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2022 was officially the year that superhero movies lost the box office. What does this mean for the future of Hollywood, the MCU and the DCU?
2022 was officially the year that superhero films lost their dominance at the box office. Looking back, 2008 was a pivotal moment in Hollywood history. Marvel Studios toyed with the creation of a shared universe, one with B- and C-list superheroes whose film rights had passed by other studios or whose rights had reverted to Marvel because they had been stuck in development hell for years. Nobody expected the Marvel Cinematic Universe to be such a success, not even Marvel.
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14 years later, by the end of 2022, MCU films have grossed over US$28 billion at the global box office. Avengers: Endgame, the triumphant ending of stages 1-3, grossed nearly $2.8 billion worldwide. Superheroes and comic book adaptations are all the rage, with a relentless spate of movies and television series featuring such diverse and surprising characters and concepts as Black Adam, Shang-Chi, Miles Morales’ Spider-Man, Doom Patrol, the Umbrella Academy, and the Guys. And yet 2022 seems to have been the year that fashion has evolved a little – because superheroes have lost control of the global box office.
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Superhero movies have lost their clout at the box office
The 2022 box office is an improvement over 2021, which is sure to give studios a sigh of relief. But it’s worth noting that while the year featured several major superhero films — including three MCU blockbusters — none of them broke $1 billion at the global box office. In 2018, Venom – a relatively lackluster superhero film – grossed over $856 million worldwide. In 2022, only two of the year’s five superhero movies broke that unlikely benchmark – Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Black Adam, a film that Dwayne Johnson hoped would serve as a relaunch for the entire DC Universe, hasn’t even cracked $400 million worldwide. Fashions are clearly changing in popular culture.
Franchise & nostalgia will remain important in 2022
However, franchises are clearly more important than ever. This is best demonstrated by James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water, which broke $1 billion at the box office after just 12 days. At this point it’s too early to tell how well the sequel to the 2009 classic will do; Still, it’s already one of just three releases in 2022 to surpass that $1 billion milestone. The other two are Top Gun: Maverick and Jurassic World: Dominion. Both are established franchises, and both have been marketed with nostalgia – with Jurassic World: Dominion finally delivering on the latest trilogy’s promise of reuniting the new cast with the ’90s originals. Taken together, the top three hits of 2022 support the view that franchises and nostalgia are at the core of modern popular culture.
Looking back, 2019 seems to be the pinnacle of the superhero genre. Even though 2020 and 2021 were impacted by Covid, it’s certainly telling that only one superhero movie has surpassed $1 billion since 2019 – Spider-Man: No Way Home. However, this particular film was uniquely designed to also appeal to nostalgia, as it featured the return of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield as previous iterations of Spider-Man. Its success may have more to do with Spider-Man’s enduring popularity and its appeal to nostalgia than the MCU itself.
What does this mean for the future of Hollywood?
Of course, that doesn’t mean the superhero genre will go the Western route. That’s especially true in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where the multiverse saga could repeat the nostalgic appeal of Spider-Man: No Way Home by incorporating past iterations of characters like the X-Men; 2026’s Avengers: Secret Wars seems perfectly timed. But the latest DC Universe relaunch unfortunately comes at just the wrong time, and DC Films boss James Gunn has to figure out how to handle the current fad. Sony’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is likely to be a hit, and set photos suggest the unlikely Madame Web is meant to appeal to fans of the Maguire Spider-Man films, but this studio’s other unworldly choices could be in trouble .
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Beyond the superhero genre, Indiana Jones & the Dial of Destiny – which will be released on June 30, 2023 – should be one of the best performers of the year. Viewers can expect Hollywood to be doubling down on established franchises in 2023 and beyond, and sadly, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see originals relegated to streaming services like Disney+. 2022 has marked a major change at the box office, but it’s not one that benefits these originals, disappointing news for those hoping for the birth of new franchises.
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