The Twilight/Hunger Games demographic

[Saitou Hajime]

After seeing the killing Hunger Games is doing at the moment in the box office, and the success of the Twilight series in general, is there a way for Marvel to tap into this lucrative market while maintaining the general quality of their films?

 

[cherokeesam]

I think X-Men has always had this demographic, in both the comic books and the films. The whole concept is tailor-made for the tweens 'n' teens demo.

But if you're talking Marvel Studios proper, I think their long-rumored Runaways project would be the closest they could get to that.

 

[SuperFerret]

I'm not really a fan of either, but I don't think it's fair to lump those two together. The Hunger Games is readable and actually has some valuable themes in it aside from "you REALLY need a boyfriend".

 

[kedrell]

Both appeal primarily to young adult females. They're comparable.

 

[SuperFerret]

They appeal to them for wildly different reasons though.

 

[kedrell]

Fair enough, but considering how few the number of big hit film properties there out there that target this demographic(beyond rom-com's) then they're going to get lumped together because they don't really fit with much of anything else.

 

[Lord]

The thing is, they were at first books, it all begun with Harry Potter, that's the book that made young people read again, with it the movies also became very successful and broke records, many of the fan girls that loved the series had to find a substitute once it was reaching its end, there they found, The Twilight Saga.

While much weaker and with a much less original or interesting mythology it sold like hot cakes and spawned another series of films that appealed to the adolescent audience, The Hunger Games is in a way its successor, but from what i hear it has a much better story and characters.

All these apealed to young people, but they started as books and the audience was already familiar with the name, the problem with comic books is that they are still seen as childish and most don't apeal to females.

However answering your question of how to appeal to this demographic, i will say that, Marvel already did. How? Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, these films had a lead that caught the female audience's atention, and had a romance they liked.

I know this because by Captain America the theatre was full of girls, many staying until after the credits, something that didn't happen in Iron Man 2, and they were exited for Avengers, man, there's a reason why in the poll the female audience has Avengers ahead of The Dark Knight Rises in terms of the films they're the most exited about. Loki is also receiving a lot of love

So there you have it, Marvel has already reached the Twilight/Hunger Games demographic, not only with his movie leading to Avengers, but X-Men: First Class is gaining some recognition with them and The Amazing Spider-Man seems to be heading that direction too.

If they want to go even more the Twilight/Hunger Games road then Runaways movie may be the best road.

 

[Dark Raven]

Maybe a younger Midnight Sons movie.

 

[Silvermoth]

I know it's only a matter of time before the "TWiLightT is Teh WurSt!" guys come in but until then I think it's easy enough for Marvel films to attract fangirls. They only want cool characters like we do. If you aim for more Buffys than Carol Ferris in the last Green Lantern movie they'll turn up.

Seems fair enough I think.

 

[superion]

However answering your question of how to appeal to this demographic, i will say that, Marvel already did. How? Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, these films had a lead that caught the female audience's atention, and had a romance they liked.

I know this because by Captain America the theatre was full of girls, many staying until after the credits, something that didn't happen in Iron Man 2, and they were exited for Avengers, man, there's a reason why in the poll the female audience has Avengers ahead of The Dark Knight Rises in terms of the films they're the most exited about. Loki is also receiving a lot of love

So there you have it, Marvel has already reached the Twilight/Hunger Games demographic, not only with his movie leading to Avengers, but X-Men: First Class is gaining some recognition with them and The Amazing Spider-Man seems to be heading that direction too.

If they want to go even more the Twilight/Hunger Games road then Runaways movie may be the best road.

Hunger Games made more in its first week than XMFC did in its entire run. It also made almost as much as Thor and Captain America during their entire runs. Marvel has barely tapped this demographic if at all and it would be smart business to try to diversify the types of movies they put out to try to get a larger percentage of these fans.

 

[R_Hythlodeus]

Oh please no! I want to enjoy this movie at the cinema. The last thing I want are squealing 12 year old girls in the theatre who are chatting the whole film through about all those adorable boys in their schools...

 

[Lord]

Cap is doing good numbers in the DVD and Blu-Ray markets, the difference is that it was based in a comic book that has more interest beween the male audience, so they didn't see it at first, while the Hunger Games was based on a series of book popular between the female audience, Marvel is reaching the Twilight/ Hunger Games demographic, but they will just take more time because the source material isn't as popular between females.

When The Avengers is released you'll see if it did or did not reach that demographic
If that doesn't happen then the only way will be if Marvel hires Stephanie Myer to write a novel based on a marvel character and then to adapt it to film

 

[Endeavor]

Comparing X-Men and Hunger Games to stupid sparkly vampires is an insult... But yeah, maybe Runaways.

 

[Silvermoth]

"The Inhumans" would be a cool one. You've got a character both men and women will like plus superheroics plus royal intrigue. Thanks to the royal wedding last year people are slightly more interested in royal going ons and if you write a story as well as "The Thanos Imperative" than hello new demographic/franchise!

 

[gugumugats]

Tweens/teens go see any other popular comic book blockbuster films regardless. No need to really "tap" into that marketplace except for maximizing profit for their merchandising.

Just coz they like Twilight or Hunger Games a lot doesn't mean they won't go see the big blockbusters that everybody else out there is already watching. The peer pressure is already enough outside of making them 'teen-relevant'

 

[MarvelKnight]

"The Inhumans" would be a cool one.

I would love for an Inhumans movie to get made. I hope it comes sooner rather than later.

 

[Hypestyle]

Power Pack could be the cool tween franchise, it could be PG easily, it's got cute horse aliens, nasty lizard aliens, super powered kids, well meaning but clueless parents.. it's a lock for a new franchise, if only someone at Marvel/Disney would take it seriously.. not going to happen anytime soon, I suspect..

 

[Silvermoth]

I would love for an Inhumans movie to get made. I hope it comes sooner rather than later.

Yeah. I didn't really like Disney's pitch though (aliens living amongst other trying to take over). It would be cool if someone could make an Inhumans movie that sticks to the source material.

Actually, Kenneth Branagh would be a good one for that. He would get the royal intrigue and he likes the themes of family and it would be a good way to show there is no bad blood.

 

[metaphysician]

While I would love to see an Inhumans movie, I have a hard time coming up with a really marketable premise and plot. "Political intrigue among superhuman royalty" is a neat idea, but I don't know how salable it would be. That's not even touching who you would cast as Black Bolt, seeing as he won't be able to speak the entire movie.

Probably the best way to actually use the characters would be in a Fantastic Four movie, but that won't happen anytime soon if ever.

 

[DrCosmic]

What Twilight and Hunger Games and to a lesser Degree Harry Potter have in common are having a genre and having a heroic young female protagonist with a love triangle. You guys are fooling yourselves if Cap or Power Pack or Black Bolt are going to appeal to this demo because you have a good storyline. The people who figured this out with Hunger Games pulled in 200M opening weekend. All the clowns who thought this demo would just go see any blockbuster are now scratching their heads trying to figure out how they missed this demo with their typical male power fantasies. Ugh.

They could do Inhumans for this demo. That would make Crystal the main character, and everyone else would become supporting cast. That could be a bit of a cool storyline, imho. Still, she's not a normal girl going into a crazy interesting world, she's coming from a crazy/interesting world into ours. Unless, of course Crystal is raised among humans or something. I dunno. Potential.

Comics, being composed almost entirely out of male power and sexual fantasies doesn't really have much for this Twilight/Hunger Games demo. Runaways, I think, would be the closest, but it doesn't have a single strong female lead. It has four. I think Nico fits the bill best, but she's not white, and we know how racist the market can be.

You also have the potential of things like Arana, which was pretty much written for this demographic, or even X-23, if we give her a supporting cast. In fact, with a little shift, NYX could do that too. But those aren't really notable properties, really, and aren't available to Marvel Studios anyway.

This may be the demo they were going for with the Bobbi Morse TV show. Alternately, they could just take a property and hunger-games-ize it. Firestar can have that treatment with Justice and, I dunno, Black Knight in some sort of Avengers training camp. Jessica Drew can find herself pulled between AIM and SHIELD. Stuff like that. In fact, the more I think about, the more a Spider-Woman movie really fits this bill. You can really fill out AIM or HYDRA, have her in contact with Black Widow, trained by Taskmaster, MODOK as a manipulative villain. It really works, imho.

 

[Hellion]

But yeah, maybe Runaways.

You read my mind...

...is Runaways still off at the moment? Haha, I remember looking at the site a couple years back that was doing auditions for Runaways......

 

[Endeavor]

Check back after May 4th

 

[chamber-music]

Runaways, Young Avengers, Cloak & Dagger might appeal to the Twilight/Hunger Games crowd but keep in mind those movies already had a huge fanbase from the books which played a part in there success.

 

[metaphysician]

Yeah. Part of the challenge is that, as far as comics go? The current readership is basically irrelevant for putting butts in seats at a theater. Its just too small to matter, except as a way to generate hype. So the comics themselves barely matter, except in the rare case like Runaways where the title actually drew legitimate new attention. By contrast, something like Twilight or Hunger Games could break even or better just off fans of the books alone, because the size of the fanbase is several orders of magnitude greater.

 

[Hellion]

Runaways, Young Avengers, Cloak & Dagger might appeal to the Twilight/Hunger Games crowd but keep in mind those movies already had a huge fanbase from the books which played a part in there success.

Maybe I'm wrong...but if memory serves, wasn't Cloak & Dagger being developed for TV?