Crossover films: what they are and why they are made

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

In honor of the release of the film "Glass" - a crossover of the films "Invincible" and "Split" - Lifehacker decided to figure out why everyone watches such stories, but often scolds them.

Every year, more and more plots appear on large and small screens, where several characters from separate stories meet at once. The genre itself was born a long time ago, but over the years of the existence of film and television, it has grown and supplemented with new elements. For example, in recent years, all studios are trying not only to push different heroes together, but also to build entire cinematic universes.

What are crossover films

The essence of the crossover is simple: several independent characters, already familiar to the public, meet and somehow interact within the same story. Moreover, a similar idea arose even before the era of cinema. The first crossover in popular literature is considered to be the novel "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain, where Tom Sawyer, well-known to readers, appeared.

And then a similar technique began to be used in other books, comics and, of course, in films. The first ever crossover film, Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman, 1943. He continued the stories of two paintings at once: "Frankenstein" (1931) and "The Wolf Man" (1941).

Over time, crossovers began to appear on screens more and more often. There are widely known stories about the clash of various monsters, such as "King Kong vs. Godzilla" or "Dracula vs. Frankenstein", or comedic stories like "Abbott and Costello meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." The main plots of all these films are clear from the titles themselves.

Why crossovers are so attractive

Film studios quickly realized that audiences were attracted to the idea of such films. And this is quite expected.

In many ways, crossovers seem to embody a childhood dream: when a child plays with toys, he can introduce Barbie to the Terminator and put them in Batman's car. The same thing happens in the movies.

It brings a lot of profit for the studios. Everything is logical, because fans of several characters show interest in crossovers at once. For example, "Freddie vs. Jason" was watched by those who love "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and fans of "Friday the 13th". And exactly on the same principle the film "Alien vs. Predator" was shot - it also attracted the attention of fans of both franchises.

Television also keeps up: regularly channels arrange meetings of characters from different TV series, sometimes quite bizarre ones. For example, the heroes of "Private Detective Magnum" and "Murder, She Wrote" once investigated a case together. And sometimes crossovers are arranged in order to attract viewers to watch a new series due to a more popular show. So did the authors of the restart of Hawaii Police, filming a joint episode with the failed remake of MacGyver.

How it is possible to unite the heroes of various works

Sometimes the characters that are supposed to meet in a movie, TV series, or even a comic do not belong to the same author or studio. And then the question of the rights to heroes arises. Traditionally, this is solved in one of three ways.

1. Purchase of rights to characters or agreements between copyright holders

The most striking example is the famous film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. For the first time, it featured characters from rival animation studios Walt Disney, Universal Pictures, MGM, Warner Bros. and others. Animation in those years was in deep crisis, and all studios decided that it would be useful to release a major project that would remind of their characters. Under the agreement, the companies received a stake in the film, and their characters were given approximately the same amount of time.

This allowed viewers to see Mickey Mouse in one picture together with Bugs Bunny, Woody the woodpecker, Droopy and other cartoon characters.

2. Using heroes in the public domain

This is exactly what comic book author Alan Moore once did, creating the "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", on which the film of the same name was later filmed. The plot contains the heroes of various classic novels: Allan Quartermain, Captain Nemo, Dr. Jekyll, The Invisible Man and others. The exclusive copyrights for all of these characters have long expired, so they can be freely used in new stories.

3. Change in appearance and lack of names

Sometimes film scriptwriters go to great lengths to get around copyright issues. You can leave some recognizable features of the hero, but not give his name or change it slightly so that he does not completely coincide with the original. For example, in the finale of The Cabin in the Woods, the authors show the characters of almost all famous horror movies. But it will be very difficult to prove that the sinister clown is Pennywise from Stephen King's It, and the scarred monster is Pinhead from HellRaiser.

What is the Difference Between Crossover and MCU

In recent years, large studios prefer not just to release crossovers, but to build entire cinematic universes. The difference is not very big here. It's just that in the second case, the heroes of different films initially exist within the same world and they are gradually brought together.

This approach came from comics, where, for example, Superman and Batman live in the same world and sometimes help each other. And the superhero universes are the most famous on the screens. The greatest success was achieved by Marvel and Disney, although the rights to many popular characters were initially sold to other studios. Therefore, Spider-Man until recently existed on the screens separately, and the return of the X-Men is still in question.

