{"id":43433,"date":"2018-04-16T15:16:46","date_gmt":"2018-04-16T21:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=43433"},"modified":"2021-02-07T20:46:44","modified_gmt":"2021-02-08T03:46:44","slug":"marvel-is-up-d-c-is-down-and-fans-are-puzzled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2018\/04\/16\/marvel-is-up-d-c-is-down-and-fans-are-puzzled\/","title":{"rendered":"Marvel is up, D.C. is down, and fans are puzzled"},"content":{"rendered":"

M<\/span>arvel Studios broke opening weekend box office records with its highly anticipated movies, while D.C. hasn\u2019t had much success recently with its movies.<\/p>\n

S<\/span>ome fans are concerned that D.C. began to fall short with its rushed film releases and flat story lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say (D.C.) isn\u2019t doing as well as Marvel. I wouldn\u2019t say they are crashing but Justice League had $400 million world wide which is nothing compared to Black Panther which did $400 million in it\u2019s first weekend,\u201d said Jeff McNair who is the owner of Video Game Trader (VGT) in Calgary.<\/p>\n

Early estimates were that Black Panther would make at least around $100 million to $120 million in its opening weekend.<\/p>\n

Yet as the release date grew closer, advance sales were all the way to $170 million before it even it hit theaters. Now its revenues are at $404 million worldwide.<\/p>\n

McNair is an avid video game player, comic book reader and a super hero movie connoisseur.<\/p>\n

He enjoys seeing the characters he had grown up with in the cartoons and comics that surrounded his life, so seeing the childhood idols on the big screen was exciting.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Jeff McNair<\/strong>, is getting ready to send his co-workers up to Edmonton for a Comic Expo on Feb. 26. McNair worked at Video Game Trader for over 10 years before he bought the store three years ago. (Photo by Elzbeth Sweder\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What Marvel seems to be doing correctly, is it has been carefully nurtured different comic franchises for the past 10 to 15 years, like Iron Man, Thor, Avengers, Dr. Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy and Black Panther.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guy running the Marvel side of things is also a big fan and at least initially they brought in writers to guide them to keep them fairly accurate to what\u2019s on the page and they are willing to change.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s not a formula but if they didn\u2019t try new things with those movies they probably wouldn\u2019t be where they are today,\u201c said Jason Bisschop who works at Words and Pictures on Centre Street. It’s a comic book store founded in 1987, that sells a variety of comic books vintage and new.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Jason Bisschop, <\/strong>the owner of Words and Pictures and has a podcast on comics and films, in his shop on Feb. 26. Bisschop’s podcast is recorded on Sundays and released every Tuesday. It can be found on iTunes and other audio platforms. (Photo by Elzbeth Sweder\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is the largest collection of comic issues in Calgary.<\/p>\n

Words and Pictures has a wide selection from subscription services, toys, statues, games and many pop-culture items.<\/p>\n

Bisschop also has a podcast, \u201cInvasion of the Remake\u201d that is recorded every Sunday and posted every Tuesday.<\/p>\n

McNair wonders whether Warner Brothers is taking the characters of D.C. and making their movies too fast, or rehashing stories.<\/p>\n

\u201cD.C. is jumping in and trying to redo Batman every 10 years rather than building like a legacy of films that lead up to events that people get excited for, which allows Marvel to jump in and add characters like Dr. Strange and Black Panther which aren\u2019t normally known,\u201d said McNair.<\/p>\n

There have been rumors recently surrounding the D.C. film The Justice League that cost $300 million to produce and only brought in $567 million worldwide. It also scored only 40 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Warner, it feels like they were trying to rush to create what Marvel had already spent 10 years building,\u201d said Bisschop.<\/p>\n

“It was never going to make a billion dollars. Out of five movies four of them were bombs, not financially, but they certainly weren\u2019t Marvel Block Busters and they weren\u2019t getting the positive reviews.\u201d<\/p>\n

Movies are an escape from reality and it is easy to get caught up in the financial side of things, but ultimately they are made for entertainment, for both casual and diehard fans.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Jeff McNair<\/strong> runs Video Game Trader on Centre Street and in Forest Lawn. He bought the store four years ago and is working on preparing for a show in Edmonton on Feb. 26. McNair is going to Seattle for a Comic Expo and to enjoy the city. (Photo by Elzbeth Sweder\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t have to be Marvel vs. D.C. You can just go as a fan and love both and support both like they both have so much great stuff to offer. It doesn\u2019t need to be so cut and dried you can just be a fan of comic book movies and go enjoy them for what they are and not tear them apart,\u201d said McNair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marvel studios has successfully broke opening weekend box office records with their highly anticipated movies, while D.C. hasn\u2019t had much success their opening weekends. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":415,"featured_media":43443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1589],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-43433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-film-video"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/415"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43433"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44470,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43433\/revisions\/44470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}