Are Superhero films dying?

[Tonguez]

The Superhero genre is evolving, we are in a lull, it will change and expand and consume...

 

[AnotherGuy]

I dunno, maybe. People seem to have other interests or things to worry about. This also appears to coincide with an increase of poorly written, poorly thought out movies/series but I'm no culture expert.

 

[wicked cool]

Super hero movies are dying because Hollywood has decided to stick bad directors with bad actors and bad plots
Guardians 3, Spider-Man, new Batman show there’s an appetite.
I’m not sick of dinosaur movies but Hollywood stopped caring

 

[Wolfram stout]

Count me in with the Its evolving but not going away crowd. I don't see why Superhero movies would die any more than the Rom-Com, or the general action movie.

People (groups not individuals) like what is familar (that is a generality not a hard rule). So, studios with play with the formula while still giving us the now familar characters and such, with an occassional breakout.

 

[MarkB]

I haven't reached any kind of saturation point where my interest in superhero movies is concerned. Nevertheless, I've only seen a handful of decent superhero movies over the last several years, because there's only been a handful of decent superhero movies in that period.

If they're dying it's through lack of effort, not lack of audience.

 

[aco175]

I saw something with Matt Damon talking about new movies coming out and how studios are not taking risks. There is no DVD aftermarket sales to boost the revenue by 20% anymore, so the movies are remakes and sequels that have worked in the past. There is also a world market component and how movies are seen in other countries that affect the movie direction. It is not exclusive of course, but it makes sense.

 

[payn]

I saw something with Matt Damon talking about new movies coming out and how studios are not taking risks. There is no DVD aftermarket sales to boost the revenue by 20% anymore, so the movies are remakes and sequels that have worked in the past. There is also a world market component and how movies are seen in other countries that affect the movie direction. It is not exclusive of course, but it makes sense.

The risk is now on the streaming screen.

 

[MGibster]

Preteens love toys and merchandising of superheroes, but teenages have stopped to buy comics. It is not only because manga is more popular, but also because we are in the age of videogames, where the main characters are designed with a balance between power and vulnerability, succes and failure. For the point of view of the gamers the superheroes are "overpowered" and so boring and annoying as the Mary Sue. Where is the challenge if they are too "perfect"?

Apparently Disney is having some trouble moving toys these days. A lot of Marvel and Star Wars toys aren't selling at regular retailers like Target or Walmart and end up being sold for steep discounts at places like Ollies. i.e. Retailers who specalize in selling overstock at a discount. When the merchandise stops selling I imagine that's something that factors into the decision on what kind of movies to make.

 

[Willie the Duck]

I think it is a plateau/cyclic. I think what everyone else has said about saturation and economics is also pretty important. Super hero movies are still moving large amounts of numbers at the box office (at least with regards to box office numbers in general, see above points about cinema dying, DVD sales, etc.). They just aren't doing so compared to production costs. I think that's half because saturation has meant that everyone doesn't come out for each movie, and half because the production cost bar has been raised so high that only pre-covid/pre-streaming good office returns would recoup the cost.

 

[Yora]

Well, I hope so.

Free up the studio money to create interesting expensive movies for people who really don't care about superhero movies.