Despite the success of Indiana Jones, other films such as The Rocketeer, the Phantom, and The Shadow did not produce sequels. One wonders if they would have if not done as period pieces.
shareIt's a good question. You can't help but lump all three of those films together and you have to wonder if their common denominator, the 30s period setting and the matinee serial/pulp feel, played a part in their failure at the box office.
It may have. Lets face it, outside of the "Indiana Jones" movies, how many period, pulp inspired action/adventure films have really caught on with the public in the last 30 years?
But the setting wasn't the only reason they weren't hits. "The Rocketeer" was based on a rather obscure graphic novel and had a unknown lead. "The Phantom" also lacked star power at a time when it was still important. "The Shadow" had a big name in Alec Baldwin, but the character had zero name recognition with kids, not to mention basic appeal.
All three movies did eventually find an audience and a greater appreciation on home video.
Personally I love the setting and I don't know that any of the three movies work as well in a contemporary setting. In fact, I don't think "The Rocketeer" works at all. Certainly "The Phantom" has already been brought into both the present and the future, and I suppose you could make it work. Same with "The Shadow". But in each case I think it loses something.
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I never really understood why having an unknown lead or lack of star power was considered a bad thing, especially movies like this that are based on comic books or novels. I think some people just need to pull their heads out of their a$$e$. Look at the original Superman movies, before those movies Christopher Reeve was pretty unknown but now he is synonymous with Superman. So much so that some of the comic books have used his likeness when drawing Clark/Superman.
I'm a fan of using "unknowns" to star in movies like this for the simple fact that I feel the main star of these movies should be the title character not the actor portraying him. In my opinion one of the low points in the recent Batman and Captain America films is the amount of screen time the lead actor spent maskless or out of costume, Jeremy Renner when taking on the role of Hawkeye in the Marvel movies pretty much demanded that he didn't have to wear a mask or Hawkeye's trademark purple costume. So they want the big paychecks and fame that would come from portraying these popular characters that may have a bigger fan base than the actor themselves, but they also feel the need to alter the character to their liking. WTF?!
A boat that floats on water can also sink in it.share
personally, i think The Rocketeer, The Phantom and The Shadow work best in the 30s-40s time frame. with the Phantom you can take the character and set him in almost any time frame, since he is a legacy hero. i'm not sure i would be interested in seeing the Shadow or Rocketeer in a modern setting.
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I don't think the period that the movies were set in was the problem, hell that was kind of my favorite parts about The Phantom. The one thing I think that hurt these movies was the period that they were produced, cause it is pretty obvious that Hollywood is taking these types of movies based on comic book/novels a lot more serious than they did back then.
A boat that floats on water can also sink in it.share
"The Phantom" was a terrible film while "The Rocketeer" had a lousy release date.
I don't know why this movie flopped but I doubt it would have done better if it hadn't been a period film.
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Phantom, rocketeer, zorro, the shadow. Any of good swashbuckler flicks like this, especially set in the 1930's?
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I guess dick tracy, sky captain, captain america & pirates of caribbean sorta count cuz they are done in the vain of.
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