Sonic

I was always a comic book geek so I enjoy all these Marvel movies coming out. I just wish DC would step up and put out quality movies too.

I think because of these Marvel and DC characters, these studios have made movie watching fun again.

Tom Creo

Funny thing to ask after TWS and GotG were released this year. Argueably two of the best superhero films ever released. Marvel is building a Mythology, something we have never seen done before in cinema. Each film builds on the other. I'm excited to see where it all goes. The other studios, meh.

mrhan

Overload…really? I`ve been waiting for this shit to happen my whole life or at least the last 40 years.

hanshotfirst1138

I have a friend who grew up on Marvel comics, and he says the same. Yeah, it's over saturated, but his childhood has come true. And so far, there's been some good stuff.

taffer

Major studios does not equal all studios

There are hundreds of movies released in a year. Less than ten are superhero movies. There is no oversaturation.


That's just stupid.

Do you even realize that movies are a business? What is their number one goal? To make money. What is the most in-demand movie right now? Marvel movies. The studios are just supplying the demand. The most in-demand things sell the most, and therefore get the biggest budgets. It's not hard to understand. Don't like it? Don't blame the studios. Blame the consumers for buying it.

Rival11

Completely agree but I have to admit - there are a bunch of decent flicks that come out of the crop of those low budget horror releases - nothing worth owning but definitely some good rental material.

Rival11

Oh and something to say about the topic....no, I don't think so at all - I just see a billion nerds who love to talk about these films so it may seem like there's a lot more than there actually are (if that even makes any sense).

taffer

That too. Plus another thing is that these superhero movies are getting announced up to 5 years in advance. We know superhero movies that have been announced but won't be released until 2020. How many other movies are announced that far in advance? Few if any.

All those announcements make it seem like there are more superhero movies than there really is. There really is only about 30 or so coming in the next 5 years, which is about 6 a year. That's not bad at all. Other genres outnumber that by a great deal. If you would list all the comedies coming out between now and 2020, the list would probably be close to a thousand.

DaveyJoe

Yes, which is why we're discussing the phrase "over-saturating the market" which in business means there is too much of a similar product to be profitable, which is what appears to be happening with comic book movies. I think that reality is going to sink in when general audiences don't go to Black Panther or Captain Marvel.


That's exactly what I do, haven't you seen me harassing Mike86 for supporting Marc Webb?

fumanstan

While I don't believe there's overload myself, to play devil's advocate I can a case being made where there are many examples where companies see the demand and go overboard with the supply to the point of exhaustion, and that's probably what some folks are getting at. Yes it makes money at the moment, but consumers do tend to move on from current trends and fads quickly.

Anyway, reposting this since it's a good visual representation of what's coming.

DthRdrX

I would have laughed in someones face back in 2006, after the release of Superman Returns none the less, if I was told Marvel would be releasing all of these films starring less popular characters and basically blowing other major studio releases away.

Mike86

Its hard telling if you ask me. Sometimes fads like this come and go for the general audiences and stuff just fades out after a certain point. The Marvel films have been going pretty strong for six years already. Granted the market hasn't been quite as filled with films as it will be in the coming years but I think that comic book films have some life left in them. I think DC might be in for a bit of a shock when the films they're releasing don't do as well just because their universe doesn't seem as organized and seems to be riding on Marvel's success.

taffer

It wasn't that long ago people were saying the exact same thing about Guardians of the Galaxy, that it was too obscure and the general audience wouldn't go see it.

GOTG has made over $700 million...


I won't deny that some of these superhero movies are going to fail. I said it before that with any genre the bad movies are ignored and quickly forgotten while the good movies are successful. It happens with every genre and the superhero genre is no different. The bad ones are Fantastic Four and the Spider-Man franchise. A Sinister Six movie just has fail written all over it. Those movies are going to be quickly forgotten, but the good movies, like the majority of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be successful. Yes, the market can crash and specific franchises within the genre will burn (like the FF and Spidey franchises) but that doesn't mean all of the franchises will burn. I can't see the MCU failing anytime soon, unless the quality of the movies takes a nosedive.

Groucho

The studio system hasn't supported "auteurs" since Heaven's Gate.

Paul_SD

I would say the Coens are as close to auteurs as it gets these days...and that is still pretty close.

As far as burnout/overload- I see it being a situation similar to the one Ebert remarked about film running times.
A good film is never too long and a bad film is never short enough...or something to that effect.

