By Benjamin Rothove
Superhero movies have dominated the box office for the past two decades, but their popularity is finally waning. After 2019’s Avengers: Endgame crushed box office records, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has seen diminishing returns, with disappointments such as Black Widow and Eternals underscoring this decline. So, what happened?
Between 2008’s Iron Man and 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was a carefully planned saga consisting of twenty-two films spanning eleven years. Between 2021 and 2024, fifteen movies are planned for release, alongside at least twenty television series and additional specials. Rather than a Marvel releasing being a biannual cinematic event, the executives at Disney decided that the sludge must flow. Now, a new MCU property is released almost every week. Even die-hard fans are having trouble keeping up with the storyline, and most casual viewers have given up.
The model of releasing television series on Disney Plus that are central to the movie’s storyline has failed, as evidenced by the disjointed Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. In order to be comprehensible, an audience member must be familiar with every previous cinematic release as well as the television series Wandavision. Moreover, in order to appreciate certain story threads, you would need to be familiar with Fox’s X-Men franchise as well as the “Fantastic Four.” This alienated large swaths of the audience and showed that even previous juggernauts are not able to pull the audience numbers that they used to.
Perhaps more important than the oversaturation of content is the lack of direction. The previous 22-film saga had a clearly-defined villain from almost the beginning, and the MacGuffin storyline with the Infinity Stones tied the overarching story together. However, since Thanos was defeated, no new villain has risen to fill his shoes. All of the properties released since Endgame have been meandering through the aftermath, but have largely failed to create a captivating overarching storyline. If Marvel is not able to produce a new big bad, audiences will no longer have an incentive to continue watching the films and shows.
Accompanying the lack of direction is a severe decline in quality. Eternals was the first Marvel film to be accompanied by a “Rotten” score on Rotten Tomatoes, while other films such as Doctor Strange 2 and Thor 4 were seen as major disappointments as well. But more so than the films, the television shows released on Disney Plus have been regarded as a failure. While none of them have been particularly successful, two major failures come to mind. Falcon and the Winter Soldier had a disappointing narrative, underwhelming reveals, and a finale that has been subject to ridicule. Moreover, She-Hulk had been mocked before it was even released due its shoddy CGI. After the series was released, it has been subject to even more criticism. At one point, the main character twerks in her office with the rapper Megan Thee Stallion.
Thus far, I have resisted mentioning the primary rival to the MCU: The DC Extended Universe. Beginning with 2013’s Man of Steel, the DCEU has had a troublesome history. Man of Steel received a lukewarm reception, and its spinoff/sequel Batman Vs. Superman was critically panned and bombed at the box office. Followed by more disappointments such as Suicide Squad and Birds of Prey, the DCEU has become the laughing stock of fandoms. However, DC is piloting a model that may be more palatable to audiences in 2022: separate film franchises. Rather than an interconnected universe, DC seems to be looking forward to creating separate universes for each character. This approach is working, with Joker becoming the highest-grossing R-rated film ever, and The Batman receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews from audiences. Perhaps the superhero film is not dead, but rather just the Marvel film.