When do you think superhero films will die?

I've often heard people say popular films financially support more artistic ones. But doesn't every film have its own budget? I mean, are there a lot of independent films that lost money and had to be subsidized with the profits of successful ones? And aren't there are a fair number of indie film companies that don't make mainstream films? (These are not entirely rhetorical questions. I'd really like to hear others' take on these.)

As previously mentioned, the question is akin to asking "When will X genre die off?". Much like every cinematic genre that has existed since the dawn of cinema, you will notice (often retrospectively) some pioneers and gradually a bloom of films that popularize the concept. What follows is saturation of the market and gradually we arrive at a bottleneck effect during which only a handful of these films get made. It has been the case with pretty much every niche film category so far. I am confident that if someone were to plot this, the result would look very much like a Bell curve. I am purposefully excluding the basic building blocks of storytelling, drama and comedy.

Gangster films, Courtroom dramas, Sword and Sorcery, Slashers, Noir (now packaged as neo-noir), Monster flicks etc fit the bill. It is nothing we haven't seen before as an audience. We just happen to be smack down in the middle of the spring of superhero films with saturation creeping in to many fans already. The difference in this case is the popularity the endeavor has enjoyed (mainly in the MCU) and there is a good reason for that. The MCU has something going for it that no series of films have had to my knowledge.

The story is told over a vast number of films with serious regards to continuity. Thus, once you exit the movie theater, even if you are not completely satisfied with the result you are more inclined to go see the next film because this is just a chapter of a larger story. When was the last time you stopped reading a book you originally enjoyed because 2-3 chapters in a row seemed to go in a direction you didn't care for? Chances are you will stick with it till the end (which in the case of the MCU is Endgame) because you are already invested in it. This differs heavily from other franchises who have made a considerable number of films, because you are following a well-laid out plan. You are not just capitulating the success of one film and saying "lets make a sequel".

So no, superhero films will not be extinct. We possess the technology to make decent ones happen. Even once Marvel loses its allure and thins out its releases, they will still be around in smaller numbers. I can imagine a similar conversation had at any point in the previous century with a different genre in mind. But even if you were frustrated with amount of Westerns that came out in the 30s, surely you wouldn't object to it having for instance 5-10 films released per year as it happens nowadays.

Genres do not die off: they slow down, lose their appeal, get reinvented, evolve and do it all over again. Given the vast pool of different cinematic taste, once audiences have seen something, there will always be a market for it.

If it happens it won’t be anytime soon. With Captain Marvel nearing one billion, even average superhero movies are scoring high amounts of money, including venom and aqua man. Even with the cookie cutter films, every now and then we get a surprise like Logan, Deadpool, black panther, or Thor ragnarok.

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The cheese and wine movie fans tend to hate popcorn movies because they are much more popular and so they develop a resentment towards those popular movies. And then they start rationalizing things by saying that they do not like movies that are "stupid" and try to "manipulate" you: it is more of an attempt to attack popular movies because they are popular rather than any sincere criticism.

It reminds me of Tarkovsky's "criticism" of Apocalypse Now which he said was awful and that he sleept over it, which was his resentment of the popularity that Hollywood movies get relative to his more obscure movies. I wonder what Tarkovsky would think about the Avengers movies.

I know. I got ya the first time ;P

I'm basically saying that a lot of smaller films that I find superior to blockbuster Comic Book movies were financed by entities outside of the studio system. Kind of a common thing, this. And that I prefer these kinds of films because even though drama is a manipulator in story form, it's more subdued done right, and not some see thru obviousness - like the big comic book monkey movies. I said monkey movies. You scratch your head and eat bananas while watching them.

Because you are just focusing on the studios and not the exhibitors.

Siddon, you may be right about that where theaters in more urban cities are concerned. But I live in a more middle class, somewhat rural area where the major releases are competing for screen time. Independent films are only available on video, cable or streaming or at the local libraries.

Where do you live

Apoc Now is hardly what I would call a popcorn film even if it did quite well at the box office, in that case(and his dislike of 2001) I think its more that Tarkovsky had quite a narrow idea of what he thought film should be. I mean if you look at his favourite films and its not really deliberately obscurist, stuff like Ugetsu or Woman of the Dunes was quite successful for more challenging cinema as well.

I dunno!

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I live in a small town in eastern Ohio.

When do you think superhero films will die?

Never. Superman's immortal.

I do, not every time but it depends on how far south it's gone. I do the same for any series I watch. For instance, I stopped watching Attack On Titan (an anime) because it was too emotionally manipulative. I was being shown from the beginning that it'd mainly be concerned with how often I cried as opposed to how well the story played out.
As for the MCU, I stopped at Infinity War because I was being shown that the characters I've been watching for a decade have devolved into plot devices and I don't want to watch that.
Sure, I could be "missing out on when it gets good," but I also prefer not to sit through a bunch of nonsense because it "might get better," like a toxic relationship. Watching people refuse to use the amazing abilities they have to get out of a certain situation for the sake of a sequel is not fun to watch.
I'm actually working on a video about Infinity War right now (Ami Scythe ) so I'm not gonna write my entire script again lol. I agree with everything you said but I'm still throwing in the towel.

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Ami-Scythe

Soon I hope.

Considering they've been around since the 1970s, probably never?

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Yeah, I don't think they will die...maybe eventually go through a dormant period, but they are not gonna die anytime soon. The reason is when new superheroes hit the comics, they are gonna be destined to make the big screens one way or another. So don't expect the superhero genre to die out.

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I can see superhero films hitting a slow period,but I don’t see them ever reaching true death. I mean, westerns still come out lol

When DC and Marvel stops...

Not soon enough

Superhero movies themselves will never die, because it's a genre.

The superhero craze will definitely die, not for a while thought.