It’s making money before it even opens!
Earlier this year, all the buzz was about The Hunger Games doing gang-buster advanced ticket sales. Well, watch out, Katniss, there’s a new blockbuster in town. We all knew The Avengers was going to be huge. How could it possibly not? With Joss Whedon at the Wheel and Robert Downey, Jr. riding shotgun, this superhero action saga was not going to fail. Okay, maybe RDJ isn’t the biggest draw for every member of the potential viewing audience, but I do get to have my biases…
What is it about superheroes that so fascinates us? Part of it is most certainly nostalgia – we adults grew up with these characters on TV and in comics and teenagers aren’t that different, though they have more media through which to consume their super powered friends. I suppose we all love the idea of super powers, the triumph of good over evil and a team of uber-powerful allies using their powers for the benefit of mankind. It definitely doesn’t hurt that superheroes make for awesome action sequences on film.
Also, we have the cast. Oh, such a cast. RDJ, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johannson, Jeremy Renner, Samuel L. Jackson, Gwyneth Paltrow and on and on. There’s eye candy here for virtually everyone. Joss Whedon has star power of his own. The director who brought us Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly and most recently the well regarded The Cabin in the Woods knows how to do action and knows how to connect with an audience.
At this early date, with the film having opened only overseas so far, it’s running 8.9 at imdb and projected to pull in over $400 million by Sunday. Well played, Mr. Whedon, well played. I won’t be seeing the first blockbuster of the summer on its opening weekend (I do that about once a decade and have had my turn with The Hunger Games) but George will, and he’ll definitely be letting you know what he thinks. I won’t be seeing it until Mother’s Day, when my children are taking me (they took me to Iron Man 2 one year – they’re awesome).
Until then I need to do a little catching up. I haven’t seen anything but the Iron Man movies – Hulk, Thor and Captain America need a little love. Methinks I ought to update my Netflix queue. Then I’ll be added my dollars to the enormous Avengers coffers. Good for you, Joss, let’s kick off this summer with some superhero box office butt-kicking!
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Sue reads a lot, writes a lot, edits a lot, and loves a good craft. She was deemed “too picky” to proofread her children’s school papers and wears this as a badge of honor. She is also proud of her aggressively average knitting skills She is the Editorial Director at Silver Beacon Marketing and an aspiring Crazy Cat Lady.
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