Superhero fatigue: When do you think it will actually set in for general audiences?

[King Kingo]

Two more words, Mark Millar

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Yeah, I hated him once he released the Jupiter's Legacy cast from their contracts. To add insult to injury, he's still trying to salvage that universe and is considering a live action take on Super Crooks...

Netflix burned cash by making Millarworld their first acquisition.

 

[Patapuf]

"Fatigue" of anything doesn't exist. It's like asking when people are going to get tired of "movies" or "video games" as a passing fad.

If a game is good or a movie is good then people will watch it.

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Plenty of good entertainement fails to find an audience.

Though lack of attention isn't a problem superhero movies have right now. So the good ones will most likely find their audience.

 

[Slayven]

Yeah, I hated him once he released the Jupiter's Legacy cast from their contracts. To add insult to injury, he's still trying to salvage that universe and is considering a live action take on Super Crooks...

Netflix burned cash by making Millarworld their first acquisition.

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I mean, shows time and time again if shared universe or superhero shit was easy everyone would be doing it.

 

[D.Dragoon]

Not really, Jupiter's Legacy had a bunch of superhero tropes but people got tired because it was yet another new property claiming an already crowded space.

Marvel and DC are legacy superhero brands that have been around for decades, The Boys is superhero subversion and realism and Invincible is an adult animated superhero series. They all have their niche and anything outside of that usually struggles to captivate the general audience.

Superhero fatigue is there, it's just that the superhero brands that are successful just know how to maintain engagement with the general audience beyond superheroics.

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Superhero fatigue didn't sink Jupiter's Legacy, the show was bad.

 

[Supercrap]

Superhero fatigue didn't sink Jupiter's Legacy, the show was bad.

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the cg looked so bad.

netflix has a lot to learn with how they manage and support production, its not just about throwing money at it

 

[illmatic22]

Personal fatigue set in for me after Batman 89 :sniffs own fart: ahhhh

Now for the masses? Y'all gonna be waiting for that fatigue for a while. Buckle up.

 

[Mekanos]

Saying Jupiter's Legacy is an example of superhero fatigue is like saying the Catwoman movie bombing was an example.

 

[psionotic]

As long a the quality remains high, it'll be a while.

But during the heyday of Musicals, Westerns, and War movies their producers and fans probably also thought the ride would never end. The idea that superhero movies will dominate forever is just pure recent-ism.

Now excuse me, I'm going to see Shang Chi in half an hour. :)

 

[xxracerxx]

Saying Jupiter's Legacy is an example of superhero fatigue is like saying the Catwoman movie bombing was an example.

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Haha, exactly.

 

[Ryan.]

I don't think it'll hit, especially when there a lot of people on the internet (especially here) who don't even know what franchise fatigue is or looks like.

 

[harry the spy]

Westerns will always be popular

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Except they are not that popular, otherwise there would be more western made.



Anyone who says never is completely delusional to me. They probably won't completely go away, but the insane domination they have enjoyed for the last decade or so will go away for sure I feel. Maybe not for a while though.

 

[Ploid 6.0]

What's wrong with Superhero movies? It's about time it started coming frequently. There's always been movies about people with some kind of gift of sorts, from invisible people, to a blind man being able to act as if he can see or better (not talking about Daredevil either).

 

[Philippo]

I've seen it happen around me, not a lot of people but still not insignificant.

Happened to me as well, completely lost any interested in superhero movies/shows/even games after watching Endgame. Not in a necessarly bad way mind you, I just felt like I just finished a huge buffet and I'm still digesting food.

The only exception for me it's going to be The Batman.

 

[Andromeda]

Superhero entertainment is a human reality since thousands of years ago and the first written stories. The phenomenom is not over yet.

 

[Autumn]

Once you get a string of 3-5 movies in a row. Just look at WB.

 

[Osahi]

You're right in that the differences are overstated, but I think the fact that people by and large feel these differences is important. It's why I've chosen to think about it as different flavors - they're all technically the same thing, but they look and feel differently enough that people perceive them as different.

It's valid in comparison to westerns because westerns are significantly more rigid - same time period, same elements, same aesthetic, etc. That contributes to the feeling of sameyness that leads to staleness and thus fatigue, something the superhero genre avoids a lot more easily. You could theoretically go as hogwild with westerns - sci-fi, horror, fantasy, thriller, wuxia, etc. - but that requires a lot of creativity to pull off and comic book superheroes at least have the benefit of being pre-existing IP.

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Sure. Different flavors, but untill they really commit to combining it with a different genre, they'll keep telling similar stories with similar themes. That's why even the ones that do spice things up by aping a different genre ultimately still feel similar and why these films are sometimes (and sometimes, but not always, wrongly) called formulaic. I mean, even something as Wandavision that starts out as something really different and seems to explore a theme that's not immediately one you associate with superhero stories (grief), still ends in two super-powered people throwing CGI balls at each other and a main character 'unlocking' some sort of power/becoming someone.

