Constantine, the film based on the DC/Vertigo series of graphic novels, opened with a bang in five Asian markets, setting records for films opening during a Chinese New Year's weekend. The film opens wide in the U.S. this coming weekend and reviews on the Rotten Tomatoes Website are nearly evenly split with seven positive and five negative at this time. Interestingly enough, the reviewers who liked the film praised it highly, while those who didn't despised it and were not shy about saying so. Many fans of the Vertigo comic series have already registered their extreme displeasure at the film for switching the location of the saga from London to L.A. and for giving the lead role of John Constantine to Keanu Reeves.
As Steven Bates points out in his column today (see 'I Think I Can Manage--Movie Tie-ins'), some retailers in small towns in the Midwest and the South have to be careful in displaying the Hellblazer books, which contain a mixture of magic, mystical Catholicism and demonology that some may deem 'blasphemous.' Still with a superb series of some twenty-odd Hellblazer graphic novels written by top talents including Jamie Delano, Garth Ennis, and Warren Ellis, there is plenty of sales potential here for retailers if they can get consumers to make the connection between the Hellblazer graphic novels and the Constantine movie.
DC has provided an aid for retailers to help potential readers make the connection between the film and its source by publishing Constantine: The Hellblazer Collection, which includes an adaptation of the film (by Stephen T. Seagle) as well as three great Hellblazer stories that should whet the appetites of any new readers and serve as an excellent introduction to the entire series. The first story (by Jamie Delano) comes from Original Sins, the first Hellblazer collection, while the second story, 'Hold Me' written by Sandman scribe Neil Gaiman, is one of the best in the Hellblazer canon, and the third story (by Garth Ennis) comes from the Dangerous Habits storyline in which John Constantine, who was created by Alan Moore in Swamp Thing, learns that he has terminal cancer.
As with all movie tie-ins there are plenty of pitfalls here for retailers. In spite of a generous amount of TV advertising (including a Super Bowl spot), Constantine may not play as well in the American South as it has in South Korea. The film's gothic atmosphere might not connect with the current mood of American audiences, who appear to be relishing comedies such as Meet the Fockers and Hitch. Still as Ghost World and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen proved, a film doesn't have to be a big hit to move a lot of books.
