The Smallness of Older Superhero Films

Some time ago I remarked running across the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film on cable, and being struck by how different it was from more recent superhero movies (the more recent Turtles movies included)--not least in the smallness of the plot, and the scale of the action.

Back then you could make smaller superhero films like this one--and even have a big hit out of it. (The Turtles movie, the budget of which Box Office Mojo reports as an even then not particularly extravagant $13.5 million, was the #5 hit at the box office in 1990.*)

By contrast today even a near $100 million movie (triple the inflation-adjusted cost of that Turtles movie) is "too small" for the theaters (such that Batgirl was buried, Blue Beetle upgraded), with the fact only underlined by what happens when such movies do hit theaters (like Shazam 2).

I keep saying it myself over and over again--people need a reason to buy the $20 ticket rather than watch the movie at home a couple of months later, and big-screen spectacle is the easiest reason to offer of all, with all that means for the smaller films. But the requirement that the movie be colossal or nothing sharply limits what filmmakers can do, making us weary of the form that much faster, with the famous "fatigue" evidently catching up with the industry.

* By contrast the same year's Total Recall and Die Hard 2 were budgeted in the $60-$70 million range, The Hunt for Red October perhaps $40 million, and Best Picture contenders Ghost and Dances With Wolves $22 million. For what it is worth, $13.5 million in 1990 is equal to about $33 million today.