‘Superhero Fatigue’ Is Getting Shredded in Real Time
These costumed heroes are racking up massive pre-sales predictions
No one denies that “Supergirl” is one of the year’s biggest busts.
The Man of Steel’s kin couldn’t draw a crowd, eking past the $70 million mark in U.S. theaters. Blame “misogyny,” the lingering COVID-19 fallout (the media’s favorite tic) or just extreme summer competition.
It led to another dubious excuse – “superhero fatigue.”
We’ve been inundated with costumed heroes since “Iron Man” debuted back in 2008. Now, decades later, audiences want something new. Something different. Something … like Spider-Man.
Huh?
The box office predictions for “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” out July 31, are off the charts. Think well north of $200 million in its debut frame. It could soar as high as $250 million.
Interest in the film’s trailer alone broke records.
“Spider-Man: No Way Home” has already broken records, with the first trailer for the hotly-anticipated film amassing 718 million views in 24 hours back in March to become the biggest trailer debut of all time. It later became the first movie trailer to cross 1 billion views, which it did in just four days.
What fatigue?
And then there’s “Avengers: Doomsday.” The fifth film in that MCU series, out Dec. 18, released its first full trailer this week. It also began the pre-sales process for the title, which features Robert Downey, Jr. as the movie’s villain, Doctor Doom.
The official Marvel trailer snagged 43 million views in just two days.
Plus, that first day of ticket availability went better than most people expected. The film sold $16.5 million in tickets, a hefty sum considering the buyers have to wait roughly five months to see the film.
Plus, Variety makes a noteworthy comparison to another superhero juggernaut:
“Doomsday” pre-sales are twice as high as the first-day figures for Marvel’s prior superhero mashup, 2024’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” — and that included all formats and screens on sale. “Deadpool & Wolverine” launched to $211 million and ended its run with $1.3 billion to become the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time.
We’ve seen plenty of mediocre superhero films in recent years (and “mediocre” is kind for some of these titles):
- “Black Adam“
- “Supergirl“
- “Blue Beetle”
- “The Marvels“
- “Madame Web”
- “Kraven the Hunter”
- “Captain America: Brave New World“
Those lackluster stories, more than any superhero fatigue, explain the genre’s box office dip.
What future superhero film are you most eager to see … and why?
People like familiarity. All those movies on your list of flops are mostly minor characters.
Just like all the new Pixar ideas flop but anything with “Toy Story” in it breaks box office records.
Audiences never had superhero fatigue. They do have lousy movie fatigue. They’re tired of being spoon-fed badly written, woke slop and being expected to lap it up just because CGI and capes are involved.