{"id":584203,"date":"2023-07-25T00:31:36","date_gmt":"2023-07-24T21:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/comic-con-averted-an-apocalypse-despite-two-strikes-and-little-hollywood\/"},"modified":"2023-07-25T00:31:36","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T21:31:36","slug":"comic-con-averted-an-apocalypse-despite-two-strikes-and-little-hollywood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/comic-con-averted-an-apocalypse-despite-two-strikes-and-little-hollywood\/","title":{"rendered":"#Comic-Con Averted an Apocalypse Despite Two Strikes (and Little Hollywood)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n This was the year that San Diego Comic-Con was supposed to collapse. After all, with Hollywood studios pulling out and stars not able to promote their work, all due to the double whammy of the actors and writers strike,\u00a0why would people even bother to attend?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Well, about 150,000 attendees still did indeed show up. There were no mass hotel cancellations nor mass refunds issued for badges, which were purchased months in advance.\u00a0And an interesting thing happ<\/a>ened on the way to the Comic-Con apocalypse. There was a renewed focus on comics and other graphic arts, even as Hollywood showed up in a diminished capacity.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis year, more than ever, it felt like the real focus was the talent behind the origins of a lot of their entertainment,\u201d says Jimmy Palmiotti, a writer-artist who has worked for Marvel and DC and created the comic\u00a0Painkiller Jane<\/em>, which was adapted into a SyFy series<\/a> in 2007.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n By all accounts, the floor had the most foot traffic in years, and retailers, artists and creators benefitted with increased sales and visibility.\u00a0 Anecdotally, Pamiottit said there were entire booths selling out and having to restock graphic novels and comics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n \u201cCreators like Adam Hughes and Billy Tucci told me they had their best year ever. It was a real joy to see the people that created the comics once again become front and center to the con created in their name,\u201d said Pamiottiti.<\/p>\n

\n Sales were up significantly for Funko, which doubled its footprint from last year, as well as for Dark Horse Comics, Image Comics, and Lego, according to sources. DC, selling exclusives for the first time, enjoyed constant lines and sold out a\u00a0a majority of its offerings. Even retailers that set up outside the convention centre enjoyed a major bump, such as BoxLunch Treats, which saw lines that went down three blocks in downtown San Diego.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n And Hollywood still showed up in many forms. One could not miss skins wrapped around the outside of hotels, promoting shows such as Showtime\u2019s\u00a0Yellowjackets<\/em>\u00a0or FX\u2019s\u00a0Shogun<\/em>. And studio panels, instead of having writers and actors front and center, let footage do the talking for them.<\/p>\n

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\"SAN<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>

The Star Trek: Strange New Worlds<\/em> booth <\/span><\/p>\n

Jesse Grant\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n Paramount, one of the few studios to show up to Comic-Con, showcased twenty minutes of footage of its upcoming movie,\u00a0Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem<\/em>. For its Star Trek Universe presentation, Paramount and CBS dropped an entire episode of\u00a0Strange New Worlds<\/em>, which had some in the audience wiping away tears. Starz did the same, previewing the season two debut of wrestling show\u00a0Heels<\/em>. A24 had to turn away hundreds from its offsite screening of\u00a0Talk to Me<\/em>, its upcoming horror movie that had a panel featuring only the movie\u2019s directors, Danny and Michael Philippou.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n One fan who spoke to THR<\/em>, Will, flew in from New York and has attended Comic-Con more than 10 times. He caught the\u00a0Star Trek<\/em>\u00a0Hall H panel after a mere five minutes in line for it. (In previous years, people would have camped out overnight to get into a Hall H panel.) Will, who declined to give his last name, admitted that it was less exciting than it would have been under normal circumstances. \u201cIt would have been nice to have the cast there, but the footage that they showed from\u00a0Star Trek<\/em>\u00a0was amazing, and the energy of the crowd was great,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n Not everyone was thrilled, however. \u201cIt was a little unfortunate for the [Family Guy<\/em>\u00a0panel] that it was basically just showing clips,\u201d said William, a San Diego resident who had been to Comic-Con four previous times and pointed out that he probably wouldn\u2019t have attended that panel if he knew it would just be a screening. He also found that the convention general<\/a>ly felt more crowded than in previous years: \u201cNot having too many of those popular Hall H panels maybe drew people to smaller panels.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n Because of the strikes, some Hollywood creatives attended the convention free of pressure from interviews or delivering major buzz. Simon Kinberg, the writer-producer behind several X-Men and Deadpool movies, enjoyed a weekend with his 14-year old son, Oliver.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt felt like old Comic-Con,\u201d said Kinberg, who has been on the Hall H stage many times. \u201cYou still had video game<\/a>s and hi-tech pop-ups but it was definitely a comic-based and toy-based Comic-Con. We strolled for days.\u201d And they made time for the Barbenheimer phenomenon, checking out both Oppenhimer<\/em> and Barbie<\/em> on two separate days. <\/p>\n

