There was a time when Disney thought they could keep the Marvel train running indefinitely, but it has undeniably slowed down. The brand is no longer the guaranteed theatrical audience draw it was before. There are several factors to that: one, after the giant climax that was Infinity War and Endgame, the follow-ups couldn’t help but feel like lesser stakes. Two, the “multiverse” arc they chose to pursue for the most recent phases of the MCU has proved to be confounded, disjointed and not as interesting. Three…you just plain can’t do the same thing forever and expect the same results.
I don’t know if ALL those things are on CEO Bob Iger’s mind right now. From a distance, the reaction to the slowdown in Marvel box office bread seems to heavily lean on Problem #3. If Superhero Fatigue is a thing, we need to pull back the throttle and let everyone catch a breath. Deadpool & Wolverine is the only Marvel film that will be released this year, and with the “R” sticker affixed to it, it won’t be for everyone.
Iger said today that when Marvel films DO come back, it will be on a reduced schedule of two or three per year. The TV spinoffs will follow suit and also be released less frequently. “We’re slowly going to decrease volume and go to probably about two TV series a year instead of what had become four and reduce our film output from maybe four a year to two, or a maximum of three,” he said.
Thing is, three movies a year might still be too much? Three were the amount of Marvel movies released in 2023: Quantumania, Guardians 3 and The Marvels. Only one of those attracted any attention, and it’s because people trust James Gunn to deliver a good time more than whoever’s been making Ant-Man films. In the end, it’s not really the genre that makes you pay for a ticket, it’s the trust between filmmaker and filmgoer.
Even with fewer Marvel movies out there, those movies could still bomb. The real hook is they have to be good.
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