DC and Marvel have had a terrible year. What comes next?
If you’re a fan of movies about comic book superheroes, 2023 really isn’t your year. In November, Wonders Record the worst opening weekend box office of any film in the 15-year history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom It performed even worse over the Christmas holiday, bringing in just $40 million over the four-day weekend. These are terrible numbers for any major studio release, let alone sequels that have grossed over $1 billion worldwide. Only two comic book movies made the top ten this year, and a third Guardians of the Galaxy The film is in fourth place with a global gross of $845 million, and Through the spider verse Two more places with $690 million – the worst finish for the genre since 2015, not counting the coronavirus-disrupted 2020. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom It’ll probably make its way to the top of the list, but right now, the three worst-performing films in the DC Comics universe were all released in 2023. It’s a truly shocking stumble for what a year ago still seemed like an unstoppable cultural hit. Juggernaut.
The most you can add to this flash crash is that it is the movie industry’s equivalent of a stock market correction, almost freeing Disney and Warner Bros. from the idea that they can produce substandard products with over-the-top clothes and expect fans to flock in. To it out of a sense of duty or FOMO. Strong performance for across the Spider verse And last year Batman ($771 million) is an indication that audiences are not tired of all superhero movies, per se, but specifically of the sprawling, unwieldy universes that now span television as well as multiplex screens. Studios are responding accordingly: The DC Universe is headed back to square one by 2025 Superman: Legacy, and Marvel was scrambling to rethink its strategy even before Jonathan Majors’ assault conviction led Disney to cut ties with the actor who was supposed to serve as the MCU’s Big Bad for the next several years. This leaves 2024 with the lowest-grossing list of superhero films in recent memory, with only the Marvel films Deadpool 3 And the capital Joker: Folie à Deux One of the biggest players in this genre. (This leaves Sony, which owns the rights to the Spider-Man universe but not Spider-Man himself, leading the pack with three films –Madame Web, Kraven the HunterAnd Poison 3– On the agenda.)
The decline of superhero dominance should be encouraging news for anyone who cares to pay attention to a wide range of films. But it’s not clear whether the film industry has a backup plan. The most alarming stats are about opening weekends Wonders And Aquaman 2 It’s not the fact that they performed significantly less than their predecessors, but they came in first place nonetheless. Barbenheimer’s power has been a light in the darkness, an indication that there may be a way forward that doesn’t involve tying audiences down to long-term commitments. But as amazing as it is BarbieIts $1.4 billion box office haul is barely half that Avengers: Endgame It took over the last full year at the box office before the pandemic — the year it did Barbie He would have finished a respectable fourth.
Hollywood loves nothing more than to imitate success, but what’s Barbenheimer’s takeaway? Oppenheimer It is, among other things, the result of 20 years of building Christopher Nolan as an auteur with a cult brand, and with fewer Greta Gerwigs, fewer Barbies — intellectual property launchpads that resonate across generations without any cumbersome traditions to learn . Stumble. Taylor Swift brought new audiences to theaters with a record-breaking concert film, but even Beyoncé couldn’t repeat the trick. After a year in which box office star Tom Cruise failed to break through, who will be next to carry the torch?
There are a few bright spots. The traditional arthouse audiences that seemed to abandon theaters last year are beginning to return, as the healthy local run of their plays attests. Retainers (which would undoubtedly have been more true had it not switched to digital six weeks after release, and to streaming two months later), and Violet rose before Aquaman on Christmas Day, with the second-largest December 25 opening ever. (Like Blacklist founder Franklin Leonard male(It was another example of Hollywood underestimating the power of black audiences.) But these aren’t the versions that will fill the Thanos-shaped hole in Hollywood’s bottom line, and it’s not clear what, if anything, he could do.
Next year will bring us Sand Dunes: Part Two, Furiosa: The Mad Max Saga, and other blockbusters that don’t rely on sand, so we’ll have our share of big movies. But can Hollywood wield the same global power without the power of the Avengers or the Justice League? If superheroes can’t do it for them, the movie industry may have to figure out how to save Itself.
