The 14-year, 7-picture run of the “X-Men” franchise has occurred at a time of change in the way the movie business is run. In the 1980s and into the mid-1990s, the action star dominated movie franchises. So long as star could “open” a film, the studios would pay the stars millions of dollars in salaries. In the late 1990s, the movies combined the appeal of popular stars with expensive special effects. That meant films became more expensive, as the costs of new computer-generated effects combined with the pricey contracts to stars.
By the new century, the film industry had to change the way it was doing business. Studios began to sign familiar, but lower-priced talent to multi-picture deals. In addition, studios began to look for more predictable content, such as book series (“The Hunger Games”) or comics (“X-Men”). If the studios are able to strike it rich the first go-round with their property, they will then develop a series of sequels. Movies that had original concepts still got made, but with significantly reduced budgets, and often made more for prestige than profit.
The “X-Men” movie series has symbolized the new way of doing business in Hollywood. The first three films did not have major movie stars, but lesser known film actors (such as Famke Janssen) and popular TV stars (such as Patrick Stewart). Plus, when the first three films were completed and options on actors expiring, the studio then hired younger, less expensive actors and actresses and made “X-Men: The First Class” and “X-Men: Days of Future Past” (with “X-Men: Apocalypse” to appear in 2016).
This paper will explore how the “X-Men” film series represents – and helps shape – how the film industry has changed its practices.
About the presenterRod Carveth
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