Remember Independence Day? That little disaster picture is where all hell broke loose because aliens were trying to invade the earth over the Fourth of July weekend. It starred Will Smith as Captain Steven ‘Eagle’ Hiller. Well, Independence Day shattered box office records and managed to make $817 million worldwide. This remains the second highest-grossing disaster movie behind Titanic. The Roland Emmerich feature is far from the first disaster picture ever made, but it only opened doors for a genre like The Blair Witch Project did for found footage features. Following the massive success of Independence Day and Titanic, theaters became flooded with more disaster features such as Deep Impact, Armageddon, Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow, and 2012.
However, as time passed from the two highest-grossing disaster features, so did audiences’ interest in general. To be clear, 2012 is the third-highest grossing disaster feature garnering an astounding $791 million worldwide. However, when the sequel to one of the most influential films in pop culture was made in 2016, Independence Day: Resurgence, that film ended up flopping at the box office by only making $389 million worldwide. Now there’s plenty of reason why Resurgence bombed at the box office. One of the key things is that Will Smith wasn’t attached to the sequel. Smith carried Independence Day despite its lack of strong character development, as it was his charisma that got him through the disaster pic. Add that with the spectacular action and the success of Independence Day was like lighting in a bottle. Resurgence tried to recapture the magic that the first film had, but unfortunately, it failed and at this point, times have changed. The success of Godzilla and King Kong films still showcase the specialty genre isn’t completely dead, but Emmerich’s latest flick, Moonfall, exemplifies why we don’t get much of the features anymore.
First, there’s no such thing as a cheap disaster feature. Independence Day and Deep Impact were made for $75 million. Twister for $92 million. 2012 for $200 million. Independence Day: Resurgence for $165 million. Moonfall for $150 million. These may not be Marvel levels of budget costs, but these are extremely risky movies to make because of the high budget. With found footage, budget was never the issue because they were usually made for less than $20 million. There are some exceptions like Cloverfield, which was made for $25 million; Even then, that’s still a cheap budget compared to disaster features. Given Hollywood’s current trend, it’s too much of a risk to continuously make these types of movies. The executives have no problems greenlighting most Marvel films because the superheroes continue to be a bankable genre.
However, the loss of revenue doesn’t explain why audience have suddenly stopped caring about this type of movies that Roland Emmerich made famous. Disaster pictures are escapism and the very definition of a popcorn feature. But so are Marvel, DC, or Star Wars movie. The biggest difference is that there’s more intelligence and originality across the board vs. disaster features. To Disney and DC’s advantage, they have come into the streaming landscape guns blazing with shows like Wandavision, Peacemaker, or The Mandalorian, whereas disaster films don’t exactly have that luxury to expand its universe. Marvel, Star Wars, and DC isn’t well-liked to everyone known to man, but each has done an excellent job of developing strong and memorable characters, and Marvel has especially been consistent on the quality of its films. There just isn’t much human connection to disaster features. One thing Independence Day isn’t known for is its characterization or deep story. But that can said for any other disaster feature that isn’t Titanic.
For two plus hours, we’re usually stuck with a bunch of people that we could care less about because rarely do they bring life to these films. It’s not the actor’s fault because their characters tend to be paper thin, with their decisions often non-sensical. However, these disaster films have become stale due to the fact that most of them follow a predictable path. Titanic stands above the rest because it’s about the story and characters first, with the disaster saved for last. However, other films cared more about the disaster, following a similar pattern since Independence Day. There hasn’t been much change within the genre and the creative risks taken have been minimal. Long story short, Disaster features are just formulaic popcorn movies that have failed to evolve with modern times. Is it possible that something outside of Godzilla or King Kong will reach high levels of success? Of course! There just needs to be something inventive that separates them from the usual Roland Emmerich vehicle. The genre isn’t exactly dead, but it’s definitely on life support.
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