Stop superhero movies and Brits on Broadway
On Tuesday night, the Times Square ball will drop.
I, meanwhile, am praying that next year the entertainment industry doesn’t drop the ball. Again.
Here are my overly optimistic New Year’s resolutions for movies, Broadway and TV.
At the movies: Cull the superhero flicks
One of the most obvious lessons of 2024 is that audiences have grown weary of comic book stories. “Madame Web,” “Kraven The Hunter” and “Joker: Folie a Deux” all deafeningly flopped.
Delusional Sony Pictures CEO Tony Vinciquerra recently claimed that “‘Madame Web’ underperformed in the theaters because the press just crucified it. It was not a bad film, and it did great on Netflix.” Come back to us, Tony! Your soulless schlock was a worldwide punchline.
Marvel, on the other hand, cooled its jets in 2024, only releasing “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which was a big, well-deserved hit.
You see? Scaling back, building anticipation and not making the same old formulaic movie (the Ryan Reynolds/Hugh Jackman film was a buddy comedy) worked wonders.
Rival DC (Warner Bros.) is following suit, making the youthful reboot of “Superman” its sole 2025 release. Frankly, I could even do without that one.
So, why then is the Disney-owned Marvel dropping three films this year inside of five months?
“Captain America: Brave New World,” “Thunderbolts” (whatever the hell that is) and “Fantastic Four: First Steps” will, they hope, return the MCU to the glory days of 2019 when “Avengers: Endgame” grossed $2.8 billion and “Black Panther” was nominated for Best Picture.
Never gonna happen. The moment has passed. Sayanora. Everybody should do some capes-and-spandex soul searching in 2025.
On Broadway: Chill with the British shows
Reign it in, Britannia.
London imports have been coming in fast and furious since theaters reopened in 2021.
A parade of Anglo flops passed by: “Back to the Future: The Musical,” “Caroline, Or Change,” “Life of Pi,” “The Hills of California” and “Patriots” among them. Elton John’s $25 million “Tammy Faye” was just exorcised. Life won’t be a cabaret for “Cabaret”
There have been hits too — notably “Prima Facie,” starring Jodie Comer, and “Merrily We Roll Along.” And I wish the same success for the magnificent “Sunset Boulevard” with Nicole Scherzinger, which has the daunting task of selling the big, honkin’ St. James into the summer.
More, sigh, are on the way. The overrated and annoying musical “Operation Mincemeat” and dismal “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” open in the Spring. Every Broadway insider who’s seen “Stranger Things” cannot stand it, and sales in London have fallen off a cliff. An auspicious start!
In 2025, power-hungry (and frequently inept) British producers and our new UK-based theater landlord, Ambassador Theatre Group, need to wake up and realize that Broadway and the West End are not the same thing. Unless their goal is losing millions.
What do they say over there? Mind the gap.
On TV: Please make a must-watch show
This year, television abruptly became an afterthought.
What does it say about 2024 that the biggest smash was a six-episode miniseries about a disturbed stalker?
That the era of peak TV is over. And we’re back to base camp.
Viewers are now stuck with a mountain of niche fare that studios created to boost their streaming services, but nobody seems to be watching. “Shogun” is great, and yet I’ve never heard a single person talk about it. Ever. If a bonsai tree falls in a forest…
Water-cooler shows don’t have to be dead, though, even if we’re constantly told they are.
The TV pendulum needs to swing toward entertainment and big, bold storytelling rather than prestige and obnoxious messaging. That is, if they want eyeballs.
People are craving a weekly drama to talk about and obsess over. Give us a new “Game of Thrones.” Well, one that’s not “House of the Dragon.”
See you next Sunday — and next year.
