The year: 2012, the box-office buster: Avengers. The first Avengers movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe had launched, crushing box-office records. It was the biggest movie of 2012, and went on to be the third highest grossing movie of all time (a total of $1.519 BILLION DOLLARS worldwide from box office sales). At the time, it seemed Marvel could do no wrong, and everyone wanted a piece of the Marvel pie - Especially Universal Studios.
Universal Studios had been sitting on a potential gold mine: famous monster movies everyone grew up with. Where Disney and Marvel had Spider-Man and Iron Man, Universal had the Invisible Man, Frankenstein, and The Creature From the Black Lagoon. Universal decided that they would try their hand at making a cinematic universe and announced that they would be rebooting The Mummy franchise. Alongside this decision, Universal tapped a number of large name actors to be cast as the titular movie monster characters. Names like Javier Bardem, Russell Crowe, Tom Cruise, and Johnny Depp were thrown around, and an early teaser photo was released showing the stars lined up.
In 2014, Dracula Untold, the first of the Dark Universe movies was launched. The film showed the untold story of Dracula's origins, changing from ruthless leader to iconic movie monster. Dracula Untold, directed by Gary Shore (a relatively unknown director at the time) and starring Luke Evans (Fast and Furious, Clash of the Titans, Robin Hood, and more), went on to be a mixed success, making $217 million dollars worldwide. The film received mixed reviews and most critics panned the film's lack of historical accuracy.
Before its release, Dracula Untold was delayed a bit for reshoots to tie the movie into the newly formed Dark Universe. Press was abuzz with this information; however, when the movie came out, the connections to the Dark Universe series were downplayed. After the movie's release, Universal pivoted away from Dracula Untold, claiming that the reboot of The Mummy would be the first movie in the new series.
The action-horror movie The Mummy was next on deck to launch the new Universal Dark Cinematic Universe. This reboot of the 1999 Brendan Fraiser series of the same name, starred Tom Cruise as the protagonist, a rough and tough military man who accidentally unleashes a reanimated mummy with supernatural powers. The Mummy was a commercial failure, opening at $410 million dollars worldwide box offices. Deadline Hollywood estimated that the movie caused the studio to lose $95 million dollars. Not a good sign for the future of a franchise.
Unsurprisingly, The Mummy had terrible reviews, and after just one (official) movie in the series, the Dark Universe was dead. The next movie in the series slated for release, Bride of Frankenstein, was put on hold indefinitely, and Universal Pictures released the following statement:
"After thoughtful consideration, Universal Pictures and director Bill Condon have decided to postpone Bride of Frankenstein. None of us want[s] to move too quickly to meet a release date when we know this special movie needs more time to come together. Bill is a director whose enormous talent has been proven time and again, and we all look forward to continuing to work on this film together."
Not all was lost for Universal, though. Earlier this year, 2019, Universal announced that it would be relaunching its plans for more modernized classic monster movies, and would move forward with the production of The Invisible Man (based off the 1933 movie of the same name). The film studio also announced that they would be making a movie called Dark Army, which would feature several of the famous movie monsters originally planned for the Dark Universe.
While the Dark Universe was not the next Avengers, I applaud Universal for taking the initiative and shooting for the top. The idea was sound, but the execution was lackluster. When you look through the history of Marvel superhero movies prior to 2008's blockbuster success, Iron Man, you will find a very similar story. Multiple launch attempts at household name heroes which all ended in development hell, the bargain bin, or sent to death by bad reviews. It just goes to show you that if at first you don't succeed, keep pumping millions of dollars into new movies until you hit your stride.
