic series launching in 2002.

Yes, that’s exactly right. Bringing RUNAWAYS to the screen would be a huge boost for Vaughan, as well as Marvel’s ability to adapt newer characters to marketable status.

Some really nice news for a change:

Artist Gene Colan has been one of comics’ favorites for a staggering seven decades. Now, as Gene is suffering illness, some of the characters Gene worked on are coming to save the day.

The Hero Initiative in conjunction with Marvel Comics is launching a series of Gene Colan-themed products, starting with a limited edition print of Gene’s cover art to Invincible Iron Man #1, available at Wizard World Philadelphia, May 30-June 1. Only 200 prints will be available at the show at a cost of $25 each. Net proceeds from sales of these prints by The Hero Initiative will benefit Gene Colan. Another 50 prints will be available at a later date, with plans to have them autographed by both Gene Colan and Stan Lee.

Also at Wizard World Philadelphia, guest writers and artists at the Marvel Comics booth will be signing and sketching two large poster-sized boards, which Hero will auction benefiting Gene at a later date.

And that’s just the start. Wizard World Chicago, June 26-29, will see the release of a second print featuring the cover art to Daredevil #47, the legendary “Brother, Take My Hand” story by Stan Lee and Gene Colan. A third print will be available later in the year, along with other products.

For August, a Gene Colan Tomb of Dracula poster will be available for order via Marvel Previews with proceeds routed to Gene; and in September, a special book reprinting some of Gene’s greatest stories will be made available. In addition to these items, The Hero Initiative will take additional steps to help Gene in his convalescence.

“Gene Colan,” said Roy Thomas, longtime Marvel Comics writer and Hero Initiative Board member, “is one of the most amazingly talented comic book artists in the history of the field. When I was scripting one of his stories, there was no one-not even Neal Adams or John Buscema-whose pencils could make me feel more strongly as if I were looking into a real world. He combines often-photographic realism with dynamism worth of a Kirby…and that makes him unique.”

“Speaking as an artist, in addition to his awe-inspiring renditions of classic comic book heroes, ‘Gentleman’ Gene Colan has been a tremendous inspiration to those of us who have drawn Daredevil,” said Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada. “I’m happy to say that Marvel is working along with The Hero Initiative to help one of the industry’s greats and a member of the Marvel family. Our hearts and thoughts go out to Gene and his family during this tough time, and we hope the rest of this great community can do what they can to help support one its founding members.”

While we were off the grid Cliff Meth passed along some great news:

I am delighted beyond delighted to announce that Marvel Entertainment has made clear its intentions to help Gene and Adrienne Colan.

In a warm conversation this morning, executives at Marvel offered Adrienne and I some of the many things that they plan to do for the Colans to provide immediate and long-term relief. I will provide the details soon.

We had some tart words for Marvel earlier last week, but let’s be equally effusive in our praise: by doing the right thing, Marvel is really stepping up to the plate and reversing some of the injustices of the past, Hooray for Marvel!

Over at his blog, Clifford Meth continues to enlist aid for a benefit to help defray the medical costs of Gene Colan’s recent health issues:

Numerous artists and writers will be contributing drawings and/or signed books to help Gene and Adrienne Colan with their mounting medical costs. Items will be auctioned by ComicLink.com

This list will be updated regularly. So far, it includes (in alpha-order):

Neal Adams, Norm Breyfogle, Randy Bowen, Ed Brubaker, Adam-Troy Castro, Paty Cockrum, Peter David, Tom DeFalco, J.M. deMatteis, Pat DiNizio, Harlan Ellison, Mark Evanier, Neil Gaiman, Sam Keith, Joe Kubert, Erik Larsen, Bob Layton, Jim Lee, Stan Lee, Leah Moore, Albert Moy, Michael Netzer, Josh Olsen, Tom Palmer, Mike Pascale, Jim Salicrup, Bob Shreck, Dave Simmons, Gail Simone, Walter and Louise Simonson, Jim Starlin, Juan Torres, Marv Wolfman and Ash Wood.

It should be noted that this benefit is being assembled by Meth; Colan’s wife, Adrienne hasn’t been asking for help publicly.

However, it should also be noted that when you drew comic books all your life, even comic books as lucrative as those drawn by Colan, like BLADE, you don’t get a pension or residuals or anything really. We’re not here to hang Marvel in effigy, since they have been an extremely frugal company since emerging from bankruptcy. However with reports circulating that Marvel Studios has already made some $200 million from IRON MAN, the #1 movie two weeks running, you would HOPE that a little fund raising could be set aside for one of the five or six greatest Marvel artists of all times. Better than Lenil Yu, even.

UPDATE: Dirk suggests you donate directly to the Colans via their Paypal account: genecolan@optonline.net.

