Universal Studios, one of the more venerable studios still around since the early era of film had never achieved a "billion" dollar film until Furious 7 crossed that threshold this summer. The Fast and Furious series never seemed to be destined for the financial and critical acclaim it is currently celebrating. What started out as a bland remake of Point Break, that somehow justified three sequels of debatable quality, ultimately led to the first major Hollywood cross-over franchise film in the 5th one. This article would look at how luck, circumstance, casting conflict, and one determined director created the first successful cross over movie, taking disparate elements of stories by other people and fashioning them into a coherent whole.
I would love for someone to talk about why Spidey hasn't been included in an Avenger film yet. I suspect it has less to do with narrative arc and more to do with contract and copyright law. – Jeffrey MacCormack10 years ago
It is contract law. Sony has the rights to Spider-man's on film, which it leased from Marvel. Marvel can get it back if Sony never makes a Spider-man film within a certain amount of time. But now that they've made some sort of peace and agreed on revenue sharing, so Spider-man's going to show up in Captain America 3 and probably others down the line. – rj2n10 years ago
^Exactly. To add onto your point, last year's ASM2 suffered from critical and commercial underperformance. The damagingly revealing Sony hack late last year also probably pushed Sony into closing a deal with Marvel. – BradShankar10 years ago