Don Whitmer, longtime comic book/movie connoisseur and manager of the Regal Cinemas in Richmond, Virginia read the latest ICv2 comic books/graphic novel market report (see "2010 a Tough Year for Comics") and had this to say.

"Declines in graphic novels occurred despite two significant media-driven hits in the second half of the year:  Scott Pilgrim and The Walking Dead."

Who writes this bunkum?  Scott Pilgrim a "media driven hit?”  Try media-driven failure.  At a production budget of $60 million, and a worldwide theatrical return of $47.7 million, I'd call Pilgrim a pretty substantial bug-on-the-windshield splat.  

In addition, Box Office Mojo had this to say about Snyder's Sucker Punch this past weekend: "That was a tad behind Kick-Ass's opening last Spring but much greater than the debuts of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Jennifer's Body.  However, it was no match for the Kill Bill and Resident Evil movies among other comparable titles."

Though Sucker Punch isn't directly based on any comic I know, the point here is that it didn't perform up to standards and you see that other "alternative titles" type comic books just ain't packing 'em in.  Even the highly vaunted Watchmen performed below the bar.  With a $130 mil budget and a $185.3 mil worldwide return, this pic didn't break even during its debut theatrical run.  As far as alternative comic titles go, we are a far cry from the glory days of 2007's 300.  They're very soft as films in general these days, and though Hellyweird is hard headed, trends eventually do sink in.

It may be harder to find media-drivers for graphic novels in 2011.  None of the four major movies based on comics that will be released this year, Thor, Captain America, Green Lantern, and X-Men First Class, has a clear connection to a particular book or small group of books, making it difficult to exploit the attention the characters will receive as a result of the films.

And you may be on the leading edge of the demise of comic book movies for this cycle.  Interest so far is tepid this year on the four titles listed above.  I still think at least two of them will do quite well, but a lot of inside folk think Green Lantern may not be a performer and that interest in X-Men is at a pretty low ebb.  Captain America has the most buzz right now, but I wonder how it will perform in a worldwide market.

Again, in my humble opinion, if comics want to fix themselves they need to boot the prima donnas, find someone who knows how to write, get away from "event driven" premises and back to story and character driven premises and get back to the basics that made these characters work in the first place.

[By "media-driven hit," we meant "media-driven graphic novel hit," which apparently wasn't clear.  Ed.]

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.