Hollywood Invades Comic-Con
Cited: Hollywood Reporter
The biggest event in the comic book kingdom is the Comic-Con! With the pale comic book collectors, all the hard-core geeks, Jedi Knight costumes, costumed zombies and Oscar winners including Denzel Washington, Peter Jackson and James Cameron as well as perennial attendee Kevin Smith dissented on San Diego for the 40th edition of the Comic-Con last month.
What began in 1970 with 300 comics aficionados gathering at the city’s U.S. Grant Hotel has mushroomed into one of the largest promotional bazaars on Hollywood’s calendar. From movie distributors eager to sneak genre wares to super-receptive audiences, it eclipses trade events like exhibitors’ conference ShoWest, and this year — for the first time, as far as TV networks and cable channels are concerned — it will upstage the annual summer Television Critics Association press tour show-and-tell, which takes place in September, by offering a first look at the fall season.
Attracting 125,000 attendees, Comic-Con saw its $75 four-day passes sell out two months earlier than ever before. This week, they were commanding twice that price on Craigslist. The Hollywood invasion, escalating steadily in recent years, has been greeted with mixed reactions from longtime participants.
As fans began gathering Wednesday night, one man admitted: “A lot of people bemoan all the Hollywood stuff, but I don’t care. I love that stuff.” Meanwhile, a young woman who has attended for the past nine years complained: “I’m sick of the crowds. I used to come for all four days, but now I’m only coming for one.”
COMICS GETTING SHORT SHRIFT?
Is all the attention being paid to movies and TV shows muscling aside Comic-Con’s original purpose, described in its mission statement as “creating awareness of, and appreciation for, comics and related popular art forms?”
Organizers of the annual conclave say no.
“Anybody who thinks there’s a lack of comics isn’t doing a lot of looking,” Comic-Con director of marketing and public relations David Glanzer says. Estimating that 20,000-30,000 will attend events in the convention center’s cavernous Hall H — where the big movie presentations take place — during the four days, he adds, “That leaves 100,000 people who have little to do with Hollywood.”
On Thursday afternoon, as Cameron unveiled footage from “Avatar” in Hall H, competing events in surrounding rooms included an appearance by Brian Herbert, son of “Dune” author Frank Herbert; DC Comics artist Tom Nguyen, offering a demonstration of how to ink comics; and comic publisher Oni Press, previewing its coming attractions.
Still, the big-ticket film and TV items draw the bulk of the media — 3,000 journalists are credentialed this year — whose snap judgments ricochet throughout the Web via blog and tweet.
Eager to promote genre-inspired movies, filmmakers began to discover Comic-Con during the early ’90s. Francis Ford Coppola was among the pioneers when he made the trek to promote 1992’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” By 2004, Comic-Con expanded into Hall H, and the next year the Hollywood contingent ranged from indie stalwarts like Smith to mainstream producers like Joel Silver along with everyone from filmmaker Bryan Singer to actress Natalie Portman.
3D IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Thursday’s kickoff day provided a particularly heavy film lineup, with an emphasis on 3D movies. For the first time, Hall H was outfitted with 3D projection equipment so Disney could show eye-popping footage from Robert Zemeckis’ “Disney’s A Christmas Carol,” Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” and “Tron: Legacy,” followed by Fox and Cameron unveiling “Avatar.” Summit also took the stage to tub-thump its “Twilight” sequel “New Moon” while taking advantage of the captive audience to focus eyeballs on its animated movie “Astro Boy.”
Glanzer insists, though, that the convention didn’t purposely frontload movie titles. “We try to program as it comes in,” he says. “We look for diversity of programming.” It all amounts to a pop culture Rubik’s cube because “there are so many variables.” The other hanging question, at least as far as the movie hullabaloo is concerned, is whether any of it really matters.
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Last year, when Summit arrived at Comic-Con with a little movie called “Twilight,” an army of teenage girls, the likes of which never had been seen there before, showed up to squeal in delight. “Twilight” went on to gross $191 million domestically after its November release. But in that case it appears Comic-Con was the beneficiary of the already building frenzy surrounding the film, rather than the fuse that ignited the explosion.