Borys Kit picks on Warner Bros:

As Marvel embarks on transferring its universe of comics characters to the big screen, it is determined to succeed where DC Comics and its corporate sibling Warner Bros. have stumbled. But then, Marvel always has been one step ahead of DC.

Turns out that Marvel is not only tying together its comics into one vast universe,ut is now doing the same with its movies. Something Warners has yet to emulate:

Warners has successfully revived Batman with the help of Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale, but its Superman franchise, as if encountering Kryptonite, is struggling. Wonder Woman, under producer Joel Silver, can’t get her invisible jet off the ground. And the much-ballyhooed Justice League movie has lost steam: Bale had no intention of reprising Batman in that movie, and all the actors Warners had attached skewed young, making it almost a “Teen Titans” movie.

Here is the problem: Warners lets its filmmakers dictate what happens in its superhero movies. There’s not a hint of the existence of Gotham City in “Superman Returns,” for example, because Warners franchises have become filmmaker fiefdoms, where no one plays with each other. Worse, the filmmakers and executives take it upon themselves to make wholesale changes to DC’s mythology. Witness the fact that Superman has a kid!

You can read Marvels’ entire press release on their Q1 results here. Here’s the relevant portion on publishing:

Marvel’s Publishing Segment net sales declined by $1.0 million or 4% to $26.5 million in Q1 2008 principally due to the timing of major publishing initiatives. Q1 2008 net sales reflected a decline in comic book sales within the direct channel and lower advertising and custom sales, offset in part by continued strong growth in the Mass Market channel. The year-over-year decline in direct channel sales principally reflects strong sales of high profile titles Civil War and The Death of Captain America in the year ago period, versus no comparable specialty titles in Q1 2008. Operating income in the Publishing segment declined by 14% on a year-over-year basis to $9.9 million in Q1 2008 with an operating margin of approximately 37% compared to approximately 42% in the prior-year-period. Based on its planned slate of publishing initiatives, including the release of the Secret Invasion series in late Q2 2008, Marvel expects its Publishing segment to return to traditional margins for the full year 2008.

The link also includes all movie and TV stuff in the pipeline. Although it’s trye taht MArvel Studios won’t have a movie out in 2009, it won’t be Marvel-less at the movies: WOLVERINE opens in May.

MORE: Earnings Call Transcript

ALSO: Marvel stock continues to climb, up 9% yesterday.

Marvel held an earnings call this morning, and the big, no-brainer news was IRON MAN 2 in 2010. Also on the slate: THOR in 2010, followed by CAPTIAN AMERICA: FIRST AVENGER and THE AVENGERS in 2011. 2009 will be a bare cupboard year for Marvel, because of the writers strike, but IRON MAN’s smashing debut should keep their name in lights until then.

The company said its improved forecast did not include upside from the box office success of “Iron Man,” only its better-than-expected first-quarter performance.

Marvel shares jumped $2.34, or 7.7 percent, to $32.59 in morning trading.

The rise in stock prices is a first for Marvel — traditionally, after a big movie opening the stock price goes down a bit. It wasn’t all golden news, though: publishing was down 4% for the quarter and 14% year to year. Marvel hopes SECRET INVASION will pick up the slack and leave this year up over last, however.

It is official: Iron Man is a monster hit, taking in over $200 mil worldwide in its first weekend.

Pictures and Marvel Studios’ Iron Man exceeded all expectations, earning a massive $100.75 million during its opening weekend domestically from 4,105 theaters and $104.2 million since debuting Thursday night, averaging $24,543 per site. Internationally, the film has also earned an incredible $96.7 million in 57 countries since it began opening Wednesday, putting its worldwide total at $201 million after just five days!

As predicted, it’s the 10th biggest opening ever, the 4th biggest opening for a superhero movie, and the second biggest non-sequel movie opening, after Spider-Man.

The news is great for Marvel, of course, although traditionally their stock dips after each and every blockbuster as profit-takers sell off. Stock was up slightly on Friday behind very heavy volume. We’ll update it when the market opens. They’re holding their Q1 earnings call this morning, and that should be a lot of fun to listen to.

On the larger front. this will do nothing to crimp Hollywood’s love affair with the comics…well, hell, we write this every time a comic-book-movie does well, but the fact is that CBM’s do very well at the box office. Now, the movies that do well are always based on source material of some vision and/or passion — from Spider-Man to 300 to Ghost World. It remains to be seen of the stampede of “made to be optioned” comics to the option block will result in any actual films, let alone good films. Even something like 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, which opened at #1 but was generally undistinguished yet profitable, was based on a graphic novel which had flair and originality. But there will have to be many, many, MANY clinkers to end this love affair.

