Kingsman: The Secret Service has been one of the year’s biggest surprises. Crushing box office and fan expectations, the adaptation of Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons’ graphic novel was 2015’s first runaway hit.
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No one was more thrilled by this than Millar, who less than year ago, was about the only person aware of the movie’s existence. How a strong-word-of mouth can change everything. And now, Millar’s world of super-spy action has a whole new audience to dazzle with its home video release next week. With Kingsman fever set to strike again, Millar spoke with ComicBook.com about the film’s road to success, the possibility of a shared Millarworld universe, and his thoughts on Fox’s upcoming Fantastic Four.
We’re here! The DVD and digital release of Kingsman is just around the corner, so what’s it like to hit this point in the release cycle? In your experience, how does the excitement of a home video release compare to a theatrical release?
It’s been nice, but it’s been a relief as well. When a comic comes out there is a pre-established audience. You know roughly what you’re going to sell. You know there’s a set number of people who like your books and will pick it up. But with movies, you really gamble a lot of money every time. You can put Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp in a movie and not sell one ticket. There are no guarantees in movies. Even the day Kingsman was released, I never asked how much money we made, because there was a huge snow storm in the UK at the time. It ended up hitting our numbers by about 50%, and when those numbers came back a friend of mine who runs another studio said to me “Oh, I don’t think your movie’s going to do that well.” Things like that can happen.There could be a ball game on, there could be a really sunny weekend, and you lose your good opening weekend.
So many things can not work. We were so lucky that the next day, the movie banked in and was gigantic. It’s a relief, like having a baby. Right up until that last minute you just hope and pray it’s all going to go well. And the fact that Kingsman made about twice as much money as I expected was lovely, and it’s great for my other projects as well. Because suddenly, the studios do not feel so nervous about putting $100 million into my next project. So I can think, well, we can hopefully make a lot of money back.
Kingsman also snowballed via word of mouth, and it seemed like everyone was talking about it. Given your initial fears, that initial reaction must have felt exciting. What was it like for you to see the fanbase latch on to Kingsman like it did?
Well, I remember at last year’s San Diego Comic Con, I was doing a book signing for Kingsman, and I would says most of the people people who had bought the paperback and waited in line for an hour didn’t even know there was a movie being made. And I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ There was no awareness for this movie whatsoever. It was nothing, and I remember the movie initially was going to come out about 14 weeks later, in November. I went up to Fox with the PR people the week after Comic Con and everybody was all delighted. They had all seen the movie and loved it, but I was like, “no one knows this movie is coming out!”
In the end, I think moving the movie back was the best thing that ever happened to us, because the awareness actually started to grow. It’s funny you bring it up, because I saw the Fox guy’s faces go pale when I told them that even the people at Comic Con who were getting their books signed didn’t know the movie was coming out.
Once they realized that, they came up with some really brilliant ideas. Somebody said, the best thing we have going for us is the movie itself. So what they’d done was screen the movie to literally thousands of people and then the world of mouth started to build online. It was crazy, because the trailers weren’t catching fire at all. We were hardly getting any buzz from them. But once the movie itself started screening in New York, in London, California and the like, suddenly it caught fire and it went everywhere. By the time it came out there really was an appetite for it.
Were you worried at all about the movie’s R rating? For those who have read the book, they knew what they were getting into – but for the much larger audience that didn’t, was there hesitation that Kingsman might be, too much?
Oh no, there was never a consideration to do otherwise. It’s kind of like The Exorcist. I’m sure there was a PG 13 cut of The Exorcist they could have done, but it wouldn’t have been The Exorcist. It would’ve been a really crappy horror movie. Likewise, what made this movie interesting was the fact that everything was turned up to 11. If you turned it down to 7.5, that’s not going to be that interesting. The fun of this movie was that it crossed the line, you know. The rating is something that Matthew never even thought about. Matthew independently financed this movie, then gave it to the studio. It was always going to be an R rated movie when he handed it over. There was no negotiation on that.
Some of your projects, like Kick Ass, span multiple volumes, while others are contained to just one story. So is Kingsman a world you want to explore further?
To be honest, I’ve just focused on my other stuff. I wrote Secret Service four and a half years ago. That’s quite a long time ago, so it hasn’t really been in my head apart from the movie. There’s a lot of chatter and a lot of thought on that, but I haven’t even thought about an actual second story. Matthew and Jane have got some ideas, but it would be an original story with me as a participant. I’ve no plans at the moment, but you never know. Maybe …
As MillarWorld grows, you’ve hinted that pieces of your books and characters have some links that tie them all together. Is that something you’re looking to lean into as the books progress, and possibly build something like a shared cinematic universe?
I think so. I’ve got fun little things that do sort of loosely tie together. But I think we’re almost getting to that point with Marvel now where you’re starting to think, “Oh this is just part of a puzzle,” as opposed to a film in it’s own right. And there’s something a little bit unsatisfying when you get up close and see the sequence, but then lengthen it for other things. It’s a bit like in the 90’s when you used to by one comic and then realize you have to buy four to understand what was happening. I don’t want to be as overt as that.
I would rather do it in subtle ways, where you maybe see someone running across a rooftop in the background of Starlight or something like that. I like the idea of little, subtle things. Maybe have the a poster on the walls across multiple series. I’d rather play it that way, I think. But maybe a couple years down the line, we do a series with everyone in it. I think that could be really fun to update across the whole project.
How do you fit it all in a day? Between comics, charity work, your creator-owned movie work, and Marvel movie work for Fox, it just doesn’t seem possible.
I spend as little time I can to get it all done. I’m actually very strict with it. I do 12 hour days Monday to Thursday. So I do 40 hours over Monday through Thursday and then I take Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off to spend with the family.
It’s actually quite a nice system. My younger children get me up really early anyway, so I’m awake around 6:00 AM, and I work from about 7:00AM until 7:00 PM. Then I finish just in time for dinner and to read them a bedtime story. That’s only four days a week, so you can actually really recharge by Monday. By the time I get back I’ve had three days off. And usually on Fridays, we do a little charity work and things like that. We do a few things, usually a half day on a Friday we’ll go do charity stuff and then the rest of the time we do fun stuff. And then on Saturday and Sunday, we just hang out.
All my friends think I’m like the laziest guy ever cause they all just see me kicking it on a Friday. I’m just playing at the swing park and things. So to everyone outside the business I just look lazy. My family doesn’t believe I have a job. My brothers all think I don’t have a job. My brothers just see me dressed casually in sweat pants and things, sitting there at the house unshaven all day. I think they just feel sorry for me.
Speaking of some of the Fox stuff, have you seen Fantastic Four yet?
I’ve seen chunks of it, not the complete movie, but it’s looking good. What I’m really excited for is to see how many people are surprised by it. I remember everybody bitching about Fantastic Four for about six months then the trailer came out and everyone was like, ‘This is really good.’ I think it’ll surprise people.
Surprise people how?
You don’t want to be in a position where everyone is expecting something and then they’re disappointed. I think people are coming in and just hoping for the best. I think that’s a good way to watch a movie.
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Are you excited to watch Kingsman over and over again in the comfort of your own home? Looking forward to Fantastic Four? Let us know in the comments below!
Kingsman: The Secret Service is available now on Digital HD and on Blu-ray and DVD June 9th.
