Variety Report the revenue of The Flash down 73% compared to the first week of release. The DC superhero movie only grossed $15.3 million from 4,265 theaters in North America. Shazam 2 also met with similar disappointment with 57.6 million USD worldwide.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Marvel’s situation is better, collecting $ 100 million in the US. The surprising thing is that when screened in China (the potential market of Hollywood) after many years of being rejected by this market, the work about Ant-Man earned only $ 19.2 million in the first week of its release.
Experts are questioning whether the superhero’s punching screen is no longer attractive.
When the audience is not interested in superhero movies
DC and Marvel have long been a counterweight to superhero movies with a diverse character matrix and storyline. But recently, the film quality has not been as effective as expected.
For example, the series produced by Marvel after the pandemic like Thor: Love and Thunder and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Despite having high grosses, at $760.9 million and $955.8 million, respectively, the film’s quality was judged to be disproportionate.
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Superhero movies are increasingly picky audiences, poor revenue.
Love story between two Thor in Thor: Love and Thunder considered too old and boring. Many people joked that the audience came to the theater just for the nude scene of Chris Hemswroth.
The Doctor movie is impressed by the multiverse story, but the audience still feels that it is not yet about the way to handle Marvel’s rut. As a result, both works, which are considered Marvel’s 2021 blockbusters, only received B+ above CinemaScore.
Fate of Morbius even more somber. Before its release, the film was PR thanks to the name of “monster” Jared Leto. Which is the creepy producer when watching Leto act, the unique anti-hero work of the Marvel family… As a result, viewers are disappointed because the movie about the vampire evolution has special effects, the story is like for children.
Morbius became a film that did not dare to let Marvel mention, when a series of sites rated it low, from 35/100 out of Metacritic, 16% above Rotten Tomatoes, labeled rotten tomatoes… Many experts do not hesitate to call Morbius It’s the worst Marvel movie ever.
The DC family despite inviting box office guarantees Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to star, Black Adam still suffered heavy losses when it collected just over $ 390 million, while the budget was up to $ 250 million (the producer only started to make a profit when the revenue was 20% higher than the budget, according to Variety).
The future of superhero movies
Undeniably, DC and Marvel are the childhood of the generation that loves superhero movies. The MCU is so successful that one who doesn’t watch, can also mention Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, God of Thunder. Similarly, the DC family is famous for Superman, Wonder Woman…
Gradually, the quality of the film dropped, making viewers no longer interested, the audience coming to the theater was a loyal fan of the superhero movie series. In other words, they go to the theater to rediscover the feeling of the Iron Man (2008), series Avengers, The most touching part is the ending Avengers: End Game… but can not.
In a survey of 2,200 people in mid-2022, the percentage of people who like superhero movies is only 59%, down to 5% compared to November 2021, the rate of people who don’t like it also increased to 5%.
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It is very difficult for superhero movies to attract audiences like the time of Avengers: End game.
The survey showed that the audience who came to the theater was simply the Marvel brand, did not dare to expect the content to account for 82%. Others say they can’t remember all of Marvel’s movies because it takes too long.
The superhero series is said to be increasingly short of breath in terms of content. The new Thor film exploits the love story between the God of Thunder and his ex-girlfriend, showing that the film can hardly have a more impressive script after 10 years.
The DC family has recently been involved in a series of scandals, especially the case of actor Ezra Miller acting in a movie The Flash accused of violence, accused of theft… That made DC’s reputation drop. Many big projects of the company such as Batgirl and Wonder Woman 3 Unknown release date makes fans turn away.
Despite the film’s decline, the studio continued to produce superhero work. While fans are sad because the movie line is low, experts are optimistic about the situation, saying that this is an opportunity to balance cinema and movie revenue.
“It’s also about time other genres have a chance to make money. Some people like the epic fighting story, others want to see the romantic story. This is the recipe of the healthy movie business,” Megan Colligan, president of IMAX Entertainment told The Wrap.