While it may not necessarily be âsuperhero fatigueâ, it could well be correct to say itâs âMarvel fatigueâ. Itâs not like Disney havenât been pumping out content for the franchise in enormous quantities, to the point that even those who donât really follow the franchise are aware that itâs absolutely massive and thereâs a lot of content you have to consume if you want to actually know whatâs going on. This is always a problem with big franchises: either you have to consume all of it (which means you get tired of it quicker), or you have to skip some and then be confused later when suddenly thereâs a character or enemy or event or whatever that youâre supposed to know all about, but you donât because you didnât watch that other series/film.
Superheroes arenât my favourite genre, but I like to dabble every now and then, and there are some superhero TV series and films that I have genuinely loved. But frankly at this point I wouldnât even know where to start with Marvel because thereâs literally too much of it. Keeping up with a franchise shouldnât be a full time job. But Disney is essentially assuming that everybody has time to watch everything it pumps out for its franchises, but somehow simultaneously never go âyou know what, Iâve watched a lot of this lately, Iâm in the mood for something else.â The more stuff becomes required viewing, the more of the audience you lose due to people just not having enough time.
People could well be experiencing some Marvel fatigue without feeling superhero fatigue, just like I feel a little Star Wars fatigue while still being interested in other sci-fi. Disney want a monopoly on entertainment, but they also donât want to risk spending money on a wide variety of franchises in case some of them make a loss, because the short term losses on a few failed experiments are more important than the long term gains of creating something new that endures. So all they do is recycle the same stuff over and over, oblivious to the fact that audiences wonât just keep buying the same stuff over and over. Marvel, Star Wars, remakes of animated films from 30-80 years ago⌠Disney wonât take risks anymore, so theyâve over-saturated their own market with repetitive products that consumers are losing interest in.
I think youâve hit the nail on the head here. I think a lot of people havenât got back into going to the cinema since COVID which adds to the problem of not having the energy to see everything. My inertia for getting out to the cinema is much worse than it used to be, which seems to be the same with my social group. Collectively that makes it much more likely that as a group someone will be the voice of âanyone fancy a cinema tripâ.
Yep, thatâs definitely a factor. If people are going to the cinema less, then theyâre going to prioritise films that they really, really want to see, rather than just anything that looks like it might be fun. The economic issues contribute to this too, because whoâs going to spend money they donât have on a film that might be good but is also likely to be extremely mediocre? And thereâs also the fact that behaviour in cinemas is⌠not great these days, which creates an incentive for people who want to enjoy a film instead of, you know, throwing crap and screaming and assaulting the staff, to just stay home.
And when you add onto that the issue I identified with the quantity of content, if youâre a couple of years behind on the franchise, but a TV series you havenât got around to yet is required viewing for a film in the cinema, then youâre not going to rush to go see it the very first weekend. What you might do instead is stream it or buy the Blu-ray a couple of years from now, when youâve caught up on X, Y, and Z you need to watch first so the film makes sense, but then your purchase doesnât show up in the sales figures until 2-3 years in the future. And by that point, Disney have already decided the film was a failure.
