2023 - The Death Of The Superhero

on September 3rd 2023 Blue Beetle finally managed to drag itself past 100 million at the global box office and it really got me thinking what's the most efficient way to dispose of a dead body these days wait what uh it really got me thinking that there's no more appropriate metaphor for the sad state of the superhero genre than this movie a bland generic and creatively inert project sharted out by a studio that's out of ideas and energy doing nothing that hasn't been done a million times before and roundly ignored by completely apathetic audiences and what's funny is that it's the kind of film that would have comfortably wrecked in half a billion dollars if it had come out five years ago when people still actually cared about stuff like this that time however has long since passed and I think in retrospect people are gonna look back on 2023 as the year the superhero genre officially died I mean let's be real here it's been struggling for a long time now and people like me have been warning that it was headed towards the relevancy but this is the first year when there's really no way of hiding it anymore don't believe me let's look at the numbers shall we back in 2019 there were eight cinematic superhero releases making a grand total of 6.92 billion dollars worldwide by 2022 we had seven major theatrical releases only this time they only managed to bring in 4 billion at the box office that's a drop of more than 40 in just three years and 2023 is shaping up to be by far the worst year yet DC have already released three movies this year all of which have flopped disastrously in fact none of them have even managed to break 300 million when you add Black Adam into the mix that makes four flops in a row for DC and somehow I don't think Aquaman 2 is going to turn things around for them neither is James Gunn the latest entry in a revolving door of producers tasked with salvaging whatever's left of their destroyed Brands not only does he seem to be burning through fan Goodwill with a series of unpopular creative decisions and embarrassing Revelations but he's been put in charge of a studio that might actually run out of money before he can even do anything things aren't looking much better for Marvel either Ant-Man 3 brought in less than 500 million worldwide nowhere near enough to cover its massive production budget never mind turn a profit secret Invasion starring Samuel L Jackson should have been a big hitter on Disney plus but instead turned out to be the lowest rated Marvel show ever made I mean at least Guardians 3 turned a profit with 845 million at the global box office but I don't imagine that the Marvel execs were breaking out the champagne on this one not only did it make less than Guardians 2 even without adjusting for inflation or the massive hiking ticket prices but it also represents a creative dead end for the studio that they can exploit any further in fact the only unqualified success story has been across the spider verse which brought in almost 700 million on a budget of just 100 million that's great and all but one successful movie isn't going to change the overall picture and believe me that picture is a depressing one so far superhero movies this year have earned 2.51 billion a drop of 38 from the previous year and 65 five percent from 2019 and out of the six major movies released so far only two of them have actually turned a profit but Drinker you ingenious in Bible of intellectual elucidation I hear you say surely it's unfair to pass judgment on 2023 when there's still a couple of big releases to come well convenient setup for a perfectly timed piece of mockery not when those releases are Aquaman 2 and the Marvels laughs one is the final pointless movie in a dead Cinematic Universe starring what may be the most unpopular actress in Hollywood for now or at least and the other is so hotly unanticipated that it's now been delayed and reworked five different times by Marvel even the director seems to recognize that the writings on the wall when she made this amazingly Frank admission to Total film I'll pitch Kevin's 17 versions of what can happen with all these women and why and how and this and that and he's like okay girl and sometimes I think I've really got a movie going after this and then other times I'm like oh they have this whole other plan that I'm not a part of in terms of women-led films and women as superheroes in particular and excitement around that I think it's really just about whether or not the movie's Goods especially now we have more and more films that are female-led that are action based or superhero based Jesus come down Wordsworth you're really dazzling us with your articulation here this right here is what happens when reality comes at you so hard and fast that there's just no a way to spin it into anything else she knows that this movie is going to be a stinker that'll bomb harder than the Manhattan Project and is preemptively trying to manage expectations and deflect blame she knows that this film can't just slide its way into a freshly lubed up Marketplace like its predecessor did where anything with the Marvel logo slapped on it was basically a giant money printing machine the fact is superhero movies are having to fight harder and harder to Garner the kind of attention that