The issue is that now the "movie marketplace" is worldwide. Multi-milliions of people. A good number of them will ALWAYS come out for Superman. (More come out for Batman -- it seems established over the years that Batman is more "cool" -- almost like James Bond if Robin is left out of it. )
But they will keep making them until people stop watching them.
Which will be never.
And remember: the late Walt Disney sent out his movies in re-release every 7 years: long enough for a new generation of little kids to grow to movie-going age. So making a new Superman every 7 years or so(or more?) serves the same purpose.
PS. In some ways -- but not all -- the first Superman (1978) is still the best. "The beginning of the super-hero movie." With (at the time) "the greatest actor in the history of movies in it." That was Marlon Brando. Nobody remembers Brando much now except as the very fat, rather crazy, somewhat stupid man he revealed himself to be at the end. But THEN? Superman got the greatest movie star of all time in it. (Jack Nicholson as the Joker in the first Batman was hired for much the same symbolic reasons.)
All these years later, "superstar villains" who suck up the budget are no longer required. No Brando, no Nicholson, no Jim Carrey, no Arnold. (And no Gene Hackman. The Best Actor Oscar winner who first played Lex Luthor, with hair most of the time.) Simple "good actors" do the work of villainy (Willem Dafoe, Alfred Holina for Marvel, Jesse Eisenberg, Michael Shannon for DC) I suppose Kevin Spacey was the last "major star" to play Lex Luthor.
Oh: the big mistake in Superman 1978? Ned Beatty as Luthor's bumbling idiot sidekick, "Otis." What were they thinking? Beatty -- a fine serious actor in Deliverance and Network...reduced to a silly kiddie-show idea of villainy..undercutting Gene Hackman all the way through.
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Keelai (36125)
2 months ago
But you don't have to watch them. There are plenty of other movies to see. I literally tune-out the noise aka: Superhero movie releases most of the time. I groaned when I heard about this reboot, but now I'm onboard after watching the trailer.
Brando was hired in order to get financing for the film. They wanted a big name for Superman too, but changed their minds when they realized a famous actor in tights as Superman would be a credibility issue. Young Brando lead a new realistic acting style that was unheard of before him. That 50s audience must have been shocked by his raw performance in A Streetcar Named Desire. If you watch it, you'll notice his costars using an older more common acting style.
I watched Superman 1978 in the movie theater with my friends. It was a great popcorn movie. The audience was lively and cheered. Best time I ever had in a movie theater.
Disney (and other studios) re-released movies every few years because that was the only way to see them since VCRs hadn't been invented yet. They could make extra money when the next generation of kiddies came of age to watch them like me. I watched a bunch of movies like that when I was a kid.
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