The year is 2008, and you’ve just walked into your local theater to see a movie your coworker barely convinced you to go see. Starring in the movie was an actor who you vaguely remember going to prison about 12 years ago. You expect some kiddy flick, heck, it’s based on a comic book after all! But soon you’d bear witness to a film that would change the industry for decades, a movie titled Iron Man.
From the first two Spider-Man series to cult classics like Howard the Duck and Blade, films had been made about Marvel characters before.
But Iron Man (2008) was different. It is considered the first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), a franchise that has largely defined “going to the movies” for those coming of age in 21st-century America.
Marvel Cinematic Universe
Superhero movies became a cultural centerpiece in the 2010s. With every new Marvel movie came a swarm of excited kids tottling into movie theaters.
Among them, was Cory Stillman, a now LA-based PR agent and entertainment journalist.
“Truly,” Stillman said. “Every single one I saw in theaters.”
From when he was about 8 years old and saw Christopher Nolan’s 2005 film, Batman Begins, Stillman was hooked on superhero media. So much so, he turned to the comics, and then back to the movies, and then to the online forums.
“If we were talking about the MCU,” he said, “I would be the kid who would correct you… tell you that you were wrong.”
In the 368-day period between Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, brutal lunch-table disputes took place over whether or not Spidey was really gone for good.
Yet, despite such unparalleled and consistent dominance in pop culture for over a decade, superhero media may be quieting down.
Between 2014 and 2019, 11 MCU movies breached $300 million at domestic box offices. But in the following six years (2019-2025), there were only 6 that broke even a quarter of a million dollars.
Additionally, MCU films released since 2021 have a steadily, albeit slowly decreasing average IMDb rating.
These numbers are up for interpretation. But it is possible they indicate a cultural shift, a shift into a new ecosystem of “superhero fatigue.”
Superhero Fatigue
“It was Thor: Love and Thunder,” said Stillman, “I went to see it, and I felt like my relationship to these movies was changing.”
A year later, Stillman saw Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania, another miss. After Quantumania, he decided to, in his words, “unshackle” himself from Marvel movies. The Marvels was the first Marvel movie that Stillman felt no desire to go see.
Some have defined the feeling of superhero fatigue, and others have tried to diagnose a cure to it. But what is it exactly?
As Martin Scorsese put it, “They are sequels in name, but they are remakes in spirit… market-researched, audience-tested, vetted, modified, revetted and remodified until they’re ready for consumption.”
Even filmmakers within the genre have spoken on superhero fatigue.
“If the only thing we have to offer is one character showing up, and seeing two characters together that we’ve never seen together on screen before,” said director James Gunn in an interview with GQ, “Nobody cares anymore.”
Gunn, like many directors in the superhero business, sticks to his beat and doesn’t often stray away from it. Of his last six directorial credits, two are DC titles, and four are Marvel. His latest, Superman (2025), is the fifth-highest-grossing DC movie ever, trailing just behind Matt Reeves’ The Batman (2022).
So, is this good news for DC? Not quite.
While Gunn and Reeves may have hit the mark, lifetime gross box office stats show that almost no one else has done so, at least, post-Endgame. Superman and The Batman are the fourth and fifth-highest-grossing DC films ever, and they both came out after 2019. The next highest-ranked DC film, post-2019, is Black Adam in seventeenth.
So, why is this happening? For one, the novelty has worn off.
The Flash…y effects
In an interview with film journalist and podcaster Josh Horowitz, Tom Hanks laid out how the bare value of flashy effects and on-screen explosions has slowly decayed.
“You can drain Lake Michigan and fill it with cuckoo clocks,” said Hanks. “You can do that, but to what purpose is the end of the day? What’s the story and what’s it going to be saying about us?”
People are searching for a story. In 1978, when Christopher Reeve flew across the screen on wires invisible to the naked eye, it amazed audiences. As did the CGI in Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, and the performance capture technology used in James Cameron’s Avatar.
And Marvel pulled something similar off with the MCU. Bringing together dozens of characters, who had never been on screen together, into a pair of epic films was a dazzling spectacle.
“Look at what Ryan Coogler did with Black Panther, it’s stunning,” said Stillman. “But there’s a flatness to the recent ones; it’s the same CGI fight over and over.”
Quantity Over Quality
Following the spectacle of Avengers: Endgame, Marvel had an opportunity to call the last decade a success.
“They told this epic story, you almost couldn’t believe they pulled it off,” Stillman reflected about Endgame.
So, why would Marvel not take a break?
“One of the most obvious reasons,” said Stillman, “corporate greed.”
It is worth noting that 2021 and 2022 were decidedly good years for superhero television shows, with WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Loki all getting significant buzz.
But since then, Marvel has released several Disney+ exclusives that many have likely never heard of. For example, shows such as Marvel Zombies, a series with a 66% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 68% audience score, did not get much attention.
In his own review of the show, Rendy Jones, a critic for RogerEbert.com, wrote that, “Marvel Zombies may be a light watch, but the lack of guts it had to take the MCU roster to new heights is squandered by tonal stale safeness disguised as freshness.”
A Response
None of this is to say that superhero movies are done for.
2026 will see the release of Avengers: Doomsday. Avengers movies have long carried the mantle of cultural discourse for Marvel, and with the return of Robert Downey Jr. to the MCU, Doomsday will be a surefire success.
Also, this year, Spider-Man: Brand New Day will come out. Spider-Man movies, much like the Avengers series, always do well. The last film, Spider-Man: No Way Home, brought in over $800 million dollars at the box office.
On the DC side, the second entry into the ‘James Gunn DC Universe‘ will be released in 2026: Supergirl. The movie has potential, as it will adapt a well-known comic, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. However, Gunn revealed in a Variety interview that he would not be employing the beloved art style of Woman of Tomorrow in his movie, concerning some fans and critics about the adaptation.
In 2027, Avengers: Secret Wars, The Batman Part II, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, and Superman: The Man of Tomorrow are all set for release.
Comic-book talk aside, it is clear that Marvel and DC are returning to something, as opposed to changing anything up. In two years, there will be two new Avengers movies, two new Spiderman movies, a new Batman movie, and another Superman movie.
“We may need to step away from Superhero storytelling for the next decade or so,” said Stillman, “Then we can come back with a brand new MCU, or something like it, to look forward to.”
