After years of seeing San Diego's Comic-Con International overtaken by movie/tv tie-ins, could 2011 be the year it all changes? Reports coming out from HollywoodWiretap.com, the New York Times and Collider.com say that four of the biggest movie studios — Disney, Warner Bros., Dreamworks and the Weinstein Co. — are considering sitting out this year's convention. But why?
Comic-Con has become a place where a movie can turn from an up-and-comer to a trendsetter and a phenomenon; remember the buzz surrounding Thor after last year's spectacle? Or how about the story of Disney only greenlighting the full TRON: Legacy after positive fan buzz from a screening at the ocean-side convention? But apparently with all the positive spins that Comic-Con can provide a movie franchise, it's not what movie studios want.
According to sources, studios were dismayed that the extensive TRON: Legacy campaign during several years of Comic-Con appearance didn't translate into a blockbuster success. They also point to several movie properties trotted out at San Diego that either failed to ignite with fans or, worst yet, translated into negativity on the movie's behalf. As it turns out, an expensive marketing campaign at Comic-Con isn't a cure-all to make a movie a hit… but then again, we've known that for years.
Although an elaborate showing at San Diego can guarantee buzz during the convention, we've seen SDCC darlings turn into box office busts on numerous occasions — TRON: Legacy The Spirit, Sucker Punch, and sadly, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. While they all got hyped to the moon at the convention, the studios failed to follow through to the mainstream public to accurately publicize it (see Scott Pilgrim). And for others, immense hype for a film can be a deathnell if the movie itself doesn't live up to it (see TRON: Legacy). And sometimes, the world just doesn't want Snakes on a Plane.
No one knows until San Diego itself if these movie studios will follow through and pull back come July. Comic-Con's David Glanzer says he hasn't seen a decrease in studios over previous years, and there are big presentations planned for Cowboys & Aliens and The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. The big question mark surrounds Disney (owner of Marvel) and Warners' (owner of DC)'s Comic-con displays; if there's not sizable displays for next year's Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises and Superman: Man of Steel, will that result in negative buzz?
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I have no idea why they attend. Wasn’t the RED panel at SDCC last year a ghost town? Yet, that was one of the most succesful movies of all the attendees. Betting against Comic Con buzz is a pretty good bet.
Is Thor being considered a bust? It only grossed 169M in the Us but over 400M worldwide.
Hmmm, if some studios decide not to go to Comic Con, that would definitely be a plus, but I find it hard to believe that Warner Bros wouldn’t want to have a presence when one a new Batman or Superman film arrives, even they have to know that SDCC is their biggest target audience.
The panel may have been a ghost town, but Halll h was packed everyday. If the studios pull out, sdcc may not need a bigger venue after all.
I don’t see how that could be anything but bad news. to have a giant empty convention hall not to mention all the lost revenue from the Studio’s as exhibitors but also the fans who are primarily interested in movie stuff just disappear like that. Wouldn’t that be a SEVERE hit to the SDCC from a business standpoint?
That is great news… Anything to dial the crowds back a bit.
@wallythegreenmonster I’m not sure how much revenue the studios see from sdcc. It’s a massive marketing crap shoot. Hall h squatters never see the show flow and spend no money on anything but overpriced food in the hall. People wandering the con floor don’t really have an incentive to spend at the studio booths, cause they’re too busy getting autographs or taking pictures of the scattered props and items.
If they don’t see a boost in movie returns that resemble the amount of money they pour into taking over sdcc every July, I see no reason why they’d continue it.
So wait, without Twilight what’s the reason to go to comic-con?
@ato220 For the MAY-HEM!!!
It’s all about press at SDCC if you ask me. If the press stops giving a damn about that audience, then the studios will figure out another way to promote and get the press coverage they need.
@siraim –i was talking about it being a huge financial hit for SDCC itself. I’m sure the studios pay a pretty big exhibitor fee and take up lots of space….woulnd’t be good
Ahh.. I see what you were saying and agree. Part of the push recently to find more space was based on the growth of the con, mostly due to the studio involvement. If they pull out, they won’t need nearly the space and could regress back to earlier attendance figures. Itll be interesting to see what the studios actually do.