The western arguably has the same setting and aesthetic (not really true if you define the western as a genre based on tropes and themes), but you can easily tell vastly different stories within it. There are lots of westerns in different subgenres, with different stories and themes.

 

[Poltergust]

Superhero moves are simply the modern blockbuster, and will continue to be so until another kind of genre takes its place.

General audiences have always liked action movies, which is what basically every superhero movie falls into. These movies have the perfect combination of likable characters, intense action scenes, family appeal, and a continuous plotline as a narrative hook. So, it's hard to see just how it can be usurped outside of something better coming along. It certainly won't fizzle out of its own accord, at any rate.

 

[OneTrueJack]

The thing is superhero/comic book movies, even just the MCU, aren't just superhero/comic book movies. They also mix in other genres and elements which keep them fresh.

Captain America: The First Avenger, Guardians of the Galaxy, Wandavision and Jessica Jones are all technically superhero/comic book stories, even being a part of the same brand and taking place in the same fictional universe, yet have basically nothing to do with one another. If you showed them to a person who somehow lacked the cultural context we take for granted, they would never guess those four properties were related.

That's the type of variety that can keep this whole thing going for God knows how long.

It's more likely audiences may eventually burn out on the Marvel Studios movies house style of filmmaking, but that can be offset by simply adjusting the style over time in small, yet gradual, ways.

 

[Aldo]

Anecdotically, I'm seeing it in most people I know. It will happen, eventually. If I had to bet, I'd say superhero movies will die with theaters and will only survive in a few streaming shows.

I'll have to say that while pre-Infinity War Marvel bored me, I'm rather enjoying the new course. The TV shows are mostly enjoyable and the new movies are probably a little fresher than their previous output, so I guess they know how to keep the genre alive.

 

[werezompire]

Isn't Star Wars: A New Hope basically a superhero movie? And that came out over 40 years.

 

[Osahi]

List of American superhero films - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

List of superhero television series - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

There is a ton of non-MCU superhero content.

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There is stuff like Sonic, Spongebob, Garfield and Splinter Cell in that film list. Are we really considering those super-hero movies? You can see Star Wars as a super-hero film too then (Hell, it's more of a super-hero story than those)

Sure, it's not all DC and Marvel (I said, 'not much else'), but those are the ones that dominate the box office and define the current superhero movies' popularity. It's what people think of when you say 'super-hero movie' and in the case of the 'general audience' this topic's question was about, it's definitely that kind of movie. The movies that do combine genres (like Brightburn, though I haven't seen that one) are very rare. Super-hero movies aren't populair today because they are mixing genres at all.

 

[Darknight]

some of the responses in this thread are really weird. of course eventually they are not going to be the dominant box office event they currently are, no trend lasts forever and you can see this in hollywood's history

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Ya, I don't get it either. It feels like people in this thread define "fatigue" as super hero movies just disappear completely which is not what fatigue means. Super hero movies will never disappear completely, but to say that there will never be some sort of fatigue on the presence of the genre just seems weird. Genres go through phases and so do industries; they never stay static and they go up and down in certain areas. At some point super hero movies won't be the in thing anymore but that doesn't mean they won't still be made and have a dedicated audience for them.

 

[OneTrueJack]

Isn't Star Wars: A New Hope basically a superhero movie? And that came out over 40 years.

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Absolutely not. It's a pulp sci-fi movie and a love letter/pastiche of 1930 adventure serials

 

[Instro]

Hard to say if it can/will happen to any significant degree anytime soon. The difference between modern superhero films and say the classic western genre is that the latter required very specific settings, characters, style, etc, and were often very homogeneous in presentation and actor pool. Superhero films are currently spanning a wide variety of settings and genres, while also widening the character pool to include people of various backgrounds, ethnicities, etc. So even though the story beats can often be pretty similar, the films tend to look and feel pretty fresh.

And really most of what we've seen from the current superhero genre is centered around the relative modern era and sometimes a bit into the future. At any point Marvel can start mining into period piece characters/stories, ancient history/characters like Hercules, or even do pre-historic and Hyborian age stuff.

 

[greepoman]

Superhero moves are simply the modern blockbuster, and will continue to be so until another kind of genre takes its place.

General audiences have always liked action movies, which is what basically every superhero movie falls into. These movies have the perfect combination of likable characters, intense action scenes, family appeal, and a continuous plotline as a narrative hook. So, it's hard to see just how it can be usurped outside of something better coming along. It certainly won't fizzle out of its own accord, at any rate.

