Truth, Justice and the Worldwide Box Office

by Christopher Campbell Jul 3rd 2006 // 12:04PM

Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Warner Brothers, Box Office, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels

This Fourth of July, why not celebrate the birth of the United States by taking in a movie about that good ol' American icon, Superman? Well, in case you haven't heard, according to Superman Returns, the superhero isn't specifically representative of the U.S. anymore. In fact, one line in the film, spoken by Frank Langella, is stirring a lot of discussion. The line revises the familiar phrase associated with Superman, "truth, justice and the American way," changing it to "truth, justice and all that stuff," upsetting many who see it as a disruption of the comic book character's tradition. There are those, however, who see the logic in the revision, and the film's screenwriters, Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris, have backed up this logic. "The truth is he's an alien," says Harris, "He was sent from another planet. He has landed on the planet Earth, and he is here for everybody. He's an international superhero."

The new film even features a montage showing Superman helping out around the globe. But does this really have to do with logic or does it have to do with international box office? Hollywood depends too much on the worldwide take to let a blockbuster speak only to Americans. The montage reminded me of similar montages in disaster films, which, despite taking place primarily in the States, show that the story is happening all over, thereby including international markets in the fun (Personally, if I was French, I might have had a problem with being included after seeing what happens to Paris in Armageddon). Harris addresses this, as well: "So you play the movie in a foreign country, and you say, 'What does he stand for? -- truth, justice and the American way.' I think a lot of people's opinions of what the American way means outside this country are different from what the line actually means because they are not the same anymore. And (using the line) would taint the meaning of what he is saying."

I wouldn't doubt that Warner Bros. was somewhat behind the change in order to assure no foreign markets have a problem with the meaning. Yet, the original phrasing is uttered in the 1978 Superman and that film made slightly more in foreign box office than it did in domestic. And that was at a time when there were far less markets for it to show in. Unfortunately, we can't determine just yet if the world cares about the newly internationalized Superman, as the film wasn't released in many foreign markets yet, because the rest of the world is too busy with the World Cup. We'll just have to wait until after the games end on Sunday, although even then, Superman Returns is getting a surprisingly slow-spread release throughout July and August. If I remember, I'll check back in with the worldwide grosses in the fall.

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Tags: armageddon, brandon routh, BrandonRouth, kevin spacey, KevinSpacey, superman, superman returns, SupermanReturns, world cup, WorldCup

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