@walllythegreenmonster perhaps? But the speed in which it sells out and the amount of people who get turned away each year I think they’ll still fill their halls without too much problem. It’s become a cultural icon and even without the studios I think excitement will remain.
@itsbecca I tend to see the growth of sdcc being directly related to the inclusion of the studios and their marketing efforts. Artists alley and the vendors are nice open spaces with air to breathe. The studio hubs are a tangled mess of people. Hall h lines start in the wee hours of the morning on days with major movie announcements (which are scheduled late in the day to make sure the audience is captive throughout the say)
Movie studios realized they shouldn’t listen to fanboys?
Good on them.
No, seriously… look here: I did enjoy Tron Legacy, it was alright. But had someone asked me prior to that if I cared… heck no. Everytime I try to watch the original, I fall asleep. I skipped it in the theaters and rented it on DVD. But Disney skeeted all over it because of fanboy buzz from a comicon?
well duh.
Makes perfect sense. Not every comic book related movie needs some huge panel at Comic-Con. Something like The Dark Knight Rises or The Avengers don’t need cause a huge amount of people are gonna see those regardless. I can see how this happening might hurt SDCC but I’d be really interested to see if SDCC would sell out as fast if people found out they weren’t gonna see celebs such as Samuel L. Jackson or Ryan Reynolds.
Um. I wouldn’t consider Tron a box office bust. It did well enough to get the sequel green lit, and an animated TV show put into production. Was it a “disappointment” to Disney? Yes, because they wanted Avatar numbers. Scott Pilgrim didn’t even come close to making back it’s budget (including tax benefits) and Sucker Punch made about its budget; both could be considered flops when you add in marketing costs. Tron doubled its budget. It was the 12th highest revenue for 2010. It’s not stupendously amazing numbers, but it actually made money. I think that’s more of the author’s bias seeping in a little.
Well, SDCC has become more about movies than comics, it seems. Maybe this is the right thing to happen. Maybe SDCC convention attendees are not the focus group they should be asking – comic readers are a small part of the population, given sales numbers. Our tastes might not line up with the general public’s tases. C’mon, a lot of stuff we think is cool is considered “dorky” by the greater population.
This article makes me happy. To have Comic-Con return to it’s COMIC BOOK roots would make me so incredibly happy. I could care lesa about 95% of the shows and movies that get panels there. And while that demographic of fans who would be upset by the lack of movies, there’s 15 people behind them still wanting a ticket inside.
YES!!! First this convention … now, if we can just do away with these stupid movies supposedly based on comics…
I have about 20 friends over the past 3 years who have all of a sudden wanted to go to comic con. When I asked what they were going to do there, all they say is “I want to see Robert Downey Jr.”
These people wouldn’t know ashcan from a trashcan.
That said, I never understood what the studios hope to gain by showing off their stuff to the group of people that will pretty much go see it no matter what. If you have the disposable income to go to SDCC, then there’s not much that will prevent you from seeing a movie in theaters. Sure, they can get a hall of screaming fans, but that’s a few thousand at best, when you need tens of millions to buy tickets to your movie to have it be a success.
Wow a Tintin movie! So excited for that!
Hope they tap more of the Franco Belgian comic market for new movies.
Never having been to a con, much less THIS con, I don’t think that myopic studios using it as a test audience will be a bad thing in the long run for your average viewer. Then again, “Thor” opened at $70M…
If they make good movies, they will get good press. If you make The Spirit, fanboys and the general public will mock you.
It seems to me SDCC is a great place to launch comic-related properties. It should give you a great reaction and good initial buzz. The geeks will all hear about and tell their friends. Their friends may not care, but what more can you hope for from a convention announcement/panel/screening? Then you have to go and make a good film and properly market it. That Spirit and SuckerPunch bombed has entirely to do with how they were not good films.
@JimBilly4 Well, there is that too – if the film sucks, no amount of hype will save it. Beyond the few suckers the opening weekend.
Maybe now I will be able to seriously consider going now.
