There’s been a lot of talk lately about superhero fatigue. Some people feel that we’ve finally reached a point where the genre has simply started to die out. Firstly, I’ve never really believed in this because people have been talking about superhero fatigue for the last ten years. Secondly, I’ve always been of the opinion that if the movies are good, they’ll perform fine. And Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has been proving that point and then some this month.
Marvel didn’t get off to a great start this year. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was supposed to kickoff phase five but instead it opened to mixed reviews and experienced the worst second weekend drop for an MCU movie with -70%. That followed with the failure of rival comic book studio DC’s Shazam! Fury of the Gods bombing at the box office is what ignited this recent discussion of fatigue.
SEE IT: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania [REVIEW]
This is an example of people jumping to conclusions without really thinking about this stuff. Ant-Man had the biggest opening weekend of that trilogy and then it dropped because of mixed reviews from critics and audiences. And Shazam! – well it looks like it was just sent out to die. Funny enough, I didn’t even know the movie was out when I started to hear how poorly it was doing. Also, Ant-Man and Shazam! have never exactly been viewed as the main draws of their respective universes.
Last week Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 opened with $118 million dollars which some people viewed as a disappointment because it was lower than the previous film’s opening weekend. Maybe that was a result of Quantumania. Maybe it was the result of people realizing they can just wait a few weeks before these movies hit streaming. But from the very beginning, people realized that even if its opening was smaller the film was already showing that it had strong legs. Why is that? Because it’s a great movie.
READ: Why Mantis Is The Most Important Member Of The Guardians of the Galaxy
Not even blockbusters from last year, such as Top Gun or Avatar, had the biggest opening weekends, yet they kept growing because of strong word of mouth.
I say this all to show that what we’re experiencing now is not superhero fatigue. The truth – or what I at least believe is the truth – is that in a post-COVID and pro-streaming world people are much more selective about what they’re willing to go out and pay to see in theaters. If word of mouth isn’t strong enough, or early audience and critic reactions indicate that a film is nothing “super”, then they can wait for that to come to Disney+ or any other streaming platform. If the studios are not motivated by anything other than money, stories suffer, franchises suffer, and eventually fans suffer. Not to say that studios should focus on quality over quantity, but if they want to keep on getting fans in seats, they need to give them a reason to show up.
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