Guardians of the Galaxy and Marvel's Risk

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As I wrote back in March, it is going to be awhile before we get a Marvel Studios production that isn’t seen as some kind of barometer for the company as a whole in one fashion or another. As such, Walt Disney’s Guardians of the Galaxy will be heavily scrutinized for a number of reasons some more fair than others. First of all, there is a perception that the overall summer box office has been sometime weak compared to years past. So as such, as the last would-be mega movie of the summer, Guardians of the Galaxy is now in the unpleasant position of having to “save” the summer. That’s silly of course, but that’s the narrative. Also of note, it’s Marvel’s first non-sequel since Captain America: The First Avenger in July, 2011.

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At around $170 million, the film is somewhat of a risk as it’s obviously less of a sure thing than the likes of Thor: The Dark World. But obviously Marvel is playing long-ball, and while the film is 99% stand-alone, there is a tangent or two that will likely make the picture somewhat required viewing for The Avengers 3 in four years. Moreover, this is a case of the comic company using their hard-won capitol to produce something somewhat outside the box of conventional superhero comic book adventures. If the film underperforms (let’s say under $150m here and under $350m worldwide), it will still be a case of Marvel using capitol to attempt to expand what constitutes a comic book franchise picture. If it hits big, then it’s further proof that the Marvel brand name is the most important component of a respective marketing campaign, making the Walt Disney-owned studio something akin to Pixar and making contract negotiations with the likes of Robert Downey Jr. somewhat less predictable.

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