When the films are well executed, as CA;TWS, GotG, and X-MDoFP all were, they can't make enough of them.
If, OTOH, they were all of the caliber of AS-M2 (as used to be the case a generation ago), I would resent any of them clogging up the marketplace.

I expect the DC Warner films, despite having very vocal adherents, will tax this feeling more than the Marvel films.

Groucho

Do the Coen Brothers work inside the studio system?

Why So Blu?

No. I'm glad the quality is up to snuff. I think 1998 and Blade really showed the world what could be done with a decent budget.

DaveyJoe

I think some of us feel this way mostly because that's how things go in the film industry. Film history is full of fad cycles were a certain genre or style of filmmaking becomes very popular and trendy, and all of the studios push that trend until it becomes stale. It happens over and over again and the comic book tentpole film is the major trend of today. It's not that I dislike comic book movies and want them to go away, I just recognize the bullshit that Hollywood always pulls with something that becomes profitable. Like I said earlier in this thread(or another?) it's just a case of "too much of a good thing." I'm not trying to be negative about Marvel's plans, I just think audiences will lose interest as we move forward, the average joe doesn't have the time or money to keep up with all of these movies, every cinema trend fades away and people will crave something new.


You know all of this discussion makes me wonder where Supermallet has been recently...

And I was not one of them. Yes, GOTG had very impressive(and surprising?) returns... but GOTG is not Black Panther or Captain Marvel. I don't mean to be cynical, but I think comic book movies starring a black man or woman have bigger hurdles to jump than a movie about aliens. I'm impressed that Marvel is going ahead with Black Panther especially with a lesser known actor rather than going with a Will Smith type, but white men have dominated cinema for its entire existence. It's a hard trend to buck, maybe Marvel will be successful, but I think Black Panther is going to be a hard sell for general audiences.

DaveyJoe

It's also interesting to see the ra ra Marvel love these forums have and all sorts of dick riding about their risk taking when the comic book trend was started with studios like Fox(X-Men) and Sony(Raimi Spider-Man) who we all love to shit on now. It's amazing how quickly the tables will turn, but that just goes to show how fickle audiences can be.

rocket1312

Can you at least acknowledge that superhero movies make up an abnormally large percentage of the big budget tentpoles films being released each year? You get the difference between some random indie with a $10 million budget released by IFC and some $150 million blockbuster released by one of the big 6, right? They're apples and oranges and generally speaking serve a completely different set of audience needs. If I'm looking for some big, loud, blockbuster fun and I don't feel like watching a superhero movie (or some teen dystopia thing) there's not exactly a whole lot of options these days.

fumanstan

I don't see how that's reflective of audiences being fickle at all. Some of those movies, namely X2 and Spider-Man 2 are still highly regarded as some of the best in the genre, and Fox has gotten overhwelming praise with First Class, The Wolverine, and now Days of Future Past now.

Original Desmond

I was looking at the box office business of all the Marvel movies from the last few years. They can comfortably afford to have a few flops. But even a flop will most likely at the very least break even

and there hits make insane money

Hazel Motes

It's commendable that Marvel and DC are really getting ambitious about this, but they really can't see past their belly buttons if they honestly think this thing is gonna last to 2019, let alone 2017.

The clock keeps ticking closer and closer to the day a couple huge comic book movies are gonna crash and burn hard and halfway bankrupt a studio or two, leaving them holding their balls with a bunch of pre production films that they'll have to decide whether or not to pull the plug on.

Rob V

Four years ago it was vampires, the last two years it's zombies and now we'll get our helping of super heroes... it'll always be something.

rw2516

Most trends die out because they run out of ideas and it just becomes the same old tired stuff. One thing the superhero movies have going for them that previous trends did not is that there is 50 years of plots and storylines already written to milk. There is some real pemo stuff just sitting on the shelf:
Kree/Skull War
High Evolutionary
Colonizers of Rigel
Beta-Ray Bill
Alternate Earth
Kang
Secret Wars/Beyonder
Greek Gods/Hercules
And on and on and on

Like when the Bond movies started they had 13 books already written, ready to go. Only now are they in the position of having to create a completely original concept without tanking. Would these movies be as good and popular as they are if the source material didn't exist and they were completely original concepts created by studios having to come up with completely original new ideas for each film?

This will succeed long enough that there will be future poll threads titled "Who was the best Iron Man".