The 4 Biggest Problems With Trying To Create A Movie Universe

20 minutes ago

Following the immense success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, lots of studios wanted in on the universe game. Anyone who had an attractive IP worth multiple movies began plans for a connected series of films. Hasbro turned to its library of action figures like G.I. Joe and Micronauts, while Universal created a writers room to bang out ideas for reboots of their classic movie monsters. Over time, we've seen other studios encounter some major roadblocks in building a shared universe and at this point, and no one has managed to find the success that Marvel makes looks easy.

Planning an entire cinematic universe is easier said than done, but when you lay out all the efforts studios have made, you begin to notice patterns -- especially with the ones that weren't so successful. Making these cinematic universes is a tricky business and still fairly new to Hollywood, despite Marvel's 10-year track record. Most studios are still figuring it out, but enough have experienced trouble that it generates a list of trends to look out for. When building a connected movie universe, these are the four biggest problems studios need to watch out for.

Putting All Your Eggs In One Basket

A lot of the problems with troubled cinematic universes stem from studios placing way too much faith in one movie. Typically this is the first movie of the series, meant to be the foundation for all that will come after. That's a lot of pressure to put on a film, and we've already seen this backfire in major ways. The most prominent example is The Mummy, which was meant to kickstart Universal's Dark Universe banner. The movie carried the weight of all the projects Universal had planned and was packed with setups for future movies. There are a lot of reasons this particular blockbuster landed with a thud, but when it did, Universal got cold feet an postponed everything else it had planned. A similar situation happened to Warner Bros. with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which was setting the stage for the DCEU. Obviously, it didn't tank the universe, but the fact that Warner Bros. staked so much on people liking BvS had lasting ramification all the way through Justice League.