Maybe I’m out of touch, but I suspect the Captain America movie will not do particularly well outside of North America. The idea of a WWII soldier dressed in combat gear modeled after the Stars and Stripes may work for U.S. audiences, but it looks like jingoistic propaganda to outsiders, IMHO.
It may work in Australia, but in Europe it will bomb. The photos look ridiculous.
Am I wrong? How will this affect an Avengers movie?
How do DC/Marvel-style comic books in general, and Captain America comic books in particular, fare outside of America? And how does Superman do, with his dedication to “truth, justice, and the American way”?
Funny I think I heard all the arguments already in this thread:
If it’s Ultimate Cap, I wont go see it but it could sell (Independence Day or the Jerry Bruckenheimer movies didnt bomb in Europe, even though it’s choke full of Americana). If it’s traditional Cap, I’d go see it but I’m not sure the same would be true of US audiences.
I just hope they dont restrict themselves to WW2. It’s a necessary prologue but unless they wrote an extremely elaborate trilogy which absolutely requires that, it wouldnt be a good idea. There’s a reason why adpatations of Super Heroes dont use stories from the forties, fifties. Those stories tend to be either ludicrous or plain boring (Batman may be an exception to this).
Fair point regarding Superman, but I think there are two differences there: 1) he’s so iconic that he transcends the patriotism and 2) he’s an outsider himself and so easier for foreign markets to relate to.
I don’t know about comic sales.
The Captain America movie will be all WWII until he gets frozen at the end. He’ll be awakened in the modern era for the Avengers movie that follows.
Joe Johnston’s quote is very interesting, as is the reaction of a segment of the fanboy population. “OH NO! But the Cap IS America! Jingoism defines the character!!!”
As I said in the last thread, the key is to recognise there’s a difference between being pro kicking-Hitler’s-ass-America and being pro Iraq-and-Guantanamo-America. Unfortunately they’ve apparently decided to replace kicking-Hitler’s-ass-America with kicking-Hydra’s-ass-America, which ruins the whole thing.
The trouble is that after GWB’s eight years, American patriotism leaves a bad taste no matter the context. Also, “pro kicking-Hitler’s-ass-America” has connotations of “We saved your ass in World War II!” which also doesn’t go down too well with Brits.
They could just re-title it for release in different countries, and change the costume accordingly.
Captain Montenegro!
Captain Ivory Coast!
Captain Latin America! (that would be economical because it could work in an entire region)
I wouldn’t bet on Captain America doing very well in Canada or Mexico.
You gonna line up for the Captain Canuck movie?
I think for most people outside of the U.S., Captain America is the only Marvel hero that somehow manages to be more ridiculous than Thor.
I don’t know, my one nerd friend who’s really really into Captain America is British. She’s very upset about the removal of the littles wing from the helmet in the movie version.
Uh…yeah.
See, Cap’s not jingoism.
Cap is a symbol of all the good things y’all are supposed to stand for.
And as much as some of your government choices have frustrated people over the last decade or so, most of the world where American comics are marketed are still fairly friendly to you.
So, we like you, and Cap represents what we like about you. So we like Cap, in general.
I would, eh?
Now, Canada is considered part of the US for movie distribution puropses, the only foreign country to be so considered. So I expect Captain America will get some distribution here. But if it’s over-the-top US patriotic, and has no other redeeming features (such as connecting to the hope for a better world that informs the substructure of US culture, far beneath local politics), it will flop here.
The same thought crossed my mind, but I was erring on the side of caution.
Being Australian, I think Australia is in many way politically and culturally similar to the U.S. insofar as we’ll respond well to the same sort of movies. But there are important differences, and the hand-on-heart-while-the-flag-flies-high thing featured in U.S. media usually elicits eye-rolling from Australian audiences. I can only imagine it would be even worse in Europe.
He’s a guy called “Captain America” and is almost literally draped in the flag. I can’t think of anything with more limited international appeal.
If he teamed up with Wolverine I’d probably see it.
There was another thread? I searched, as the OP sounded familiar, but didnt find it.
Aw, I’d go see it if Rush Limbaugh teamed up with Wolverine.
And Lobot is Australian… updating my rolodex… :o
It appears I was mainly thinking of one of the Thor threads, but also the Captain America origin thread, both from last month.
I saw Strange Brew. What else do they want from me?
Eh, I suspect the movie will suck, so that will probably hurt its sales. But if it survives that, I doubt the jingoism will be a big factor. Non-American fans of action movies are probably pretty immune to getting a dose of “American, fuck-yea” in their films by now.
Plus, the concept is so ridiculous that even if the director tries to play it completely straight, it will still come off as satire. So people that really don’t like the States will probably enjoy it at that level, anyways.