But Marvel has built a huge cinematic universe in 10 years, making films about individual characters, and then creating the Avengers crossovers. And in 2018 she presented the most ambitious project "Avengers: War of Infinity", where almost all the main characters of 18 previous films met.

In addition to Marvel, there is the DC cinematic universe with the crossovers Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League. And also the TV series Arrow from The CW. Heroes of television projects sometimes move from one series to another, and every year a global crossover for 3-4 episodes is arranged, where all the characters meet and also present new projects.

In addition to superhero MCUs, there is a universe of monsters. So far, in its modern version, there are only separate films "Godzilla" (2014) and "Kong: Skull Island" (2017). But in both pictures the organization "Monarch" appears, linking the plots. And in the near future the studio plans to combine the monsters in a new crossover.

The fate of the dark universe, which started in 2017 with the movie "The Mummy", is still unknown. Dr. Jekyll (Russell Crowe) appeared in the picture. It was he who, according to the initial idea, was supposed to assemble a team of characters from future films: the monster of Frankenstein (Javier Bardem), The Invisible Man (Johnny Depp) and others. However, the failure of the first picture called into question the development of the future universe and the possible crossover of all the characters.

What are the problems with crossover films?

Despite the fact that such stories are released more often and almost always collect good box office, the ratings of these films often turn out to be not very good. And more often than not, the claims are about the same.

1. They are not always interesting to new viewers

Many of these films were shot with a prepared audience in mind. The authors practically do not devote time to the backstory of the characters, but immediately plunge into the action. This pleases fans, but leaves newcomers at a loss. The plot will probably be understandable without prefaces, but it is unlikely that it will work to be imbued with sympathy for the heroes, or, conversely, to understand why they are evil. Therefore, before watching, you should at least superficially find out what kind of characters they are and why they met.

2. The plot is often too simple

When two distinctive characters meet on the screen, the authors can still try to somehow reveal the plot. But if there are more important characters, then you should forget about a complex and twisted scenario with rare exceptions. Most likely, the heroes will either just fight each other, or confront one common problem.

3. One hero is still more important than the rest

Many major crossovers continue the story of one character, while others become only his assistants. This makes it easier for writers to create a coherent script without wasting time on multiple subplots. If this is the case, fans may not like that their favorite is relegated to the background.

4. Viewers have high expectations

When viewers see five favorite characters in ads at once, they probably expect the film to be five times more interesting than the solo story of the characters. Considering that such projects are very massively announced and have been in production for a long time, fans manage to build an ideal story in their heads, and therefore, with the release of a film with a rather simple plot, many are disappointed.

What crossovers really surprised

Crossovers usually involve characters from the same genre. Detectives help detectives, monsters fight monsters, and so on. But there are also more unusual and even very strange examples. On large screens, few people decide to do this: the likelihood is too high that viewers will not appreciate the idea. But the authors of TV series and cartoons sometimes arranged meetings of the most unexpected characters.

1. "I love Lucy" and "Superman"

The classic sitcom about a housewife who dreams of becoming an actress has been repeatedly named the best TV series of all time. For six seasons, a lot of unusual things happened to the heroine. And once she even met the real Superman. Or almost real.

2. "Supernatural" and "Scooby-Doo"

The adventures of the Winchester brothers, defeating all kinds of evil spirits and creatures from other worlds, have been going on for more than 10 years. During this time, they managed to visit the sitcom and even go out into the real world on the set. And in one episode, the heroes even managed to become cartoons and meet the characters of the children's animated series "Scooby-Doo".

3. "Bones" and "Sleepy Hollow"

An excellent example of the collision of completely different genres. The series "Sleepy Hollow" is dedicated to a hero who moved from the past and fights against evil spirits. At the same time, "Bones" is a detective series without any hint of mysticism. But the authors managed to push the main characters together in the Halloween episode and make the fans of both projects happy.

4. "Mr. Robot" and "Alpha"

What could be more unexpected than seeing the hero of a classic sitcom in a dark technotriller? However, the cheerful alien Alf managed to get into the world of Mr. Robot. The authors then explained how this happened. Still, the first impression was very unexpected.

5. "Bambi" and "Godzilla"

But any MCU and crossover series pales in comparison to the one and a half minute 1969 cartoon created by animator Marv Newland during his college days. It was ranked 38th in the 50 Greatest Cartoons in History by thousands of animation professionals. And by far the best crossover in the world. So, the fatal meeting of Bambi and Godzilla.