(Welcome to Tales from the Box Office, our column that examines box office miracles, disasters, and everything in between, as well as what we can learn from them.)Cinematic universes are all the rage now but it’s easy to forget how recent a phenomenon this actually is.
The notion of a cinematic universe didn’t really exist until around 2010 when it became clear what Marvel Studios was doing with its various superhero franchises in the lead-up to the record-breaking “The Avengers” in the summer of 2012.
Sure, we had Kevin Smith’s films making up the View Askewniverse starting with “Clerks” in 1994 — not to mention Universal’s monster movie crossovers from decades earlier.
Still, once Marvel perfected the model, Hollywood chased it down rabidly.
Sometimes it works, and sometimes it fails spectacularly.
But arguably nobody has done it better this side of Marvel than James Wan and “The Conjuring” universe.Wan…
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