Are superhero movies finally becoming less profitable among audiences?

[Landslide Lyndon]

The latest comic book movies underperformed because they were mediocre and featured B-level characters. If Guardians 3 is as good as expected then all this talk about comic book movie fatigue will look pretty silly, again.

[Landslide Lyndon]

The latest comic book movies underperformed because they were mediocre and featured B-level characters. If Guardians 3 is as good as expected then all this talk about comic book movie fatigue will look pretty silly, again.

That's the MCU's secret; they're always mediocre.

I'm frankly tired of all this snobbish criticism of the MCU. The same arrogant dismissal of genre movies has been the norm forever whether it was westerns and film noirs in the 40s and 50s, sci-fi and action movies in the 70's and 80's, or comic book movies in the 21st century.

[Landslide Lyndon]

It's not a "take." It's an objective fact that those films took zero effort to write, storyboard, produce, film, or act in. They're the dumbest things ever to infest the theaters and they are enjoyed almost exclusively by an army of neckbearded man-children who collect Funko Pop dolls and will watch literally anything that has their favorite brand logo on the poster. Rogue One is also one of the worst films ever made, if not the absolute worst (relative to its budget).

Wow! I doubt that even the most jaded Academy members and movie critics reek so much of elitism.
I guess your idea of a fun evening is watching social dramas from third world countries about the evils of post-colonialism and character studies about drug addicts who try to battle their inner demons.

[Landslide Lyndon]

personally i don't hate superhero movies because they're all bad or because i hate the fanbase (though they can get pretty annoying like every fanbase can); the reason i hate superhero movies is that the film industry at a certain point is zero-sum and these movies with their inflated budgets, their all-star casting, and all of this manufactured insecurity about "elitism" the second anybody deigns to critique them... these films push other worthy movies out of production entirely, sucking up all of the funding, talent, and screen space in theaters; or worse, they "influence" them (read: a studio said it would make more money if you added explosions and a really bad romantic B-plot). this is a phenomenon that has already devastated broadway; i am not interested in having this happen to film as well.

the batman is the only superhero film i have thoroughly enjoyed

I'm sorry but if you were concerned about studio resources being wasted in bad movies then the main target of your resentment should have been the Transformers or Fast & Furious franchises. Especially the former which has absolutely zero redeeming qualities.
That fact that instead you (plural) constantly bitch and whine about the MCU and comic book movies in general, which in most cases actually have a story to tale and a message/moral to impart, shows to me that you aren't arguing in good faith.

[Landslide Lyndon]

personally i don't hate superhero movies because they're all bad or because i hate the fanbase (though they can get pretty annoying like every fanbase can); the reason i hate superhero movies is that the film industry at a certain point is zero-sum and these movies with their inflated budgets, their all-star casting, and all of this manufactured insecurity about "elitism" the second anybody deigns to critique them... these films push other worthy movies out of production entirely, sucking up all of the funding, talent, and screen space in theaters; or worse, they "influence" them (read: a studio said it would make more money if you added explosions and a really bad romantic B-plot). this is a phenomenon that has already devastated broadway; i am not interested in having this happen to film as well.

the batman is the only superhero film i have thoroughly enjoyed

I'm sorry but if you were concerned about studio resources being wasted in bad movies then the main target of your resentment should have been the Transformers or Fast & Furious franchises. Especially the former which has absolutely zero redeeming qualities.
That fact that instead you (plural) constantly bitch and whine about the MCU and comic book movies in general, which in most cases actually have a story to tale and a message/moral to impart, shows to me that you aren't arguing in good faith.

are transformers and racing movies currently the problem?

Considering that they are vastly inferior to even the worst MCU movie, yes.

[Landslide Lyndon]

It's not a "take." It's an objective fact that those films took zero effort to write, storyboard, produce, film, or act in. They're the dumbest things ever to infest the theaters and they are enjoyed almost exclusively by an army of neckbearded man-children who collect Funko Pop dolls and will watch literally anything that has their favorite brand logo on the poster. Rogue One is also one of the worst films ever made, if not the absolute worst (relative to its budget).

Wow! I doubt that even the most jaded Academy members and movie critics reek so much of elitism.
I guess your idea of a fun evening is watching social dramas from third world countries about the evils of post-colonialism and character studies about drug addicts who try to battle their inner demons.

