Tim Davis of Alternate Reality in Chicago, Illinois was unhappy about the lack of movie-stimulated Spider-Man sales in his store and has some ideas about how to improve the results next year:
'Hey man, did you see Spider-Man yet? Theaters were packed! Bet you are just raking it in!' R-I-I-I-I-I-I-ght. Well, I have a complaint AND a proposal below. Both come out of frustration for the industry we love and our unenviable position on it. I hope someone with some stroke somewhere will take this to heart and think, think, think...
As of this writing Spider-Man 2 has made somewhere in the neighborhood of a quarter of a billion dollars in two weeks of release. So far my take has been approximately $10.00 to $15.00 in guaranteed trickle down money from the film. I know this for a fact because the handful of new people that have been in since the film's opening have all bought one (that's o-n-e) copy of a current Spider-Man comic and mentioned that they just came from the movie. If every independent comic book store in the country (9,000 last I heard) made an average of $15.00 extra income due to this film, that would be a whopping average of $135,000 dollars nation-wide we raked in from our Spider-Man 2 trickle down. Someone catch me before I faint!
While I am grateful for any business that comes in the door, an average of $135,000 on a $250,000,000 film is, oh I don't know... PATHETIC! Catering made more than that in two weeks of production on the film. Of course my corporate partner Marvel Comics has been there for me during this film's release. They did this by making sure Border's and Barnes & Noble got the Spider-Man 2 trade paperback two weeks before I did. By taking this bold move Marvel liberated me of the unnecessary burden of having to worry about whether I under-ordered that item. No worries there, I'll have plenty of copies for the clearance bin later this year.
Over the years Marvel has used all sorts of tortured logic as to why they can't promote their comics in movies about their characters. Do you want a five second scroll at the head of every Marvel film that says something innocuous like: 'Marvel Comics available at fine book and comic stores?' Negotiate it. Want a product placement ad in your film of Spidey reading a copy of Captain America? Negotiate it. Coke and Pepsi do it all the time. I'd also mention the '1-800 COMICS' number somewhere in the head or end credits.
The awful truth, as we have all figured out by now, is that Marvel doesn't really care about the comic side of the business. Sure 'Marvel Comics' cares (at least about selling trades), but Marvel Entertainment, the side that negotiates with studios and producers, could care less about the four color pamphlet. The current regime at Marvel is just marking time until they get bought out: their debt is paid, their high-profile movies are making tons of money and their stock price is dropping. They are ripe for a take-over and when that happens, the only thing I am sure of is that comic storeowners will once again be singing: 'Say hello to the new boss, same as the old one.'
I promised a proposal and here it is: Next summer Marvel's Distinguished Competition will have a movie in theaters that could be as big as Spider-Man 2 is this year -- Batman Begins is less than a year away. Yes, the negotiations are long done and contracts all set in stone for this film, but here's an idea: DC has always been good at long form multi-part Batman stories. 'No-Man's Land', 'Knightfall', 'Hush', 'Contagion' are just a few DC's done over the last decade. 'Bruce Wayne Murderer' and the upcoming 'War Games' we're/are both kicked off with a 10/12 cent prologue story. In the case of 'Bruce Wayne Murder' it was a cliffhanger that set up readers with a storyline that began the next week.
What if DC did a multi-part 'Batman Event' storyline that began with a FREE giveaway comic available only at movie theaters when a patron bought a ticket to the film. The giveaway ends with a cliffhanger that would continue in the Batman comic that shipped that opening week of the film. DC or Warner's could negotiate with theater chains (bypassing the filmmakers) to carry the book and stores that wanted to participate in this promotion could pay for part of the book's production (just like we do for FCBD). Since we would pick up part of the freight for this promotion, participating stores in that theater's zip code could have their names and address printed somewhere on the comic pointing them to where readers could get the 'Next Thrilling Chapter' of this story. The format could either be a traditional comic or in the 'Archie Halloween Ashcan' format. Like FCBD, Diamond (if they chose) could be the go-between distributing the books to theaters or to us to in turn take to our local participating theaters.
I am sure there are reasons as to why this wouldn't work and bugs to be ironed out, but do those outweigh the good a promotion like this could do our industry? Somewhere in the DC Comics/Time-Warner/AOL corporate empire there must be a way to get a simple promotion like this accomplished in a year's time. I would hate to be complaining a year from now that I made fifteen bucks from a $200,000,000 film whose subject lives on my racks 365 days a year.
So how about it DC?
