The superhero genre, which at one time was the undisputed king of the film industry with films like Avengers: Infinity War either Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – 2016), today it faces an evident decline, reflected in the low box office numbers of the latest projects of Marvel and D.C..
A recent report compiled the five films of the year 2023 that resulted in huge losses for their respective studios. Curiously, four of these feature films are productions of disneyand two of them belong to the superhero universe, fueling the theory of “superhero fatigue”.
For disney and Marvel, surprising news was the performance of The Marvelsthe sequel to Captain Marvel (2019), which topped the list of financial losses in 2023. According to the annual report, this film recorded a loss of $237 million despite having grossed $206.1 million worldwide. It is speculated that factors such as the actors and scriptwriters’ strike, as well as the need to have seen the original series of Disney+ titled Ms. Marvel to fully understand the film, they could have affected its box office numbers.
It is important to note that, even so, The Marvels recorded greater losses than The Flash, which ranked second on the list. This feature film DC Studioswhich introduced the story of Barry Allen interpreted by Ezra Miller (We need to talk about Kevin) and directed by Andy Muschietti (Item), recorded losses of 155 million dollars for Warner Bros.
As disney and Marvel face this challenge, the question arises as to whether they will choose to create original content or whether they will focus on series, as they did with WandaVision and Loki. Meanwhile, D.C. is reconfiguring its approach by hiring James Gunn, who is working on a new path for his heroes. Furthermore, along with Peter Safranare preparing the ground for the premiere of the next film supermanscheduled for July 10, 2025.