There are plenty of great action movies. Why can’t Marvel neckbeards conceive of the fact that people just hate their movies, and it doesn’t have anything to do with “elitism?” It’s like they know there’s no artistic defense of these films and so they just call anyone who dislikes them “biased.” You don’t see this type of pathetic parasocial excuse-making from any other fan community.

Saying you don't like Marvel films is one thing. Angrily denouncing them as worse than Hitler is another.

[Landslide Lyndon]

I don't recall ever saying such a thing. Though to be fair, Triumph of the Will has more artistic merit than anything Marvel has ever produced.

Did Kevin Feige steal your girlfriend or something like that?
That would explain your Marvel Derangement Syndrome.

[Landslide Lyndon]

It's an objective fact.

There is no such thing if we are talking about art.
Your ignorance is showing.

[Landslide Lyndon]

It's an objective fact.

There is no such thing if we are talking about art.
Your ignorance is showing.

But we're not talking about art. We're talking about comic book movies.

A kid making a doodle on a paper is art.
Your ignorance is really overwhelming.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Why should I be surprised that talking to Lyndon about film is just as unproductive as talking to him about politics?

If you like those dumbass Marvel movies, defend them. Explain why you think they're examples of good storytelling and make cogent arguments. I understand that your posting ability is limited to uncreative ad-hominems, but at this point you're not even trying to justify your position.

So much anger.

[Landslide Lyndon]

As more and more movies are made, it becomes harder to find an original idea that could actually land with the audience. Not every movie needs to be original anyways. Sometimes it’s nice to know what to expect from a movie

Yeah, originality is good but not the be-all, end-all, in a movie. "Creed" was amazing despite the fact that it was the seventh chapter in the Rocky franchise.
And I doubt that the wider audiences crave for original films. If they were then perfectly good and entertaining movies like "The Nice Guys" or "Booksmart" wouldn't have bombed in the box office.

[Landslide Lyndon]

You’re assuming that if those mega budget sequels/remakes weren’t made, quality movies would made instead. The more likely alternative is that these new, “original” movies would also be garbage. As you said, the production companies are run by unimaginative hacks. The only reason why they’re making dumb remakes in the first place is because they can’t come up with anything new that they could profit off of.

Wrong. There are thousands of screenwriters out there developing original screenplays with legitimate potential. And my argument does not require a conclusion that all the alternative movies would be good. All I'm saying is that one Marvel turd = five or six alternative films, and if just one of those films turned out to be good, it would be a worthy tradeoff.

Dude, stick to politics where at least you can muddle through and stop talking about movies and movie-making where your ignorance on every possible level is almost physically painful.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Also, Disney isn't a "monopoly" in any meaningful sense of the word. They have monopolies on specific, individual IPs-- not an entire industry. I hate them as much as anyone, but they're not at the threshold where I would ever consider using antitrust laws against them.

As far as anti-trust statute is concerned, this entirely depends on how you instrumentalize the market where Disney has a substantial concentration. For example, U.S. v Microsoft Corporation found that the company controlled 90%+ of the market for "Intel-compatible PC operating systems". Note that this is a subset of all personal computer operating systems and not the entire market as would otherwise be defined.

If we define the market for Disney as all audiovisual entertainment produced in FY 2022, then yes, Disney has nowhere near enough market concentration to be considered a monopoly. If, on the other hand, we instrumentalize the market as domestic wide releases for superhero films in calendar year 2022, then it's not looking good for the mouse.

Nothing is stopping anyone else from making superhero movies, though.  DC is owned by Warner Bros and there are also superhero films being produced by other studios.  If Disney were engaging in anti-competitive behavior such as telling theaters they could only show Disney superhero films, or if they bought TikTok and removed clips of any superhero content other than Disney-owned superheroes, then that would be monopolistic behavior.

As it stands now it is the same argument that people have been trying (and failing) to make about Google for years -- that it is a monopoly entirely because of its 90%+ market share, despite operating in a space with no barriers to entry and plenty of (weak) competitors.  Now with all the hype about ChatGPT turning Bing into a "Google slayer", we can see that there never was any monopoly, because people are giving credulity to the idea that a competitor could take Google's place purely by creating a better product.

From my experience, DC fans outnumber Marvel ones. DC owns after all the two most popular superheroes in the world (Superman, Batman). A Batman v Superman movie ought to bring in 2 billions without breaking a sweat.