The “indie darling” to “well-liked studio programmer” to “franchise blockbuster” path is hard to come by in today’s tentpole-centric industry, and even harder for “not a white guy” filmmakers.
It’s obviously encouraging that more “not a white guy” filmmakers are getting a crack at major franchise flicks, specifically the MCU and DC Films movies that audiences still generally see in theaters. It’s especially encouraging that she got an “in between” studio picture between the indie gem and the blockbuster.
While Cathy Yan (from Dead Pigs to Birds of Prey), Chloe Zhao (from The Rider to Eternals) and Cate Shortland (from The Berlin Syndrome to Black Widow) are taking the Colin Trevorrow route of “one or two well-liked indies straight to blockbuster town,” Nia DaCosta will have one indie gem (Little Woods, a dynamite Winters Bone-ish thriller starring Tessa Thompson and Lily James) and one shiny studio flick (Candyman certainly LOOKS good) before getting the keys to a mega-bucks franchise.
That’s the same route taken by a number of now established blockbuster/franchise filmmakers. Think, offhand, Tim Burton (Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure to Beetlejuice to Batman), Chris Nolan (Memento to Insomnia to Batman Begins), Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects to Apt Pupil to X-Men) and Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station to Creed to Black Panther). No, Pee-Wee wasn’t an indie flick, it’s close enough and Warner famously waited until Beetlejuice’s $8 million chart-topping opening weekend before solidifying the Batman gig.
This path has been more challenging simply because as franchises have increased in volume old-school, mid-budget studio programmers have decreased in availability. The only reason Coogler and DaCosta got their feet wet on a major “middle ground” studio project is because they were handling a smaller-scale franchise that, by default, played (presumably, as Candyman was delayed from June to October) like a high-quality “just a movie” offering that happened to exist within an IP. The likes of Beetlejuice ($74 million in 1988), Apt Pupil ($9 million in 1998) and Insomnia ($114 million in 2002) barely exist today.
To be fair, for every Josh Trank-level train wreck (the first half of Fantastic Four is… okay), there’s a Colin Trevorrow-level triumph. I often use Maggie Carey’s The To-Do List ($3.5 million on a $1.5 million budget) and Jordan Vogt-Roberts’s Kings of Summer ($1.4 million on a $1.5 million budget) as representations of gender-based inequality in terms of opportunity, but Vogt-Roberts’ Kong: Skull Island knocked it out of the park artistically and commercially ($569 million on a $185 million budget).
Taiki Waititi went from a handful of well-liked indie flicks (including What We Do In the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople) to the acclaimed Thor: Ragnarok which topped $854 million. His “one for me” studio programmer (Jojo Rabbit) won him a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar. I’m less grouchy about Marc Webb going straight from (500) Days of Summer to The Amazing Spider-Man if he still gets to make Gifted afterward.
Nia DaCosta getting to make a smaller studio movie between her indie breakout and her franchise blockbuster excites me because, if only by default, it’ll leave her better prepared to handle a blockbuster movie. More importantly, it means that there are actually, within certain parameters, mid-level/mid-budget studio movies available for those want an “in between” project.
I’ve studied the film industry, both academically and informally, and with an emphasis in box office analysis, for nearly 30 years. I have extensively written about all
I’ve studied the film industry, both academically and informally, and with an emphasis in box office analysis, for nearly 30 years. I have extensively written about all of said subjects for the last 11 years. My outlets for film criticism, box office commentary, and film-skewing scholarship have included The Huffington Post, Salon, and Film Threat. Follow me at @ScottMendelson and “like” The Ticket Booth on Facebook.