Conversely, fans roared their approval last year when director Zack Snyder promised to color faithfully within the lines of celebrated graphic novel “Watchmen” as he adapted it for the big screen. That appeared to translate into a solid first weekend for the movie, which bowed in March to $55.2 million. But the appeal failed to reach much beyond the graphic-novel cognoscenti as its second weekend dropped nearly 68 percent and the movie stalled at $107.5 million domestically.
While other movies, like “Iron Man 2,” also will make a bid for attention during the weekend, the focus quickly will shift to the small screen.
OPPORTUNITY FOR BROADCASTERS
Television’s presence at Comic-Con has been building since 2004, when ABC launched “Lost” by previewing its pilot in a large hall that was only half-full. Cut to 2007, when NBC’s “Heroes,” having completed its first season, made its second visit to the convention. Fans lined up early for a look at the show’s creators and cast and went crazy when it was announced that Smith would direct the first episode of spinoff “Heroes: Origins.” (That plan would be scuttled because of the Writers Guild of America strike.)
As far as TV is concerned, this year’s convention has taken on increased importance as broadcasters ramp up for fall with several new and returning genre-driven shows.
With such new series as ABC’s “FlashForward,” “Eastwick” and midseason show “V,” Fox’s “Human Target” and the CW’s “Vampire Diaries,” Comic-Con represents a key marketing opportunity. As ratings slide for such returning dramas as “Heroes,” NBC’s “Chuck” and “Lost,” it could help recharge fan interest.
There’s also a greater range of genres on view than ever before. After last year’s successful showcase for CBS’ geek-centric sitcom “The Big Bang Theory” (which is returning this year), the ABC family sitcom “The Middle” is being screened, with Warner Bros. promoting the event as “Mom-a-Con,” a gambit that has convention veterans rolling their eyes. USA Network, meanwhile, has scheduled panel presentations for such procedurals as “Psych” and “Burn Notice.”
But how much does Comic-Con really help a show?
Last year, Heroes” hosted a full screening of its premiere episode and fielded most members of the cast. Fan reaction generally was positive, but the show dropped sharply in the ratings when it returned.
This time, NBC Universal hesitated to book a “Heroes” event, then added a more modest-size panel at the Hilton. On the other hand, after “Bang” made its Comic-Con debut last year, the show came back strong and became a full-fledged hit for CBS.
In general, however, the marketing potential — and peril, should a panel or screening go poorly — seems more pronounced for new shows seeking to get on fans’ radar than for returning series. The key event this go-round is expected to be the final-season panel for “Lost.” Presented in Hall H, Saturday morning’s panel will be a produced show rather than a mere Q&A. News announcements are expected.
The Comic-Con could very well be a bigger news-breaking event than ever before with the Television Critics Association press tour on the scene because several networks planned to make announcements during panel presentations and did. Bands even get a chance to question actors before the TCA critics and journalists did. One thing is sure, turning the pop culture power over to the people is exactly what Comic-Con 2009 did.
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My Take: The Comic-Con is one of the most enjoyable events in a comic book kingdom and everyone should get a chance to go. I have not been able to go in about 10 years and I miss it. You see some of the most amazing things at that convention and can get some of the most wonderful deals from other collectors.
Ira member one year, spandex was one of the most popular pieces of costumes, it was ridiculous. However, I saw one character dressed up in stretch jeans that looked fantastic. She was dressed up as one of the biker babes, not sure what comic book that is. She wore those genes very well and they looked great. You couldn’t pay me to wear stretch denim, sorry.
One year, I got to meet Julie Newmar! She is just as elegant in person as she is on the screen. I even had my picture taken with Spiderman! Although, I do not think it was the real Spiderman. The people at the convention are absolutely amazing. The ones that organize the convention must be insane by the time the convention is over. It is hard to imagine what they do to create such an event.
I also remember one year, one of the attendees went into labor on the convention floor. A lot of conventions have people who were there for their selves and do not care about anybody else. The people attending the Comic-Con came to her rescue. The funny thing of it is, the lady said she had only just sent out baby shower invitations and now she was going to have to send out announcements. These are the kind of people I would not mind sending reunion invites to, at some point in the future.
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