Will there still be room for superheroes?
Crazy Rich Asians’ success may change summer status quo
As Crazy Rich Asians continues to have spectacular success, grossing $28.3 million domestically over Labour Day to win the four-day weekend, its box-office muscle puts the trail-blazing film in position to help change slow-to-evolve Hollywood when it comes to more diverse representation, storytelling and hiring.
On a more minor, studio-specific level, though, perhaps Jon Chu’s smash — already one of the top 15 films of the year with a domestic take of $117 million — might also shift seasonal thinking at its studio, Warner Bros. (All figures in U.S. dollars.)
Namely, does 2018 mark the year that Warner becomes less reliant on superhero cinema to be its boxoffice summer blockbuster?
Domestically, Crazy Rich Asians will soon become the top Warner Bros. movie of the year, passing The Meg ($123.4 million and counting), Ready Player One ($137 million) and Ocean’s 8 ($139 million). The fact that two of the studio’s biggest films (Crazy and Ocean’s 8) are not torn from sci-fi/fantasy tales or superhero adventures marks a distinct departure.
Last summer, the biggest Warner Bros. release was Wonder Woman ($412.6 million domestic). The summer before that, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($330.4 million). The studio’s other summer blockbusters in recent years have included big-action spectacles like San Andreas, Mad Max: Fury Road, Man of Steel, The Dark Knight Rises and the Hobbit films.
Yet with no capes on its slate this summer, Warner has to be pleasantly surprised that it was able to compete against Disney, Universal and Paramount through the hot popcorn-movie months by finding a separate, parallel lane to that of action smashes such as Mission: Impossible — Fallout.
Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairman Toby Emmerich knows about the necessity of launching new properties that aren’t spun out of an interconnected universe or aging franchises.
As the executive told Variety: “We need to continue to take calculated risks — making original movies is part of that.”
And when those original titles find under-tapped and under-represented markets, Warner stands to profit in the long term, too.
“We certainly think that there will be more movies because both books can stand on their own as films,” Emmerich told Variety about Crazy Rich Asians author Kevin Kwan’s followup novels. “The filmmakers and the rest of the talent are excited to continue the franchise.”
For years, Warner Bros. relied on Harry Potter, Superman and Christopher Nolan to deliver its biggest summer smashes. Now, after a special summer like 2018, the studio doesn’t even need its most anticipated superhero movie to be in theatres in August.
Patty Jenkins’s Wonder Woman 1984 — the sequel to her summer 2017 hit — is set to open in November next year.