Reviews don’t matter in Batman’s success – ‘Lights Out’ trailer plays on fear of the dark
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LOS ANGELES, March 28, (RTRS): In the days leading up to its release this weekend, major critics tried to outdo each other by cooking up the most devastating ways to dismiss “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” as a creatively bankrupt, corporately mandated cash grab searching fruitlessly for a coherent plot.
The New York Times’ A.O. Scott quipped that getting brained by a porcelain sink was more diverting than “Batman v Superman,” the Wall Street Journal’s Joe Morgenstern branded it “stupendously dispiriting” and Time Out’s Joshua Rothkopf hoped that “…audiences will reject Zack Snyder’s lumbering, dead-on-arrival superhero melange.”
Instead of serving as box office kryptonite, reviewers watched helplessly as “Batman v Superman” smashed records, racking up $424.1 million globally and ensuring that the Dark Knight, the Man of Steel and a cornucopia of DC Comics’ spandexed finest will be flooding screens for years to come. Despite scoring an anemic 29% “rotten” rating on critics aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the Warner Bros. release scored the fourth-biggest global debut in history and the sixth-biggest domestic launch with $170.1 million.
“There’s a real disconnect with what some critics wrote and how the fans are enjoying the film,” said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros distribution executive vice-president. “It doesn’t take itself seriously. It’s just an enjoyable afternoon at the movies.”
The results are a devastating rebuke to the power of mainstream American critics at a time when many newspapers have already outsourced their reviews to wire services and the rise of bloggers has de-professionalized the practice of assessing a film’s attributes and demerits. In an age of declining newspaper and magazine subscriptions, getting a strong notice from a major reviewer may help smaller films like “Spotlight” or “Brooklyn” find success, but it does little for big-budget, special effects-driven spectacles. Featuring iconic characters like Batman, Bond or Iron Man, they arrive with what studios like to call “pre-awareness.”
There may be more to “Batman v Superman’s” success. In an era of popular discontent, when Donald Trump has amassed political capital by thumbing his nose at the status quo, the pile-up of establishment tastemakers may have even backfired.
“I think some of it was a backlash from the consumers to the critics,” said one exhibition industry executive.
It also is a testament to the enduring power of the Batman and Superman brands — the two title characters are firmly entwined in popular culture, having made their comic-book debuts before America entered World War II and appearing in 15 major films since 1978. The prospect of seeing the two biggest stars in the DC firmament clash on screen was too irresistible for audiences to pass up, regardless of what the Times or the Journal thought.
“Reviews don’t matter,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at comScore. “The Batsuit and Superman’s cape are made of teflon.”
Nor could critics kill “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2.” The weekend’s other new release suffered a drubbing and an even worse 24% “rotten” score, and still went on to debut to a solid $18.1 million.
Given its impressive opening weekend numbers, it seems likely that “Batman v Superman” will eclipse the $1 billion mark worldwide, more than justifying the $250 million that Warner Bros. spent to produce the film and the millions more it shelled out in marketing costs.
The drop-off in its second weekend could be steep, however. “Batman v Superman” is the only one of the top ten domestic debuts not to score a “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, making it something of an outlier. Moreover, although its B CinemaScore signals that audiences like the film more than critics do, it’s not a rousing endorsement. Among films featuring the Caped Crusader or the Man of Steel, only “Batman and Robin” with a C+ and “Superman IV” with a C scored worse CinemaScore ratings, and both films fell flat at the box office. If word-of-mouth is tepid, “Batman v Superman” could end up making a disproportionate amount of its money over its opening weekend.
“Good reviews sustain a film in the lean weeks, in weeks four or five when it’s been out for awhile,” said Jeff Bock, a box office analyst at Exhibitor Relations.
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LOS ANGELES: You were right to sleep with a nightlight, according to the first trailer for horror movie “Lights Out.”
Based on David F. Sandberg’s two-minute short film of the same name, which gained some viral fame in 2013, “Lights Out” follows Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) and her younger brother Martin (“Annabelle’s” Gabriel Bateman) as they’re tormented by a spirit that draws its power from darkness.
With every flicker of the light, the figure of a woman draws closer as its victims struggle to keep the light around to draw it away. After some investigating, the two find out that the poltergeist is tied to an event in their mother’s past, and feeds on fear.
Sanberg directs from a script by Eric Heisserer. Alexander DiPersia, Billy Burke and Maria Bello also star.
The trailer’s unique scares should be little surprise, given that James Wan, the director behind horror hits “The Conjuring” and “Insidious,” is one of the producers. Heisserer also produces, along with Lawrence Grey. Dave Neustadter, Walter Hamada, Michael Clear, Richard Brener, Ben Everard and Jack Murray executive produce.
The trailer debuted at New Line’s WonderCon panel on Saturday, along with a new trailer for Wan’s “The Conjuring 2.” “Lights Out” hits theaters July 22.
LOS ANGELES: In the sequel to “The Conjuring,” demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren take on one of the biggest horror stories of all time: “England’s Amityville.”
A new trailer for “The Conjuring 2” debuted at WonderCon this weekend, featuring the return of Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as the Warren couple as they tackle the true story of the Endfield Poltergeist.
“After everything we’ve seen, there isn’t much that rattles either of us anymore,” says Lorraine Warren in the trailer. “But this one, this one still haunts me.”
Frances O’Connor plays a mother who watches her family tortured by an evil spirit. One child in particular — Janet (Madison Wolfe) — seems to be in more trouble than any of them. It’s set in Endfield, England, in 1977.
In a Twitter Q&A on Saturday, director James Wan said of the choice to portray the story of the Endfield Poltergeist, “We wanted to mirror the story of Amityville. They are two of the most documented paranormal cases in the world.”
The first “Conjuring,” also directed by Wan, ended up being a surprise hit for New Line after it was released in June 2013. It grossed $320 million worldwide on a $20 million budget. “The Conjuring 2” will be released on June 10.
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