But there is always a naysayer, as Popular Mechanics points out that comic book movies, are driving out real SF films:

Despite the rise of the so-called graphic novel over the past few decades—self-contained, morally complex comic series like Alan Moore’s Watchmen and Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns—comic books are still widely regarded as kiddie stuff. And when X-Men and Spider-Man recently proved that film adaptations of popular comics were a relatively untapped box-office goldmine, they did so without substantially updating the science behind the superheroes.

We’ll throw in our own little naysay here: while IRON MAN’s critical response is the best ever for a superhero movie, it is not, in our opinion, the best ever superhero movie, let alone best ever comic book movie. It is very very good, but the plot is too formulaic for that. We’d pick SPIDER-MAN 2 as the best superhero movie — just our opinion, mind — followed closely by BATMAN & ROBIN. Wink wink! But you know, almost every time a good superhero movie opens everyone thinks it’s the best ever for a while.

So much for GTA IV:

The summer blockbuster season is off to a flying start with Robert Downey, Jr. in Iron Man. Financed and produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount, the spectacularly-reviewed comic book adaptation received an estimated 12% improvement from its opening day for a staggering $36.4M Saturday. That should translate to a $94.74M 3-day, and when Thursday night preview screenings are added in, the John Favreau-directed pic should have $100.24M banked by Monday morning.

The movie is tracking to be the 9th biggest opening ever, and the second biggest non-sequel opening ever after — what else? — Spider-Man.

Anyway you slice it, it’s a it’s a spectacular success for the debut film from Marvel Studios.

How if they can just get past the Hulk.

IRON MAN is a lot of fun and will make a lot of money. It seems to have a bit of “four quadrant” appeal even, and may be the superhero movie that breaks out of the young male demographic that is their bread and butter.

Or maybe not. It’s hard to imagine a movie that investigates boyish fantasies more thoroughly. Fast cars, loud missiles, flying around in a metal suit shooting fire out your hand, tinkering in the lab and soldering together a miniature nuclear power plant out of some scraps you found lying around the cave - this is a Radio Shack fantasy all the way.

Mild spoilers to follow below the cut.

(more…)

One last IRON MAN item. It seems the ridiculous stilettos worn by Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts are spawning their OWN fashion movement:

Looks like movie stars really do influence the buying habits of the many minions.

Selfridges, the London department store, has seen a nearly 35% increase in sales of hyper-high heels since Gwyneth Paltrow strutted them down multiple red carpets for the Iron Man promotional tour this week.

With 7-inch spikes, it’s no wonder they’re called “fetish” heels; a pair by Alexander McQueen is particularly popular.

Just call it “Iron Ankles.”

Warning: You must sit through all of the credits in IRON MAN to see a cameo by Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. This has kind of been floating around, but though we stayed to the “shot on Arriflex” credit for IRON MAN, most of the Marvel screening audience had already left the theatre, so we bolted, and we didn’t hear any whooping and hollering as we walked out that would have indicated the ending scene. But there it is up on Youtube…or it was for a few days. So what gives? If only we had paid more attention to Rich Johnston the other day.

One thing missing from the film was the much-touted end of movie scene with Samuel Jackson as Nick Fury. I understand from British Film classification sources that the scene is in the print that they’ve approved for general release, but not in premiere or preview screenings, so as not to spoil the um.. surprise… bugger. Anyway, he’s recruiting for a group called The Avengers.

Vulture has a whole run down of the affair, but basically the cameo was kept out of the critics’ screenings and put back in for regular audiences. Personally, we don’t mind saying until the very end of the credits—we were raised to believe it is a mark of respect to the filmmakers. However that was before credits went on for 5 minutes or so. (We were watching 1979’s Alien on TV last night and were shocked to see the credits lasted all of about 30 seconds.) What we do find annoying is the current trend of putting the ending of a movie AFTER the five minute credits — see Pirates of the Caribbean 3. Many movies these days do not pass the “bladder test” and making it necessary to sit through those endless credits may well be torture for many.

Meanwhile, the films has a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes at the moment. Trust us — it was GOOD, but it wasn’t the rapture. The movie is key for Marvel Studio’s future but they spent big — very big, ICv2 reports:

Iron Man, which cost $150 million to produce and another $75 million to promote, will require a strong debut to keep the stock market analysts looking favorably on Marvel Entertainment’s stock. Although with Marvel Studios’ unique financing plan, the company actually has little immediate financial risk associated with the film (see “Marvel to Produce Its Own Films”).

Not that Marvel really has much to worry about: the question about IRON MAN is not whether it will be a blockbuster, but how big a blockbuster it will be.

The movie is expected to open well, between $65 and $100 million, depending on how seriously you take the tracking that shows young women are not interested in seeing the picture–only 19% first choice– which makes it a “three quadrant” movie for starters. The biggest blockbusters, like Narnia, wind up pulling everybody. Young men under 25 have 95% awareness of Iron Man, 65% definite interest and 35% first choice. Women over 25 are more interested in Downey and Gwenyth Paltrow; they will spread the word that Downey is fun and Paltrow actually has a decent role. So the picture could hold well.

