Singer: "The Pirates Plundered my Booty."

Proving once again that "denial" ain't just a river that flows backwards in Egypt, "Quint" at Ain't It Cool News posted an interview today with "Lord Singer" that was done back at Comic Con. If you can sort through the rear-end kissing, Singer seems to basically be sticking to the same story, although this time he's got some new culprits. (We're guessing the Studio told him to knock off the digs at the marketing department.)

QUINT: So, what'd you think of the overall reaction to the film? I know it's really hard to find anything positive online. People seem to be quick to call anything that's not a record breaker a failure. I saw that happen with KONG.

BRYAN SINGER: Well, there's great affection for the picture and I feel... You know, it comes in all different ways. Sometimes it comes with the domestic box office, sometimes it comes in the international box office. Sometimes it comes in letters from your idols who have never written to you before and from their families. Sometimes it comes from coming down here and having a few people say, "Why didn't you do this?" and a few people who say, "Thank you so much." I can only make a movie I think someone will watch 10 years or 20 years from now and say, "Oh, I'm affected by it!" Or a movie that maybe a woman who doesn't come to these kinds of movies will actually watch and get choked up about. That's kind of the idea here.

Where to start? There's "great affection" for the film because of the domestic box office? Nope. The international box office? No not quite, considering your still tracking $20 million behind Batman Begins internationally (though we're SURE it'll be HUGE in Japan). So that leaves personal letters from Singer's idols and some geeks at the Con who wouldve been happy with any piece of terd they were given so long as it had the "S" on it? If that's not evidence of mass appeal, I dont know what is. We're also glad to hear he made the movie so that some woman who doesnt go to superhero movies can go cry like she's watching Beaches. I mean, why make Superman the blockbuster action-adventure extravaganza he should be, when you can make female stereotypes cry?

QUINT: And it seems that across the board people agree on Brandon Routh as Superman.

BRYAN SINGER: Well, that was the key. That was the key. I had to introduce this guy and if that didn't work... And sometimes it takes a certain kind of movie. And by the way, in terms of people's perceptions on domestic box office, this is going up in the face of PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, a sequel, but secondly... the last time a SUPERMAN movie was out was a long time ago and its cumulative domestic gross was $15 million.

First off, the box office questions must be bugging him since he stopped dead in his tracks on a question about Routh and went back to it. Secondly, he turns fanboy and pins the movies issues on POTC2, even though it was flat out of the gate for 9 days before POTC2 debuted. Then, like a drowning man he gets desperate and pulls out the box office gross of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace from 1987??? He basically felt that film was so bad he wrote it out of existence with his "pseudo-sequel" to Superman II, but now he wants to quote it for explaining the box office issues of Singerman???

QUINT: I've also noticed this trend in box office that is pretty different from how things used to work. Back in the day, even great sequels usually didn't match, much less surpass, the box office of the original. Now, I'm noticing that box office on sequels tend to reflect more on the film that came before it. Look at the box office for the MATRIX sequels (RELOADED was huge, REVOLUTIONS was half as big) and LORD OF THE RINGS, with each successive film making more money than the one before it. The box office seems to be genuinely affected by the film that came before it. Look at PIRATES and X2...
BRYAN SINGER: And X3! Look at the opening of X3! Jesus!

In a court of law, they'd call that "leading the witness." Singer seems more than happy to agree. Unfortunately for Quint, he's forgotten about a tiny film franchise called "Spider-man" that flies in the face of his supposed "trend" of sequels grossing more. He also seems to forget that sequels tend to "up the ante" which means bigger budgets, especially in the cases of the films he listed. Has Singerman really warranted a bigger budget sequel like X2 did? What's Singer going to do if WB brings him back (let's hope that's NOT the case) with a $150 million budget? He couldnt put enough action in a film with $204 million at his disposal, what the hell are we gonna get with less?

QUINT: I think that once you have that audience in place you'll hit it big. That why I keep telling people that a SUPERMAN sequel only makes sense for Warner Bros. It's a good time to have franchises right now... SUPERMAN RETURNS will make its money back no matter what...

Christ Quint can you unattach your lips from his rearend long enough to finish the interview? Usually I love your stuff , but c'mon man... "Superman Returns is the bestest in the world! Bryan Singer Rules! YAY!!!"

BRYAN SINGER: It already has!

Uhh no, no it hasn't. It still hasnt made it's money back considering the studio only sees about half the WW box office. It hasnt made it back now, and it surely hadn't done so at Comic Con. Perhaps sometime after DVD release the film will pass the breakeven point. You're living in a dream world, where Studios get 100% of the ticket revenue and Superman movies are for making lonely women cry.