Pilgrim was to Niche to go big and people like my Parents, my wife and my young Daughter daughter don’t care. I cared because I read the book and managed to drag one friend who ended up loving it.
Spirit and Sucker Punch were also Niche and sucked on top of that. Tron I havn’t seen so I can’t comment. You can get good buzz at SDCC but quality and a market also have to exist for a movie to carry itself, market is the hardest thing since it changes. Batman: The Movie, Burton’s Batman and Dark Knight ostensibly the same character wouldn’t succeed if you alternated the markets.
Wait, Scott Pilgrim wasn’t marketed enough? I saw a commercial for that movie every five minutes. I don’t think that was the problem,I think it was too niche to ever get mainstream success.
And blaming SDCC for poor box office grosses is like blaming movie trailers. If the movie is bad in it’s finished, complete form, it’s not going to do well.
That is sad news
Another strike against the comic book indurtry
@siraim perhaps, but look at NYCC. It’s been growing very quickly even though it has a significanly lessened emphasis on film. SDCC’s appeal might shrink, but I think they would still sell out. Just maybe not in the first 8 minutes.
Good news as far as I am concerned. The convention has gotten too big in the last few years and I am scared that it will move locations. The demand for tickets far exceeds the supply, so I would be surprised if this has any impact from a business standpoint. Besides, I don’t go to SDCC for the movie presence!
To me this is a very Chicken Little reaction
supposedly Disney and Warners not coming…BUT Paramount Fox and Sony are.
one of the BIG 6, Columbia hasn’t chimed in.
Weinstien Co and Dreamworks are big, but 2nd tier studios compared to the 6 giants
TRON LEGACY SCOTT PILGRIM & SUCKER PUNCH not doing well by the masses had little to do with ComicCon’s reaction.
These are huge businesses who shit too much money, pulling back a little in a poor ecomonic year.
Anyone who truly thinks Disney/Marvel aren’t touting The Avengers this year, and Superman, & Batman at SDCC next year FULL BLAST, can call me an idiot .
@wordballoon: couldn’t agree with you more Mr. Siuntres.
Shenanigans, some studios probably don’t need as much of a display or even attend but big comic movies from Marvel or DC? Yeah right, they’ll be there. The Walking Dead comic panel was an integral source of hype for the series and it can’t hurt when people love to see this stuff, the bigger the spectacle the more fun SDCC is but over-hyping definitely can backfire, they need to walk that fine line of teaser with appeal, kinda like the best foreplay for a better climax. JSAkid out.
As long as Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim people keep coming I’ll be very happy. I’d go see a panal with Seth Green (Robot Chicken) and Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer (Venture Brothers) than any Blockbuster movie panal.
I initially liked the idea because I thought it might mean some stuff would be easier to get into, but then realized that everyone still has tickets which means that everything’s STILL going to be impossible to get into.
I know the SDCC got me jazzed for TRON. It made money and will have a sequel. One of the drawback was that TRON was so old that most people only had heard about it and finding a copy of it before the movie was like finding the Star Wars Holiday Special, close to impossible. I think the next one will make more money. The movie studios will tell you what they want but they will be there. They are like sharks if there is blood in the water they will be around.
The Official Newspaper of Record mis-spelled Spider-man. It left out the all-important hyphen. And the copy desk wont take my call.
Pop!
You hear that? Was that the comic book movie bubble? Or was the convention bubble bursting?
Both, you say?
4 down.
Countless more to go in order to bring SDCC back to something enjoyable.
A few days post facto here is unfortunately late in the posting game and sorry…
Hate to repeat my rants on this topic, which is near and dear, but have attended SDCC since back in 1990 when it was in the old two room convention center and would much rather see it head back to that, then carry on with what the movie industries cancerous growth turned it into.
After 19 years of support when people were embarrassed to even show up, Comi-Con sold out before I could get tickets the last two years. Long term members are tossed aside for larger and larger attendance numbers fueled by unrelated movie and tv stars. Who cares who shows up or why as long as they show up? Seems to be the new mantra for this event.
I would be very excited by this news if I actually thought it heralded any sort of institutional change.
eh. oh well.
grrr…end of old angry man post.