The main concern to any studio is the bottom line profit earned each year, some of the best action films can win the hearts of both audiences and critics alike. If there is one sure bet in Hollywood for the ability to print money, it’s a big budget testosterone filled action film. So what are the necessary ingredients to make an action film both a critical and a financial success.
The Success Story
At the end of 2009, the film Avatar appeared on the scene and immediately changed the playing field for every action film that had come before it and every one to follow. In the months following Avatar’s release, it broke record after record on its way to becoming the biggest money maker in the history of Hollywood. Besides having the distinction of making more money than any film that had come before it, Avatar also managed to win the hearts of most of the critical community as well. It scored an 83% on the rotten tomato score of all the major critics combined.
Typical Situations
Most action movies are sadly more concerned with the spectacle rather than the substance. While Avatar showed people something they had never seen before, it also managed to tell an engaging story filled with relatable characters and emotions. While the visuals alone will get a movie some initial success, the true success stories with long box office lives come from the story and the characters involved in the over the top action.
Classic Examples
Two of the biggest examples of this success are the Matrix trilogy and the Lethal Weapon movies. Lethal Weapon came on the scene in the eighties and put a very unique spin on the very common buddy cop film. It stood out for the portrayal of the suicidal renegade cop Riggs played by Mel Gibson along with his veteran laid back detective partner Murtaugh played by Danny Glover. Their differences laid the foundation for all of the emotion and chaos that followed in the franchise’s following three films.
The Matrix films took the action spectacle and combined it with something equally provocative, existentialism. The story was laid out to include the questions of “who are we” and “why are we here” at the core of the fantastic action scenes. These ideas caused fans of the movies to think about them long after leaving the theater and led to many repeat viewings as well as overwhelmingly popular word of mouth.
These are just a few examples of how to turn an action movie into a classic rather than just a hit. By taking the action movie elements and combining them with something more involving such as characters or a mind blowing plot, fans across the world will become more invested in the film. This is evident in most any classic action film you can find, as well as in every failed film that only focused on style and no substance.
