While it may not necessarily be “superhero fatigue”, it could well be correct to say it’s “Marvel fatigue”. It’s not like Disney haven’t been pumping out content for the franchise in enormous quantities, to the point that even those who don’t really follow the franchise are aware that it’s absolutely massive and there’s a lot of content you have to consume if you want to actually know what’s 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 there’s a character or enemy or event or whatever that you’re supposed to know all about, but you don’t because you didn’t watch that other series/film.
Superheroes aren’t 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 wouldn’t even know where to start with Marvel because there’s literally too much of it. Keeping up with a franchise shouldn’t 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 “you know what, I’ve watched a lot of this lately, I’m in the mood for something else.” 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 don’t 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 won’t just keep buying the same stuff over and over. Marvel, Star Wars, remakes of animated films from 30-80 years ago… Disney won’t take risks anymore, so they’ve over-saturated their own market with repetitive products that consumers are losing interest in.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head here. I think a lot of people haven’t 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 “anyone fancy a cinema trip”.
Yep, that’s definitely a factor. If people are going to the cinema less, then they’re 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 who’s going to spend money they don’t have on a film that might be good but is also likely to be extremely mediocre? And there’s 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 you’re a couple of years behind on the franchise, but a TV series you haven’t got around to yet is required viewing for a film in the cinema, then you’re 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 you’ve caught up on X, Y, and Z you need to watch first so the film makes sense, but then your purchase doesn’t 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.
Marvel fatigue + poor advertising mostly, I would think. As someone who likes all the characters in this movie and the marvel universe in general… even I am waiting to watch it on Disney+. No Marvel movie is a must-watch for me anymore, hardly any movies are. Theatres are just too damned expensive.
I’ve actually been wanting to watch this one and didn’t even realize it had released. I thought it was scheduled for early next year. Poor marketing for sure.
They really aren’t. Go to a Cinemark on a Tuesday, or at a Matinee showing, and it’s like $6 in a HCOL area.
Well youre right, there are ways to see stuff on the cheap. In Canada we have some cheaper theatres, and cheap tuesday. But matinees arent a thing here anymore.
Also because of my job and family I can rarely go til the weekend. And its always me and my kids… its always fun but it ends up being very very expensive.
Better to just wait and watch it at home. Im sure its the same for a lot of people.
Just burnt out from all of Marvel and Starwars stuff
Tbh I’m not caring so much about the movies, I catch them at some point or other, but I’ve been enjoying a lot of the series. Just finished Ahsoka, I enjoyed the Mando stuff and Andor was fun too. Just watched the first episode of season 2 of Loki as well and it’s got me hooked again already.
I think it’s just the stories they’re trying to tell are too big to squeeze into a movie, 3 hours is already at the limit of what I’d watch for a movie but it’s too short to tell the story without feeling like it’s a ton of action sequences slammed together and the overall MCU doesn’t really feel like it’s building to anything in particular on the movie side. Maybe a smaller number of core movies with a more focussed narrative and faster release cadence would help.
I’m addition to what others have said, Marvel shows and movies with female leads get more flak than they deserve in my opinion. There still seems to be some misogyny in this niche.
Although I’m too burned out on the franchise to be excited about new releases, Captain Marvel 2018 was one of the best movies they made in general without qualification. Wanda + Vision was phenomenal until the last episode and Ms. Marvel was great until the 3rd episode. This movie has plenty of potential that at this point I’m not sure they care about using anymore.
Tbh I’m just going to watch it on Disney Plus at some point. I don’t have an interest in it because I didn’t have an interest in Ms Marvel so the team-up just isn’t something I’ll go to a theater to see when I can stream it later.
I can recommend the first 2 episodes of Ms. Marvel. I suspect the remaining episodes suffered a series of Disney-induced comprimises and are kind of a mess. The first 2 episodes are great and enough to endear someone to Kamala who is a well-acted and fun character.
I fully disagree
Most people really don’t give a shit if the lead is female, black or a martian. They care about good movies with primarily good stories.
The captain Marvel movies were shit stories trying to push yet again the female narrative instead of just making a good story. Add to that a VERY unlikable lead actress who just bitches and brags about herself to the point that her co actors are just “suuuuuurrreee” right next to her, and you got a recipe for Disaster.
I used to love all the Marvel movies. and then I started watching one film and couldn’t tell if I’d seen it already and didn’t want to watch it if I hadn’t… and then realised they’re basically just identical stories player by different characters.
no reason to hit up the opening weekend if you’re just going to watch a rerun.
