A World Without Superheroes
By Paul Bernardo paulieb2003@gmail.com
The Marvels, the sequel to the big hit Captain Marvel was released just recently. The first movie, debuted with a whopping $153 million domestic opening weekend. That is definitely a hit movie, and that was back in 2019. Waiting four years for a sequel, and the world has changed. The sequel to the mega blockbuster earned only $46 million domestic in its opening weekend. No, no limited release. Same amount of theaters, maybe 100 less across America – but still – a $100 million dollar difference between the two movies. Incredible. Same actors playing the same roles, maybe even better uniforms, who knows. Same glowing reviews, just completely different fan reaction.
No critic has panned this sequel, no fan has said this movie was horrible, no bad word of mouth, nothing derogatory has been said about this film. Some even say it’s better than the first one that made $153 million in its opening weekend. So why the major fallout? Well let’s look at DC.
DC is actually doing worse. It’s past 3 films got panned by critics and were hated by fans and did very poorly in the box office. Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash and Blue Beetle are movies that DC would love to forget.
Shazam! FOG opened with $30 million. Flash with $55 million. Blue with $25 million. All 4 films opened in around 4,000 theaters, which is a major release. Shazam starred the same people as the first, which opened at $53 million. Not stellar at all, but I guess they were hoping for an increase or a growth of fan base from the first, and the exact opposite happened.
So why all these bombs and failures? Marvel is actually making movies that fans like and still no one is going to see them. Is it streaming? Are we spoiled now and don’t feel like paying $20 for a single ticket, and $30 for popcorn and sodas?
The last big hit DC has was The Batman with Robert Pattinson at $134 million in 2022. Yes, movies can still open big, but who knows what it takes now. Apparently Batman is the only who continues to perform extremely well, no matter what actor is in the costume.
Marvel’s last big hit was Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, also in 2022 with $181 million. Marvel definitely has less duds then DC, but Thor seems to be their weak spot, and I hear they plan on making even more. Thor makes them money, but fans seem to be completely divided on it. Some say Love and Thunder killed the franchise, others say it made it even more enjoyable.
DC has had the bad run as of late. Those past 3 films I mentioned were very bad financially and critically. DC seems lost, and now with Aquaman 2 coming out for the holidays, nobody is expecting good things to come from it.
So what happened? Why did America fall out of love with superheroes? Comic books are doing great. Graphic novels doing great. No loss of love there at all from the fans. Comic Book conventions are still packing them in. Are we ready to drop this Hollywood craze of superheroes?
Maybe the CGI and VFX have become normal now. Maybe they don’t wow us as they used to. Maybe it’s nothing exciting to us anymore. I mean we have pretty much come to expect great things. Audiences are so used to great VFX in fact that they can tell when they are horrible and call them out on it. The Flash was famous for that, as was WW84. Fans and audiences were just disgusted with those movies, even thinking they could do a better job, and they probably could with the right software.
Have audiences grown up and gotten past the simple visual pleasures? Could it be possible that they are tired of these films saving the world every single time? No personal struggles, no moral issues, no personal problems at all? I mean, these films have nothing we can relate to. How many of us have saved NYC from an alien invasion? How many of us have to save Asgard every day? Do we crave actual substance? Are done with the sugary cereal with the Ovaltine decoder ring in it?
I know we are not tired of the characters – the books and conventions are more popular than ever. I think Hollywood has gotten into a cookie cutter factory mentality and forgotten that these mediums are films, not posters and not paintings. It is not
just a visual medium, there must be story that goes along with this magnificent visuals that light up the 2 story screen.
Now there is talk of bringing back Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man, even though he died, and there is time travel now to contend with, and 8 multiple universes that we know of, that each universe has the same superhero. So 8 Hulks, 8 Thors, 8 AntMan, 8 Captain America, I mean it is getting really ridiculous now and I hope they can pull it all back, and go back to a simple story of simple men with simple problems that we can all relate to.
I don’t think superhero movies are done, but apparently Hollywood has to go through a learning curve to find the right balance of joy, visuals and internal conflict. It would be wise of them to take notes on what the comic books do and have done for over 60 years. They have not only held their audience, but added audiences throughout the years. Ironically, you don’t do that by saving the world every single month.
