The Future of The Crow, Part 2: The Entertainment Industry 

The future of The Crow from an entertainment industry perspective is positive, with new projects being started or in the works. However, as with anything, there are peaks and valleys along the way.  Below we will look at those peaks and valleys and how they are shaping the future.

Comics
The internet and other visually expansive mediums have taken a large chunk out of the comic industry.  The failure of the Image comics to be successful has the industry cautious about other Crow projects. It has gone virtually unnoticed by fans that Salvation has no comic series coming out. With all the negative indicators, there is a bright light for the future, however. O'Barr is re-releasing the original Crow story with new covers, added storyboards, as well as other changes. It has also been reported he is working on a brand new Crow story. He is doing both projects through BlueMonkey comics. Perhaps this will give the Crow comics the kick-start that they need.

Novels
There are two more Crow novels due out in 2000. Overall, the novels have been received positively by fans.  Poppy Z. Brite's novel, Lazarus Heart, has been the most successful of the Crow novels to date. The others have not achieved the same success from a sales standpoint, but sales have been good enough that Harper/Collins signed on for three more novels.  The first, Temple of Night, was released in November of 1999 and the other two are scheduled to be released in 2000. 

Merchandise
Though the comics put out by McFarlane's comic company, Image, were not a major success, his Movie Maniacs II figure, Eric Draven, proved to be a very hot item last year. McFarlane tapped into a sense of nostalgia with the Draven figure. Crow t-shirts and other paraphernalia still continue to do a brisk business online and elsewhere.

Music
The one thing that has been a constant is the success of the soundtracks and scores for The Crow. Therecently released Salvation soundtrack and score have received mixed responses from fans and critics.From a sales standpoint, they have not burned up the charts. This is most likely due to the movie not beingout. Fans are not able to connect the visuals from the movie with the tone and mood of the music.This is a very important aspect for fans of The Crow. Sales should increase once the movie is out intheaters.

Movies
 Miramax/Dimension missed a tremendous opportunity to kick off “the coming” of a new Crow movie. As evidenced by the success of the Draven figure, fans feel a very high sense of nostalgia for the first movie and even more so for Eric Draven/Brandon Lee. Had the folks at Miramax/Dimension been paying attention, they would have seen a great opportunity to re-release The Crow, with added/deleted scenes, to theaters on Halloween 1999.  What better way to prep fans for a new millennium and movie, than re-releasing the original movie. Fans have been told that there are plans for a re-release to theaters and DVD in the future, but I think the opportune time was missed to get some positive momentum building up for the release of Salvation.   

TV Series
With no official word either way, the TV series' future is unknown. There has been quite a bit of fan speculation as to whether it should or should not come back.  Of all the projects that have been connected with The Crow over the last few years, STH has been the most positive from a standpoint of reaching new fans and pulling them into the whole world of The Crow.    

Final Thoughts
As you can see from the listings above, the future of The Crow, from an entertainment industry perspective, is positive. However, if The Crow movies are not given more priority than, what appears, Miramax/Dimension has given to Salvation, the future could be dark. As I stated in the fan perspective article on the future, a great many fans base their perceptions of The Crow on the movies. With the countless delays Salvation has been through, fans will not continue to allow themselves to be emotionally pulled back and forth. The people at Pressman have got to be feeling the same frustration. Universal jerked them around with attaining the rights to Stairway to Heaven. Now, the folks at Miramax/Dimension are doing the same with the release of Salvation.  The future looks bright, but someone needs to stay awake at the wheel, otherwise The Crow could be headed for a crash.

Take care,

LLcruize