The Mu

May 2010 seems a long way off when waiting for the next Robert Downey Jr. installment of this Marvel franchise. For Downey fans, this season’s Sherlock Holmes will have to suffice.

Also, by way of tiding us over until May, Marvel has released the first trailer of the new movie. It looks better than good. To quote the little boy who watches Mr. Incredible in action: “That was totally wicked!”

In his book, The Long Tail, Chris Anderson makes a pretty strong case explaining the phenomenon of a “blockbuster”.  The lowest common denominator is well understood by Hollywood.  Action and excitement tend to draw crowds.  Predicting hits is not an infallible science, but it is pretty amazing how well they’ve figured out the movie-going public.  We’ve got another new crop of summer films coming up, and the release dates of the action-packed movies are carefully determined for maximum impact.

The Transformers sequel and action-filled “biopics” about John Dillinger and Sherlock Holmes are coming soon.  (I know Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character and that Hollywood takes vast liberties even with real people’s biographies. My putting quotes around biopic recognizes these facts as well as my suspicion that it’s not a real word yet.)  Even if these movies don’t recoup their investment, they are sure to make millions.  The gamble of course is that Hollywood spends many millions making and promoting these movies, so they can still come out in the red after a theatrical release.