The cinematic universe is, in essence, a collection of films that combine together to form one, cohesive, narrative with each film furthering the wider story of the universe. The term is probably most notably associated with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The MCU is a series of films based on Marvel Comics including Iron Man, Thor, Spider-Man, The Guardians of the Galaxy and so on. Each of these films built towards Avengers Infinity War where every character form all 18 previous movies came together to save the universe from evil alien Thanos. The first section of the MCU, now called The Infinity Saga, concluded with Avengers Endgame in 2019 and the wider MCU is now looking to move beyond the threat of Thanos and to evolve into something new. The MCU has been a wildly successful film franchise with 22 films to date. It is the highest grossing franchise of all time with all but three of the films making over half a million dollars. Endgame is currently the second highest grossing film of all time domestic and worldwide and it is receiving widespread critical acclaim with 94% on rotten tomatoes and 8.8 on IMDb. The MCU is the gold standard of intricate story telling and has pulled of the impossible with its incredible scope of story telling. This, however, is where the good stuff stops. In attempt to mimic the success of the MCU a number of franchises have decided to emulate the cinematic universe and tell their stories in the same way. These franchises are often not right for the cinematic universe treatment and result in bad films that under perform at the box office. They will cram references to planned films into their first film and not focus enough on creating a genuinely solid stand alone film like the first Marvel film “Iron Man” in 2008.
Other cinematic universes include the DCEU (a series of films based on DC comics) have rushed to catch up with the MCU and begin competing with it meaning rushed plots and bad films. The DCEU has ruined a number of classic characters in their films including The Joker in Suicide Squad and Superman in Man of Steel. It is not that these films are just not as good as Marvel but that they are actually bad films. Suicide Squad has a score of 27% on rotten tomatoes and is yet to release a film that can compete with the MCU in terms of quality or financial success. On top of this there are a number of cinematic universe that have been started from franchises that were not, to start with, cinematic universes. Fast and Furious has become a cinematic universe despite the fact that it began as just a series of films and Star Wars has experienced its first ever financial failure with the spin off Solo. There are points to be made for the cinematic universe. When it does it right the cinematic universe can create an awesome story and it can bring in a lot of money for the industry. The MCU has mad a total of over 20 billion dollar in the last 11 years. The problem is that the box office appears to have become dependent on these big hitters. Avengers Endgame might make over two and a half billion dollars but it means that smaller films from indie directors such as Murder on the Orient Express which only brought in around 100 million domestic. The cinematic universe is crushing the life out of small films and smaller films now have two options, release on Netflix or fail. Cinematic Universes comprise of huge films and that means they take huge production teams but they are doing so at the cost of artsy films. Some people will still go and see a film about Cornish singers achieving a #1 hit but most would rather stay at home and re watch X-Men: Days of Future Past.
We need to retool these films. It is quite possible that the Avengers are all that stand between us and the death of the cinema but at the current rate if we keep going the art house film will go extinct. But maybe that’s just natural selection. Whilst directors like Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino are still making films then the smaller more experimental films will stay but as it is, once they are gone, so is that part of the industry. But if I were to speculate on how we could resolve the issue on the whole then I would say that we need to change the trailers. Big films play trailers for other big films because only big films can afford that luxury but if some smaller films were to have their trailers play alongside the next Spider-Man for example then it would get ore people back to the theatre to see films that they would otherwise not have enjoyed and would create more success for the smaller films. So whilst big films and cinematic universe are the problem they can also potentially be the solution.
(Unfortunately Abi and Olivia took the photos but I am in the background giving my presentation)
Jonah Waters Arts Award 