An old article:" Why You Will Never See an Avengers Movie"

Uncle Leon Explains: Why You WIll Never See an Avengers Movie

Posted by Leon on April 30, 2008 at 7:30pm

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Actually, it would be more appropriate to say "Why you won't see a GOOD Avengers fetaure film". Last night I tried explaining this to the rest of the Spill Crew to no avail. But I believe our audience is alot smarter and can understand when I explain the economics of it. It all comes down to a simple math equation.

First off, there's already been a couple of way mediocre "Ultimate Avengers" animated movies and there's a new Avenegers cartoon ready to roll out any day now. It's an embarassing piece of crap that would never see the light of day if not for it's potential to capitalize on the new Iron Man movie.
But these aren't what any of you are qualifying as an Avenger's movie. I know, now that Iron Man has been such a roaring success (trust me, it will be. the movie kicks all kinds of ass), The Incredible Hulk is right around the corner and Edgar Wright is talking about Antman all of you are giddy about a prospect of a real Avengers movie. How could you not?

Even here it's mentioned in this Wikipedia entry:
In August 2006, Zak Penn was hired to write the script for an Avengers film. Iron Man director Jon Favreau said he would like to direct the film, which would be a crossover to fictional universes in other upcoming Marvel films such as Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and The Incredible Hulk. He also explained that Marvel has told him that "they're pretty clear on wanting to do it with the actors who’ve established the roles or to not do it at all. I think it’s a good idea if you use the characters established in the other franchises that then come together for an event."

Now THAT'S what everybody's talking about! Keeping the same A-list stars in their same roles, not replacing them with rejects from the latest teen angst, primetime soap opera. Otherwise what's the point? Nobody wants to pay to go see that and a Hollywood Studio is only gonna make the movie if they can make money off of it.

But consider a few factors in what it would take to make this movie.

As we've learned from Tobey Maguire, Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan and Christian Bale, it's casting good actors in the lead roles that make these movies work.

Edward Norton and Robert Downey Jr. are two of the best actors of their generation. They may even be THE best. Hell, in the cast of Iron Man are four -count 'em, FOUR- Oscar nominated actors (Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges). How much do you think it costs to pull all of them into the same movie? Maybe none of them are a Will Ferrell-sized box office draws so they weren't paid king's ransoms for the first movie, but you best believe their salaries will double for the sequel once Iron Man is a runaway hit. Especially RDJr., whose face was used to model the toys.

If The Incredible Hulk is good too (and you can stop all talk of an Avengers movie if it's not) the same will happen with Edward Norton. And if they're going to open a Captain America movie franchise they're gonna have to lead with actor that's already got enough heat to put butts in the seats on his own. I want you to start thinking about (just abstractly) what it might costs to get all these actors re-signed to the project. Sure, I've heard about how Samuel L. Jackson shot a scene as Nick Fury for the Iron Man movie (he didn't, really) and Robert Downey Jr. pops on as Tony Stark in The Incredible Hulk, but these are just cameos. That's easy enough to have been slid in an initial contract. You won't be able to trick anybody to co-starring for free.

Now imagine yourself as a movie producer. It's not your job to make money, it's your job to make the studio ALOT of money. To the point, more money than their last picture that was like yours. The production on a superhero movie is looooong and very expensive, with a high potential for failure. That's when it's a movie about just ONE superhero. Considering that to make an Avengers movie you'll have to triple (at least) your budget for salaries, specical FX and promotions, are you really that confident that you can make back three times as much profit as you could from making just making a sequel from one of your already proven successful properties? Are you confident that the studio will "understand" if you don't?

At best, you can hope to have all the original actors work together doing voices for an Avengers PS3 game.

Maybe.