In the wake of the stellar success, both critically and at the box office, of Marvel Studios’ Cinematic Universe (far from the wake of Avengers In 2012); Other movie studios are scrambling to create their own shared universes in order to replicate the success of the MCU. Warner Bros. launched Two universes shared in the DC Comics Cinematic Universe and their own MonsterVerse (featuring Godzilla And the Kong: Skull Island). Sony Pictures is launching its own shared universe of characters from Valiant Comics. But outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, these other shared universes have been a fiasco for the studios. The only universe that failed to take off was the global dark universe.
With reruns and new movies based on their classic monster movies and characters, Universal plans to make an entire franchise of monster movies for audiences around the world. But after the entry movie, mummy (2017), a stunning failure at the box office; Universal Studios has not yet released any other films (outside of 2020 Invisible Man) for their privilege. But why didn’t the global dark universe spring from Earth?
mummy failed
Starring big names like Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella, and Russell Crowe (as Dr. Henry Jeckyll – setting up another Dark Universe movie), mummy The movie (2017) seemed an ideal choice to launch a new cinematic world focused on monsters. And although it grossed over US$400 million worldwide at the box office, the film was heavily criticized by critics. The film was nominated for eight Golden Raspberry Awards, with Tom Cruise winning for Worst Actor. After a resounding failure mummyAlmost all of Universal’s plans for more Dark Universe movies have been put on hold: Frankenstein’s Bridescheduled for the 2019 release, is now indefinitely, along with wolf man (which Universal Dwayne Johnson wanted him to star in), and Van Helsing. With cautious hesitation from that point on, it appears Universal decided to focus on the individual films simultaneously, rather than the shared universe. Invisible Man (2020) was successful, led by Ryan Gosling Wolf Man The next movie looks up to bat. Typically make or break movies of the universes these studios plan to create and mummy They blew up the Universal Foundation.
There is no concrete plan in place
The Dark Universe’s debut at Universal Studios got off to a mixed start. anyway mummy It was the official opening entry of the franchise, in 2014, studio managers tried to almost complete unspeakable dracula (Starring Luke Evans) Opening Band. Even though the release date approached, they couldn’t make their plans fit. Then, with the expected hype before the release of mummy, Universal has announced quite a few films that are set to start pre-production, such as Frankenstein’s Bride, Wolfman, And the Creature from the Black Lagoon, For example, but not limited. But with a crushing defeat mummy at the box office (which performed worse than unspeakable dracula), studio executives have gone on to shelve most of these movies (along with the rest of their plans), just now Invisible Man After being released, the wolf man It is due to be next. Despite the collapse of their larger plans, it seems Universal Studios is putting the pieces back together after their success Invisible Man.
Focus on creating the universe more than making good movies
with Marvel’s Iron Man, the opening entry into the MCU, the plot itself focused on Tony Stark and the story at hand in the film. no Captain America, no Hulk, no Avengers, etc.; Just a guy trying to stop the villain. Allusions to the expanded universe were only mentioned in the film’s post-credits scenes. Instead of going that route for their first movie, Universal Studios (and a number of other studios that made a mistake, too) chose to try to establish their world in the middle. mummy, rather than focusing on the story itself, which was another major criticism faced by the film. Crowds were treated to Dr. Henry Jekyll of Russell Crowe, head of a mysterious organization, as he hunted other monsters harassed on a giant computer screen. mummy He suffers greatly from this, with the potential to instead use that time to flesh out the plot and story, or make the characters more relatable. It remains to be seen if Universal Studios has plans to revive the dark universe from the grave. But the reasons for its failure in the first place are clear to everyone, and we hope that it will be learned from them.