would have been guaranteed a few years ago there's an almost tangible feeling of weariness and resignation when a new movie gets announced now like an Asian man trying to Rouse himself for another long shift at the same tedious job he's been working for decades what used to be an exciting event to be savored has become a kind of dull chore something to be gotten through out of obligation rather than genuine desire or interests and it's funny because everyone seems to have their own pet theory for why this happens depending on who you talk to the problem lies in the oversaturation of the market with far too many projects or the declining creative quality of the movies and TV shows being put out or the increasing focus on identity politics and activism at the expense of good storytelling or the arrogance and hostility of the movie studios as things start to go wrong or the Bland and formulaic nature of the films themselves or even the dreaded superhero fatigue for me though I think the truth is a complex combination of all these different factors I mean let's start with the last one first superhero fatigue or more generally genre fatigue as far as I'm concerned is very much a real thing and in the words of King woolly from Predator 2. there's no stopping what can understand just like every other fading fashion that's come and gone over the years movie genres eventually become stale and played out as times change and people move on to new things it happened to the adventure epics of the 1950s the gritty crime dramas of the 70s the gung-ho action movies of the 80s and the comedies of the 90s why would you assume it wouldn't happen to the superhero movies that have been with us ever since the 2000s Shipman and genre turns they've had a pretty good run and in reality it probably would have lasted a few more years if it hadn't been for the over-reliance on tired formulas and exhausting CGI spectacle the oversaturation of the market with endless movies TV shows spin-offs and sequels that became almost impossible to keep up with the hiring of untalented or underqualified writers and directors who are more concerned with pushing their own political worldviews than making good movies and the increasingly aggressive attempts to attack and Gaslight fans who dared to criticize their products and point out their mistakes the truth is they got too big too lazy too arrogant too complacent and it all contributed to an atmosphere of antagonism frustration and in the end apathy audiences just don't care for superhero movies anymore they don't care for the Bland and boring characters and storylines being trotted out they don't care for the tired formulas and played out spectacle and they especially don't care for the studios making them I mean I don't imagine they'll ever vanish all together we'll still get the occasional Batman Superman or Spider-Man movie because those characters are so Timeless and popular that they always find an audience of some sort but the time of the superhero movie as the dominant box office genre is over and to be honest I'm fine with that it's about time Hollywood got shaken out of its money-soaked complacency and forced to come up with new creative ideas it's about time we had more to look forward to in our summer movie Seasons than an endless parade of capes and Spandex and ironic self-aware jokes it's about time we demanded something better in our entertainment now just before I piss off I wanted to bring one little thing to your attention many of you who tune into my open bar streams will be aware of the critical doggo my somewhat faithful companion in the world of media criticism well actually there's two of them but Legend has it they've never been seen at the same time in place anyway whatever the point is that the doggos are retired racing greyhounds that I adopted from a re-homing Center not too far from where I live and I have to admit they made for excellent Pets the problem is these places often operate on razor thin margins depending mostly on donations and volunteers just to stay running and I felt like maybe I could do something to help out just a little so with that in mind I'm launching the critical doggle plushie a one-of-a-kind companion for the critical Drinker complete with sunglasses and his own little bottle of whiskey while he chills out on the floor probably explains why my doggos are always unconscious anyway I'm gonna be donating all of the profits of this campaign to my local Greyhound rescue center so if you'd like to bag yourself one then the link is in the description or if you're not into the whole plushie thing but you're into interested in helping out a bit anyway I'll also leave a link to the shelter's donation page I don't want anyone to feel obligated to help out with this one so don't feel like you have to pitch in or anything but I'm hoping that perhaps we can do a little good and maybe help some animals who deserve a second chance at a happy life anyway that's all I've got for today go away now

Channel: The Critical Drinker

Views: 1,508,650

Keywords: Captain Marvel, Brie Larson, review, critical drinker, feminism, feminist, disney, marvel, MCU, James Gunn, funny, best, DCEU, spider-man, batman, superman

Id: rF3oDOpfK9o

Length: 9min 52sec (592 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 05 2023