Spoilers Superman (2025) Grade and Discussion

[JoeZhang]

The problem is that whole markets have decided that Superheroes (with exceptions like Spidey) are over - it puts a hard celling on box office.

 

[theenglish]

The problem is that whole markets have decided that Superheroes (with exceptions like Spidey) ard over - it puts a hard celling on box office.

It is still a pretty high ceiling. I would argue that studios just need to manage their expectations. The MCU studios never expected the success they had when Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk were made. Expectations were set way too high after Endgame and were impossible to sustain in the long term.

So the movies are not making the numbers they were making up until about three years ago. Superman and the Fantastic Four (and Captain America and Thunderbolts) have still done incredibly well.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Is it really superhero fatigue or cinema fatigue? I think lots of people have just fallen out of the habit of cinema since Covid and streaming. Look at how the last 2 Mission: Impossible films underperformed.

 

[theenglish]

Is it really superhero fatigue or cinema fatigue? I think lots of people have just fallen out of the habit of cinema since Covid and streaming. Look at how the last 2 Mission: Impossible films underperformed.

Like on the political spectrum, I think that baseline has moved over the past fifteen years. It used to be that only a few really expensive movies were made each year, and out of those few movies that were really expensive to produce only a few became "hits". Most movies made their money back after their theatrical release since home video became a thing, especially after the success of Batman in 1989.

The success of big tentpole expensive movies beginning in the early 00s pushed studios to invest more and more money up front. This came at the expense of medium budget movies that used to be the majority of what we saw in the theatre.

I'd argue that it may be time for the pendulum to swing back the other way. There will still be a place for the MCU and the DCU and other big budget movies, but just not as many of them.

 

[Mudd]

Is it really superhero fatigue or cinema fatigue? I think lots of people have just fallen out of the habit of cinema since Covid and streaming. Look at how the last 2 Mission: Impossible films underperformed.

Covid broke American culture almost as fundamentally as 9/11. It will be decades, yet...