20th Century Fox Chairman and CEO Stacey Snider has warned movie studios that they shouldn’t rely on the modern superhero movie formula if they expect to survive in the industry.
Speaking at Barcelona’s CineEurope conference, Snider said that execs should be wary of retelling the same story over and over again. “The studios need to have a bigger appetite for big cinematic, tentpole-type entertainment that isn’t necessarily based on branded material,” Snider said, adding that a studio’s roster of movies “can’t just be based on caped crusaders” and that there should still be a focus on “the non-event-film goer.”
RELATED: Marvel’s Just Waiting on the Phone Call that Gives It the X-Men/FF Rights
Since Bryan Singer’s X-Men kicked off Fox’s superhero slate in 2000, cinema has been dominated with superhero movies. Rebooting the X-Men with First Class in 2011, Fox has since branched out from Charles Xavier’s gifted youngsters with 2016’s Deadpool and upcoming projects like New Mutants and X-Force. That being said, Snider emphasized how Fox isn’t just a superhero studio.
“When you think about The Greatest Showman… what we had to hang onto was that the music was incredible and that, if ever there was a person to be the Greatest Showman at Christmastime, it was Hugh Jackman,” Snider said. “The same with The Martian — it was based on a book that was self-published. It was hardly a bestseller.”
The criticism looks to be particularly aimed at Disney and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Looking at the MCU, Snider advised: “If we don’t continue to reach out to the folks that come more than just to see The Avengers, we are going to have just the weekend business.”
(via Variety)