Matthew Vaughn: “The success of Barbie and Oppenheimer is not only linked to their quality”
The director of Argylle denounces the reluctance of big studios who only rely on established brands.
Three years later The King’s Man: First Mission, Matthew Vaughn returns to the cinema with Argyle, a new big-budget spy comedy starring Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, John Cela and Dua Lipa. The film was produced by Apple and Marv Studios, Vaughn’s company, and is going through theaters before arriving on Apple TV+, on the same model as Killers of the Flower Moon And Napoleon.
Argylle: Matthew Vaughn dynamites spy cinema (review)
The director of Kick-Ass And X-Men: The Beginning enjoys a certain freedom in Hollywood. However, in the latest issue of Première, currently on newsstands, he is not kind to the big studios which are producing fewer and fewer original films. A reluctance that could lead them to their own downfall, he prophesies.
“It’s an interesting moment for cinema. The big franchises no longer work as before, even though they have fueled the system for years. The first reflex of certain executives will be to deduce from the success of barbie that we need to make more films based on toys: expect to see My little Pony, The Care Bears and so on. Well… And others will feel lost. These guys haven’t developed original scripts and films in so long that I doubt they know how to do it yet. So they will actually turn to the directors and the screenwriters. And for once, they will listen to them. But it won’t happen overnight…”
2023 was indeed marked by the bankruptcy of superhero films, or other large productions based on formerly lucrative sagas (Indiana Jones 5, Fast X). At the same time, barbie And Oppenheimer dominated the box office, hinting at a revival for original works in Hollywood. But Matthew Vaughn fears that we are not learning the right lessons from the phenomenon Barbenheimer.
“Few people understood that the success of Barbie and Oppenheimer was not only linked to the quality of the films and their directors: the marketing was incredibly clever and a lot of money was spent. I have this debate regularly with the studios: if I do Harry Potter 10, Fast & Furious 32 Or Jurassic Park 41, they will line up 100 million dollars for the promotion. And it drives me crazy, because we don’t need to put in 100 million! Damn, everyone knows what it is!
On the other hand, you would have to spend 150 million in promotion on an original film to make it emerge. Except they refuse, because it’s not an established brand… But it could become one if you spent enough money! (…) I hope the studios will eventually understand this. It’s about their survival.”
Matthew Vaughn hopes to be able to develop a new franchise around his latest film, Argyle. But the box office predictions are not good…
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