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I agree that they're basically just the action movies of our time. I was trying to remember other "phases" I've been through in my time and the one I grew up with was "action hero" phase which honestly isn't that different. Just that they were mostly buff white dudes (Stallone, Schwarzenegger, seeagall, van Damme, etc). I also remember the disaster movie phase. Anyone else remember any others?

 

[joedick]

Why do some people get so angry when this question is posed? Like, I love the MCU and look forward to each new film, but it's a valid question. Every thread about the success of an MCU film has people sarcastically saying 'but I was told there was fatigue!'.

People are also reading the question as 'MCU' instead of 'superhero'. They're not the only ones making cape ficks. Right now there's a dozen or so superhero flicks coming out per year (not just marvel) and that's not gonna last forever. Sure, we'll still get superhero movies and some will be massive blockbusters, but I doubt it's gonna keep this pace forever.

 

[julia crawford]

"Fatigue" of anything doesn't exist. It's like asking when people are going to get tired of "movies" or "video games" as a passing fad.

If a game is good or a movie is good then people will watch it.

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Honestly think this is fundamentally not true. Things being good is not correlative with people watching it, but also the habit of any given genre having a ton of continuous output can alienate fans of that genre for a multitude of reasons that can be described as "fatigue".

But i think there are a lot of more interesting questions to make here that can explore why people are or are not watching these movies that aren't about someone being tired of them. It's much more interesting to be asking questions like, if people had equal access and exposure to other kinds of movies, would they still watch super hero movies? Or, are people watching these movies feeling like they are missing out by not watching all of them to follow a continuous story line? Things like that i think are more interesting and probably more valuable than people being "tired" of them.

 

[eXistor]

I'm so over the superhero fad. I think most of them are lame as hell anyway, but I have to admit; I didn't think it would last this long.

 

[captive]

I mean, shows time and time again if shared universe or superhero shit was easy everyone would be doing it.

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the monsterverse failed with one movie, that stared freaking Tom Cruise.

its frankly amazing in the most literal since of the word that the MCU has been as wildly successful as it is.
Imagine how much shit would have been fucked if Downey Jr relapsed, or OD'ed after the first Iron Man.

 

[UltraMagnus]

Depends on what you mean by fatigue, I don't think the genre is going anywhere, but it will probably eventually enter a period where it isn't the dominant form of blockbuster eventually.

 

[DiceHands]

It hasnt set in for me with Marvel related content... but I can say that its becoming harder and harder to get into new super hero shows such as The Boys or Jupiter's Legacy. I was a big fan of S1 of The Boys, but when S2 got here, I had my fill of super hero content from everything else.

So in other words, anything outside of Marvel or DC will probably feel the fatigue more than the main players.

 

[Slayven]

the monsterverse failed with one movie, that stared freaking Tom Cruise.

its frankly amazing in the most literal since of the word that the MCU has been as wildly successful as it is.
Imagine how much shit would have been fucked if Downey Jr relapsed, or OD'ed after the first Iron Man.

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The first big screen teamup of Batman and Superman failed to make a billion

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

"Superhero" as a genre is as diverse as "anime", saying you don't like superhero stories is like saying you don't like anime, chances are that someone's going to grab a property that crosses over into a genre you like, and chances are you've already watched and enjoyed an adaptation without knowing its an adaptation.

Will Marvel and DC specifically fall off from the top of the heap? Probably. But TV shows like the Walking Dead, Preacher, Invincible, Y the Last Man, Sandman, and movies like The 300, Wanted, V for Vendetta show that the appeal of these stories isn't limited to capes or live action, and definitely not the traditional Batman/Superman/Spiderman/Xmen set that we were locked into in the 90s.

 

[K' Dash]

Apart from Spidey and Thor I'm not interested in anything coming from Marvel.

Thor gets a pass because Taika Waititi, Spidey gets a pass because Tobey and Alfred.

 

[Budi]

Can't happen soon enough.

 

[werezompire]

Absolutely not. It's a pulp sci-fi movie and a love letter/pastiche of 1930 adventure serials

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Something can be more than one thing. It's a pulp adventure serial sci-fi movie where the main character has the superhero powers of superhuman reflexes, telekinesis, seeing the future, and mind control, and also has a magic sword.

 

[LGHT_TRSN]

Absolutely not. It's a pulp sci-fi movie and a love letter/pastiche of 1930 adventure serials

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George Lucas acknowledged Jedi, Sith, and other Force concepts have been inspired by many sources. These include: samurai's bushido, Shaolin Monks, Shamanism, Hindu mythology, Shintō, Buddhism not to mention countless cinematic precursors

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[Scuffed]

Never. There will always be a palate for good action movies. That's what they are in essence. Some will be more drawn to the grounded type like a Batman or the non grounded but hyperviolent types like Invincible or The Boys.

