It is clear that Kevin Feige and his ambitious MCU did not invent superhero cinema, but there is no doubt that, following the premiere of ‘Iron Man’ and the first bars of the large-scale narrative of Phase 1, the already established subgenre has ended up becoming in one of the most important pop phenomena of the last fifteen years. But, like everything in this life, and despite its overwhelming success, what goes up ends up going down sooner or later.
For quite some time now, we have been predicting the collapse of what could be nothing more than a fad that is not so fleeting, with theories and bad omens that are more unfounded than desirable. The last Comic-Con left us thinking about it after Marvel Studios announced its supercharged calendar for the next few years, but finally, we have concrete facts that point to the depletion of capes, superpowers and masks.
These are none other than the hits at the international box office of the last two productions of La casa de las ideas and its eternal rival DC; a couple of disasters titled ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ and ‘Shazam! The fury of the gods’ suggesting the end of an era. But is this real? Is the public saturated or are they once again two exceptions within the inexhaustible vein rule? Let’s try to shed some light on it.
I refer to the data
As Vice President Yolanda Díaz does, let’s cling to the data to expose the issue at hand, beginning with the case of the new adventure of Ant-Man. The feature film directed by Paul Rudd surprised locals and strangers by starting its journey at the box office with 120 million dollars during its first weekend; a figure that far exceeded its two predecessors, which debuted with 57 and 76 million respectively.
However, the debacle for the film directed by Peyton Reed was not related to the devastating criticism it received, but to its resounding fall in the box office during its second weekend, estimated between 70% and 72%. A percentage that set a negative record for the MCU falling below titles like ‘Black Widow’ and ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’.
Focusing on the Distinguished Competition we come across the return of Shazam in ‘The fury of the gods’. David F. Sandberg’s title debuted with a disappointing 30.5 million dollars in his pocket, remaining 43% below what was amassed by the character’s first adventure on the big screen and far from the 67 raised by ‘Black Adam’.
With these cards on the table, the temptation to think about bursting the superhero bubble is more present than ever. But before letting ourselves be swept away by the strangely warm waters of catastrophism, it is worth trying to understand what is behind these commercial failures.
End of cycle
Rather than facing the definitive wear and tear of a formula, it seems that we are facing the consequences of the end of the cycle. Something that, of course, is not in conflict with the fact that both productions have been marked by their particular problems, which begin with the little pull that its main characters have shown to have among the regular public.
In the case of ‘Ant-Man’, his status as hinge film between Phase 4 and Phase 5 may have played a determining role in its poor performance at the box office. Something to which should be added the chaos that has surrounded its production particularly with regard to a visual effects department that has been in the eye of the hurricane for a long time between accusations of crunch and poor working conditions.
For its part, ‘Shazam! The fury of the gods’ has been overshadowed by the change of era within DC Films, reflecting the past of a franchise in the process of reinventing itself. The arrival of James Gunn and Peter Safran after the disaster of the SnyderVerse has launched a clean slate that has left this film condemned to oblivion, not by the respectable, but by that of a study itself that He doesn’t seem to have made much of an effort to keep her alive..
On the other side of the coin we have a Marvel Studios that aspires to straighten its course after Bob Iger’s return to Disney. The executive is committed to prioritizing quality over quality, and his arrival continues to reshape the structure of the macro-project team, his latest victim being Victoria Alonso, who has left the company after 17 years in business and after being identified as responsible of the criticized management of the VFX teams.
The little pleases, the much…
As logical as what has been exposed so far may be, there is room for the idea that, in reality, what happened with the last two Marvel and DC films is only fruit of the progressive weariness of an audience somewhat tired of the saturation of content that reaches the big and the small screen month after month, especially with regard to the catalog of La casa de las ideas.
As juicy as it may seem in economic terms —which it is—, the need to follow countless series and movies to follow the narrative of a shared universe can be a double-edged sword, and one only has to look at what happened with the third season of ‘The Mandalorian’, whose first episode had 23% less audience than the second season —I, for example, haven’t gotten to her yet, since I omitted ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ out of laziness.
The truly thorny thing about the matter is that James Gunn and Peter Safran have already dropped that their plan for the Distinguished Competition involves imitating the Marvel Studios model and build a single story between series, movies, comics and video games. As much as their characters interest me—which they do—the mere thought makes me roll my eyes.
And now, the big question: Are we at the beginning of the end of superhero cinema as we know it? Personally, I wouldn’t dare make such a drastic claim, preferring to choose to believe in a change in general strategy to chain more box office failures throughout this 2023 —’Guardians of the Galaxy 3′ will not be one of them, that’s clear.
For now, in the Mouse House they have already warned that they will reduce their number of annual series, because it is already known that the little pleases, and the much angers…