Live Poll: Superhero Movie Fatigue?

I think it does affect what kind of films end up being made and distributed, we shouldn't kid ourselves about that. A simple look at the evolution of Top 10 box-office winners from the last 10 years shows that the films that gross the most money belong inevitably to one of these categories:

- superhero movie
- franchise movie (including franchise starters)
- animated movie
these three categories include one-movie's remakes, reboots and live-action versions (or live-action mixed with animation)
and you have the exception: the non-franchise sci-fi quality film made by a well-established director (Inception, Gravity, The Martian, Interstellar etc.)

That's it, I don't even think Dunkirk belongs to the Top 10 of 2017.

You won't find any other kind of movies in the Top 10 anymore unless they overlap with any of these categories, perhaps the last live-action non-fantasy comedy to have made it in the Top 10 is The Hangover in 2009 (and it can be considered a franchise starter but still), I mean, even 2008 had Mamma Mia!

So yes, it is a trend of the 2010's.

Of course, a movie can be successful without making it in the Top 10, but I feel there's just something overwhelming in the huge amount of franchise and superhero movies made these days, and it seems like either you're a big director who can make spectacular war/ historical / epic dramas with enough marketing campaign to enhance their chances to reach a public, or you're condemned to make little indies and art-house movies to screen in some obscure theaters.

Maybe the Awards seasons is an exception because the nominees benefit from a good deal of publicity and marketing buzz but that means maybe 10 or 15 films and I'm sure that put together, they would still make less money than the 10th highest-grossing movie of the year.

So yes, I guess I have superhero fatigue, blockbuster-fatigue franchise fatigue, live-action remake, reboot, sequels, prequels fatigue as well,  IMDb removing-great-features fatigue... and fatigue-fatigue...

Dan Dassow,

Updated.  Thank you and thank you for vote.


I fixed sentence in one of the choices:

Old: 
Yes! There are too many superhero movies and TV series released every year. Superhero movie/TV franchises need to slow down

Updated:

Yes! There are too many superhero movies and TV series released every year. I'd like to see other blockbuster genres.

Sdk ElMaruecan,

Thank you for vote!

Thank you for vote.

Thanks DC for vote. 

Good point.  Updated option 7.  Thank you for feedback and vote.

Pants,

I'd say he's an Anti-Hero, since he lacks conventional heroic attributes but still manages to be the "saviour" in his story.

That sounds reasonable to me. He saves the day, but he isn't really a hero.

"Deadpool" is half-parody, half-superhero movies and the two genres mix perfectly because there's nothing worse than a superhero flick that takes itself seriously, except a superhero film that tries to play it cool and fail miserably. "Deadpool" works because it's a great comedy, you enjoy it for the laughs, which isn't exactly the "reason-to-be" of the superhero genre.

If there were more superhero movies different from the Marvel mash (something like Sam Raimi's Darkman), that would be interesting. I'd like to see Spike Lee's Black Panther satire, budgeted at 25 million, or Batman: The Gritty Urban Crime Drama, made by someone who doesn't have to completely sacrifice his artistic soul.

But as it stands, I side with Elmo. Formulaic superhero movies edge out other movies. Nowadays, many people think that cinema is all about generic blockbusters. That's not really true but you hardly get to see anything else in a typical movie theater. So it's mostly blockbuster fans who go to the movies, which seems to confirm studios that only produce blockbusters. A vicious circle.

Good point.  I'm not a superhero movie hater, but it would be nice if there were more "imaginative" hero movies, and not just these generic tough guy/girl that fights bad guy/girl with lots of CGI.  :)

Yep, it's not denying fans of the genre what they like or hating all of it but rather... "can we please have some other kinds of movies, too?"

albstein, 
may I also ask what action or sci-fi/fantasy movies you find good?  Or just movies on general?