It took a really long time for Zombies to get old and those narratives were literally identical and even then we just had a successful one in Army of the Dead. So ya I'm going with never.

 

[hiredhand]

I don't understand how people are coming up with this great variety in superhero films. They are all fundamentally action-adventure films. Some of them are comedic, some are more serious.

I would love to see the superhero equivalent of Meek's Cutoff, El Topo, McCabe and Mrs Miller or even The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence.

Something can be more than one thing. It's a pulp adventure serial sci-fi movie where the main character has the superhero powers of superhuman reflexes, telekinesis, seeing the future, and mind control, and also has a magic sword.

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Would you also consider The Ten Commandments a superhero film since Moses clearly has superhuman powers and has a magical staff?

 

[NeonZ]

I think the main issue is that in order for Super Heroes to fall and be replaced, you'd need them to be replaced by some other kind of common action movie style. Unless movies using videogames as source material start rising, I think nowadays it'd be harder to create a new "style" that gets mimicked by other movies which also end up successful. We've seen that even with Marvel's clear "formula" for their movies other studios have trouble following them consistently.

 

[808s & Villainy]

You can't deny that the MCU (and franchise cinema in general) takes up a lot of tenpole/blockbuster space. The smaller and/or original blockbuster has almost completely been wiped out and is at best shoved to streaming.

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Is this really true though? Would these movies only getting funding from streaming services have traditionally gotten as much pre-MCU? Because the superhero movies are pretty much only made by 2 studios nowadays. Disney/Marvel and Sony. It's not like other blockbusters are being passed over by studios in favor of their own superhero movies

 

[rickyson33]

I wonder how much stuff like studio consolidations and movie budgets affect this kind of thing

the bottom won't just fall out of them anytime soon on it's own and absent that for something to replace it that something needs to exist

 

[LGHT_TRSN]

Would you also consider The Ten Commandments a superhero film since Moses clearly has superhuman powers and has a magical staff?

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I know this is a joke but the origins of noble heroes with skills/abilities that surpass human limitations arguably does originate from religious texts and lore.

 

[Htown]

There won't be superhero fatigue. What will happen is that something else will become the next big thing, and everyone will follow that trend instead of superhero movies.

No idea what that will be. Maybe video game movies will finally stop being ass. Who knows?

 

[Imperial Bishop]

I know this is a joke but the origins of noble heroes with skills/abilities that surpass human limitations arguably does originate from religious texts and lore.

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"Super hero" is just a modern evolution of these larger-than-life humans who have unique gifts and/or are chosen for a great purpose. Same concept, different name.

I'm curious what this "next big action thing" that people keep bringing up will be when it seems like "being a superhero" is the summit of these tales that have been around for millennia.

 

[Tavernade]

Pretty sure Westerns were popular from the birth of cinema until the 60s or 70s. So about 80 odd years give or take.

Superheroes as a genre is way more variable (look at the differences between Hellboy, GOTG, Watchmen (either), Ant-Man, Winter Soldier (either) Mask of the Phantasm, etc). They'll be here until a studio massively fucks up and they're seen as bombs.

 

[y2dvd]

I had a friend that isn't much of a CBM fan and thought she was gonna be done after Endgame. Then she finally saw Far From Home, Loki, and Shang-Chi and she couldn't be more hype for No Way Home.

It can hit for some, but as long as the MCU or others can produce great content, then the general audience will continue to watch.

 

[Chikor]

It's valid in comparison to westerns because westerns are significantly more rigid - same time period, same elements, same aesthetic, etc. That contributes to the feeling of sameyness that leads to staleness and thus fatigue, something the superhero genre avoids a lot more easily. You could theoretically go as hogwild with westerns - sci-fi, horror, fantasy, thriller, wuxia, etc. - but that requires a lot of creativity to pull off and comic book superheroes at least have the benefit of being pre-existing IP.

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This is just not true and never been true about the western genre.
It's not exactly apples to apples comparison because there were waaaaaaaay more westerns made than superhero movies, but the genre as a whole is way more varied than superhero movies.
Even on the most basic levels, pretty much all superheroes movies fall generally into the action adventure genre. This has never been true for westerns.

 

[LGHT_TRSN]

"Super hero" is just a modern evolution of these larger-than-life humans who have unique gifts and/or are chosen for a great purpose. Same concept, different name.

I'm curious what this "next big action thing" that people keep bringing up will be when it seems like "being a superhero" is the summit of these tales that have been around for millennia.

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Exactly....and if you look at those previous genres of 'big action' aka Westerns, Samurai, etc. they use the same tropes. Noble hero saves the citizens from evil using superhuman skills/abilities.

 

[Alexandros]

Superhero entertainment is a human reality since thousands of years ago and the first written stories. The phenomenom is not over yet.

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Agreed. What is Achilles if not a superhero?