It wasn’t so long ago that audiences would show up to seemingly any movie featuring a costumed hero or a masked killer. But times and standards have changed, and lately, Hollywood’s two most reliable genres — superheroes and horror — are showing signs of fatigue.
“People haven’t stopped loving horror or superhero films, but they stopped loving mediocre entries in those worlds,” says exhibitor Mike Barstow, executive VP of Midwest-based ACX Cinemas. “There’s a demand for higher quality.”
Analysts believe there are different reasons behind the wear and tear of each. Yet both types of fare appear to have reached the oversaturation point. That’s not to say that movies in either genre can’t or won’t break through — “Sinners” ($365 million), “Superman” ($426 million to date) and “Final Destination: Bloodlines” ($285 million) are recent triumphs — but they are no longer box office guarantees.
“Hollywood takes the less risk-adverse approach and makes what has worked until they have exhausted it,” says Kevin Goetz, founder and CEO of audience research firm Screen Engine/ASI. “Suddenly there’s a new horror film every week. And superhero movies got into a complacency.”
Horror has long been a big-screen draw because jump scares are more fun in communal settings. Back when virtually nothing was reviving the box office post-COVID, “A Quiet Place Part II,” “Halloween Kills” and “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” were early breakout hits fueled by younger moviegoers. And scary movies are usually safe bets because they often carry low budgets and don’t require as much to turn a profit. Then there’s endless upside when these films catch fire.
As Hollywood has leaned hard into movies about things that go bump in the night, several this year have struggled to stand out. Four Blumhouse features in a row — “M3GAN 2.0” ($37 million), “Wolf Man” ($34 million), “The Woman in the Yard” ($23 million) and “Drop” ($28 million) — have bombed. Those misfires had company: Sony’s slasher “I Know What You Did Last Summer” ($24 million to date), Warner Bros.’ sci-fi thriller “Companion” ($36 million) and A24’s nightmarish comedy “Death of a Unicorn” ($16.4 million) also struck out.
“We’re seeing a rut where five or so consecutive movies have performed within a similar range,” says Shawn Robbins, Fandango’s director of movie analytics. “That says there’s a dedicated audience. But it’s going to take boundary-pushing to break past that ceiling.”
Jason Blum, founder of low-budget horror empire Blumhouse, has a theory about the mixed bag of horror. He believes there’s a cap on the number of scary movies that can coexist on multiplex marquees.
“Right now there’s too much horror in the marketplace,” Blum said on the “Town” podcast. “We’re used to a market that can absorb 12 to 15 horror movies where you get these singles and doubles. I think that’s gone.”
When horror has captured the zeitgeist, as with “Sinners” and last year’s “Longlegs” ($127 million), those films generated the kind of word-of-mouth that turned them into must-see theatrical events. Upcoming releases, such as Zach Cregger’s “Weapons,” the Jordan Peele-produced “Him” and Blumhouse’s “Black Phone 2” and “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” need to spark something similar to disrupt the genre’s holding pattern.
“’Sinners’ was so successful because it was original and different,” says Allen Michaan, owner of Oakland’s Grand Lake Theatre. “It wasn’t just a horror film. There was so much more there.”
Superhero exhaustion began to set in post-COVID as viewers were inundated with an influx of interconnected TV shows in addition to big-screen releases. For a decade prior to the pandemic, Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe in particular could basically spotlight any hero and expect a blockbuster smash in return. Yet “Captain America: Brave New World” ($415 million against a $180 million budget) and “Thunderbolts” ($382 million against a $180 million budget) are just the latest proof that Marvel isn’t too big to fail after all. There are only so many new stories to be told, and audiences seem to be tiring of the monotony.
“These Marvel movies are too much of the same. They always seem to degenerate into 15- or 20-minute fight sequences at the end,” Michaan says. “My wife and I love movies, and sometimes we leave when the action scenes start because we know how it’s going to end.”
He believes the new “Superman” is resonating because the story feels “different than other DC films.” “It was outside of the mold of these usual action movies,” Michaan says. “He was vulnerable and lost fights, which we haven’t seen before.”
In the case of Marvel, the mandate is to do less at a higher caliber. “We produced 50 hours of stories between 2007 and 2019,” Marvel boss Kevin Feige recently told reporters. Since 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame,” there’s been “well over 100 hours of stories in half the time. That’s too much.”
After “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” on July 24, Marvel only has two films in 2026, “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” and one in 2027, “Avengers: Secret War.” Those should be slam dunks because they feature some of the most recognizable heroes. After all, only the Marvel and DC entries led by heavy hitters have achieved massive theatrical success post-pandemic. Those include 2024’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” ($1.34 billion), 2022’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” ($956 million), “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” ($859 million) and “The Batman” ($770 million), and 2021’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” ($1.9 billion).
Meanwhile, DC’s mission includes earning back the confidence of fans after the studio’s last iteration of superhero adventures combusted with epic misfires such as “The Flash” and “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.” Although “Superman” has been a step in the right direction, DC has challenges ahead because the next two installments, 2026’s “Supergirl” and “Clayface,” are anchored by lesser-known protagonists.
“Superheroes are still giant movies,” says analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. “But audience interest falls off beyond the most established and popular characters.”
These days at the multiplex, not all heroes — or villains — are created equal.
Source link