I like movies with a) hand-made action scenes that are b) easy to follow and c) that make you feel something is at stake. If you go through the Die Hard and Terminator series chronologically, they pretty much go from what I like most to what I like least. Which, luckily, is also the verdict of the majority. Recent movies that hit a) and b) are Mad Max Fury Road, the John Wicks, The Raid, and Mission Impossible: Fallout.

Sci-fi: mostly the universally acclaimed good stuff. Alien, 2001, Carpenter's The Thing, Back to the Future, Blade Runner, RoboCop, Total Recall, and above all stands Brazil.

Fantasy seems to be an underdeveloped genre, no? I always find it hard to name more than a few examples unless the definition is widened very much. The first four or five Harry Potter movies are nice, and Middle Earth is interesting as long as Gollum is there.

In general, I like gangster movies, black comedy, and other gritty stuff. From Hitchcock and Hawks to Scorsese, De Palma, and Tarantino.

Japanese and Hong Kong cinema, as well. After seeing movies by Sion Sono, Satoshi Kon, Takeshi Kitano or Kinji Fukasaku, I often sit there and wonder what the heck this even was. With them, that's a good thing. The weird and the macabre often strike a chord in me.

I guess I have a thing for evil women, lol. Especially Bette Davis - most of her movies are pretty stupid but I love how she eats everyone alive and spits them out! Isabelle Huppert also makes me see movies that otherwise wouldn't have interested me. Barbara Stanwyck and Eva Green are delightful.

Decade-wise (not to be too strict), the 60s and 70s pretty much represent the high point of film history to me but lately I'm getting a taste of the 30s, too. So many traditions and clichés were present then already but there they look fresher. And wow, it's so cool seeing the emancipated (for lack of a better word) women of that era; it's not about an agenda but about using literally one half of humanity to a more entertaining effect.

And don't tell anyone, but I'm something of a sucker for romantic comedies as well. Or I used to be as an impressionable and lonely teenager. Just recently rewatched a scene from Love, actually. The horror... the horror! Speaking of which, I probably enjoy horror movies more than most cinephiles around here.

Even with such a long text it's hard to say and I had to leave out so much. To paraphrase and turn around the first sentence of Anna Karenina, "all bad movies are alike; each good movie is unique in its own way".

What about you? :) Just taking a guess: you, uh, like Narnia?

Yep, Narnia fan!  :)

I agree that action movies need to be well choreographed and interesting.  Terminator is okay; I actually like the Fast and Furious movies, especially the more recent ones.  They are a little stupid, I guess, but I like that they're kinda a throwback to older action movies with all they're awesome car chases and well choreographed fights.

I also enjoyed the recent "Rampage" with the Rock.  It was sometimes laughed at for being silly, but I think it was super good.  Because it was just what it was promised to be: a giant monster action movie with huge wolf destruction!  :D  They didn't try to ruin it with love triangles and whatnot.  2018's "The Commuter" was also well made.

Yes fantasy is underdeveloped!  I think most studios have only two perceptions of fantasy: 1. It's silly cartoons for little kids 2. Let's make it for teens/young adults (Twilight, etc)  Fantasy is a beautiful genre.  The original fairy tales were well written and exciting, and with a moral, sometimes.  Now they just slap some CGI around and have actors/actresses be sappy (or over the top tough).  But sweet fantasy is good, too.  Paddington and Peter Rabbit and Pooh Bear are so sweet.  I like whimsy.

I think the 2000's (and now, partially) is the one of the best decades for films.  The 50's/60's were also good as far as well written scripts.

BTTF is great, I think!  Not a huge sci-fi fan though.  Seen a little of the X Files and wasn't impressed.  The episode with Brady Bunch house is kinda good though, and I prefer that liquid metal Terminator as an agent to David Duchovny.  Mulder always seemed a little depressed to me.  :)

As far as comedy, I like wit with a healthy dose of silly.  The films I find funny my friends often think are dull or stupid.  The Ben Stiller Secret Life of Walter Mitty is awesome, BTW.