2007 Comic-Con Preview
You won’t find gutsy heroes such as Spider-Man and Batman in corporate boardrooms, but the stellar box-office receipts their movies bring in have Hollywood’s suit-and-tie brigade shouting “Wham!,” “Kapow!” and “Shazam!”
Often featuring primal story lines pitting good versus evil, comic books are tried-and-true Hollywood page-turners. But if the written word doesn’t grab you, maybe the numbers—and built-in fan base—will: Spider-Man 3 opened theatrically with a $150 million take earlier this year, while the previous two installments together earned nearly $800 million at the domestic box office. The most recent Batman and X-Men sequels combined for nearly $500 million worth of movie ticket sales in the U.S.
That’s why dozens of studio execs and animation house honchos will be heading down to San Diego for this year’s Comic-Con: There’s always another super-earning superhero lurking in the wings.
“Comic-Con was integral to the early success and awareness of Star Wars,” says John Singh, a spokesman for Lucasfilm. “Since then, comics have been important to us.”
Comic-Con also provides an excellent venue for promoting new DVDs. Here’s a rundown of Hollywood’s top Comic-Con 2007 exhibitors and the DVDs they’ll be promoting at this year’s show, which runs July 26-29 at the San Diego Convention Center. —Chris Gennusa
See what studios will be previewing at the show:
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Manga & Starz Home Entertainment
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment