Here’s a chilling box office stat for the beancounters in Hollywood: not a single superhero movie this year is going to cross the $700 million mark at the international box office. That may not sound like a huge deal, but this is actually the first time since 2011 that not a single movie has passed that milestone. To put this into context, even superhero movies that were largely considered box office disappointments—such as Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2—crossed that mark.
In fact, the year’s most successful superhero movie—by a long way—is James Gunn’s Superman, which has just crossed the $600 million mark. It will likely end its box office run having grossed less than the Joss Whedon version of Justice League, which was considered a disaster but still made $656 million (not adjusted for inflation). Man of Steel made $668 million and is estimated to have sold somewhere in the neighborhood of 120 million tickets. By comparison, Supermanonly sold around 65 million tickets—and it’s the biggest superhero movie of the year.
Both Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts are estimated to have cost Disney roughly $100 million in losses, while Fantastic Four: First Steps should just about break even. Superman will likely make Warner Bros. a slim profit. Just a few years ago, superhero movies were considered a slam dunk.
What happened?
It seems studios, in an effort to maximize revenue, simply overexploited the genre, leaving fans cold. Even worse, a whole new generation of moviegoers is growing up and turning a cold shoulder to superhero films, seemingly more captivated by outside-the-box titles like Sinners, Weapons, and even A Minecraft Movie (kudos to WB for nailing the demos of these hits). All of this begs the question: are superhero movies permanently on the downslide?
The real test will come in December 2026, when Marvel releases Avengers: Doomsday, which will likely need to make at least $1.5 billion to be considered a success (if you consider Avengers: Infinity War made $2 billion, and Endgame made $2.5 billion)—although that number seems highly unlikely. Do you think the genre is going the way of the dodo? Let us know in the comments.
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