\n Kinberg was just one of several creatives checking out the convention purely for the love of pop culture. Among them was It<\/em> screenwriter and\u00a0Annabelle Comes Home<\/em>\u00a0writer-director Gary Dauberman, who brought his 13-year old son, also named Oliver.<\/p>\n

\n There were moments where the writers strike and actors strike took center stage,\u00a0including an appearance by SAG-AFTRA national executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland. Across the commuter tracks outside the convention center, local SAG actors posed for a solidarity photo-op with cosplayers. Inside, two separate Saturday panels offered voice actors and writers the opportunity to discuss several of the main negotiating issues from their unions\u2019 perspectives, including the impact of AI and synthetic voices, the financial implications of episode order reductions, and the line where union protections end and where federal or even international law may need to step in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n During one panel, Crabtree Ireland summed up the fight voice actors \u2014 and arguably, by extension, writers \u2014 are facing amid the threat of studio interest in AI by pointing to Disney\u2019s\u00a0The Little Mermaid<\/em>, \u201ca story of a small mermaid and the sea witch that literally steals that mermaid\u2019s voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI remember seeing that for the first time and thinking how horrifying,\u201d Crabtree-Ireland said. \u201cVoice acting is on the cutting edge of and is the tip of the spear as it relates to how AI can either be used to lift people up and enhance the opportunities that actors and others have or be used in a very negative way to steal their voices, to crush human creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n For attendees familiar with seeing charismatic prominent stars or writers providing witty repartee and insider intel, this year\u2019s panels likely didn\u2019t hit the same highs, and the individuals featured on stage didn\u2019t always seem to relish the spotlight. While on a panel for TBS\u2019\u00a0American Dad<\/em>, director Jennifer Graves was asked what she wanted to share and quipped, \u201cI don\u2019t have anything to say, so I don\u2019t know why we\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Justin<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>

Justin Simien speaks onstage at Collider: Directors On Directing panel <\/span><\/p>\n

Kevin Winter\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n During a directors on directing panel, Gareth Edwards, touting his original sci-fi movie\u00a0The Creator<\/em>, and Justin Simien, promoting\u00a0Haunted Mansion<\/em>, pointed to the elephant in the room.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe all stand with the writers and actors,\u201d said Edwards. \u201cWe\u2019re contractually obliged to promote our movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n \u201cYes, we were told to be here,\u201d said Simien, chuckling, adding he would have rather been at home. \u201cNo shade to you guys,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\n And some stars who also have work in non-studio endeavors, such as David Dastmalchian and Patton Oswalt, both of whom wrote and create comics, had to navigate deftly and avoid any questions about struck studio projects. When the moderator for a Dastmalchian spotlight panel introduced the Q&A portion, noting that past or present work could not be talked about, the very first question from a fan was about the actor\u2019s work in\u00a0The Dark Knight<\/em>, made by struck studio Warner Bros. A pivot and a reminder that it could not be discussed followed.\u00a0(The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>\u2019s Borys Kit moderated the panel, and both he and Dastmalchian reminded the guest that struck work was off-limits.)<\/p>\n

\n Congressman Robert Garcia, the former Long Beach mayor who made waves when he was sworn into the House of Representatives with a vintage copy of\u00a0Superman<\/em>\u00a0No. 1, led a Comic-Con panel on a popular arts caucus he is spearheading in Washington. He noted that the concern and chatter caused by the so-called muted presence of Hollywood only highlights the importance of the convention.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis just shows how there is an enormous impact that the comics medium has on the broader entertainment industry,\u201d said Garcia, who has been attending the show on and off since the 1990s. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what happens at Comic-Con every year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n Without studio panels taking in a lot of the oxygen, over 900 other panels and over 2000 hours of other programming saw a rise in interest and attendance. \u201cPrior to the show, people who had never been to the show were wondering what the impact of the strikes would be,\u201d said Comic-Con\u2019s chief communications and chief strategy officer\u00a0<\/strong>David Glanzer. \u201cBut there is so much to see and do, that we were okay. Hollywood is icing on a multi-layered cake.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Kinberg, along with many others, believe Hollywood will back in fill force next year, when the labor issues are likely to have been resolved.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Said Kinberg: \u201cAs much as it was a wonderful and pure experience, I know a lot of fans would have been hyped if Marvel came to Hall H and blew up Comic-Con. There is still a hunger for that. It\u2019s the social media<\/a> explosions around these announcements where you truly see Comic-Con\u2019s impact. This is an amazing engine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n \u2014Ryan Gajewski, Abbey White and Aaron Couch contributed to this story<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n