By Paul O’Brien

After a quiet couple of months, March saw Marvel starting to gear up again. In fact, there’s only one really big new title this month - DARK TOWER, which returns for a second miniseries. But there’s also the launch of two new monthly series, CABLE and WOLVERINE: FIRST CLASS. And although SECRET INVASION itself won’t show up until the April chart, the first tie-ins are starting to to crop up.

Once again, Marvel dominated the direct market, leading DC by 44% to 32% in units and 39% to 30% in dollars. And this is before the big crossover season even gets under way, remember.

Thanks as always to Milton Griepp and ICV2 for permission to use their figures for these calculations.

1.  DARK TOWER
03/07  Gunslinger Born #2 of 7 - 168,258  (-22.4%)
04/07  Gunslinger Born #3 of 7 - 149,168  (-11.3%)
05/07  Gunslinger Born #4 of 7 - 139,545  ( -6.5%)
06/07  Gunslinger Born #5 of 7 - 132,090  ( -5.3%)
07/07  Gunslinger Born #6 of 7 - 128,336  ( -2.8%)
08/07  Gunslinger Born #7 of 7 - 124,609  ( -2.9%)
09/07  —
10/07  —
11/07  —
12/07  —
01/08  —
02/08  —
03/08  Long Road Home #1 of 5  - 123,839  ( -0.6%)
                                  6 mnth  (  — )
                                  1 year  (-26.4%)

The first DARK TOWER miniseries was a huge hit for Marvel in 2007, a rare example of a book with obvious mass market appeal which also sold in huge quantities in the direct market. While the first series was mostly an adaptation of Stephen King’s novel WIZARD AND GLASS, the new series is original material. The first issue comes in below the final issue of GUNSLINGER BORN, but only just. Diminishing returns are to be expected with sequels, and besides, 124K for a debut issue is a good performance by any standards. Marvel should be very satisfied with this number.

(more…)

By the by, if you are coming to IRON MAN and want to read more of Ol’ Shellhead’s adventures, Alan Kistler at ComicMix has the story that should have been the lead story on EVERY comics website this week: 10 Must-Read Stories Before You Watch ‘Iron Man’ in Theaters.

Marvel has repeatedly learned that boffo box office doesn’t necessarily turn into boffo at the comics shop, enjoying only modest upticks in graphic novels sales after their blockbusting movies. This time out, they have a top ten Iron Man Graphic Novel list on Marvel.com. A new Marvel series called THE INVINCIBLE IRON MAN by Fraction and LaRocca debuts next week, with variant photo covers.

Anyway, click the links for a welcome reminder that there was an Iron man before Robert Downey Jr.

Up at Apple.
Image ganked from Pulp Secret. Sorry boys, we’re very pressed for time.

Everyone has IRON MAN fever! The film, opening Friday, has gotten fab reviews from everyone but the New Yorker, and Robert Downey Jr’s performance is being hailed as one of his best ever, and a new benchmark for a superhero movie.

However there have been a few glitches along the way. Tireless Jeff Trexler alerts us to a legal spat over a screening. It seems the blog TechCrunch set up an early screening viaa source unknown, which Marvel Studios objected to.

Whoever decided to authorize an early screening without looping in Marvel, the company that made the movie, was not thinking. The 2005 distribution agreement between Marvel and Paramount provides, in article 10, that “Marvel shall be meaningfully consulted on the release pattern and distribution pattern” of the film; Article 7 also requires Marvel to be consulted for all commercial co-promotions and tie-ins. That the screening was apparently arranged through Paramount’s group sales department will probably have behind-the-scenes ramifications; this incident does give the impression that Paramount is something of a loose cannon, with few if any internal controls at the local level.

Meanwhile Marvel is colluding with EW to reveal a new version of Venom and fill in future Spider-Man storylines.

There comes a time when even a storied supervillain needs a do-over, and that moment has arrived for Spider-Man arch-nemesis Venom. Well, sorta. The extraterrestrial symbiote — which most famously glommed onto embittered Spider-friend Eddie Brock — is classically depicted as a onyx-colored, cuspated shape-shifter. But Marvel decided the dude needed to lighten up, so they created an additional symbiote as a visual foil to their old standby: Here’s your first glimpse at the new, angelically hued…Anti-Venom.

Truly the day that the comics industry gets both the NY Daily News and EW to reveal their superhero spoilers shows there are no boundaries anymore. NO BOUNDARIES.

Illo above by John Romita Jr. who, come to think of it, still nails that classic superhero look in a way an old timer like The Beat finds very pleasant.