Superhero fatigue is near: what studio will kill the superhero movie?

We are now 10 years into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has been behind big superhero films such as Iron Man, Thor, Black Panther, and Avengers: Infinity War. The latter proved that the Marvel machine is still running as smoothly as ever, with the latter having made over 2 billion USD globally. It’s safe to say that when superhero fatigue sets in, Marvel won’t be the cause of it. Let’s have a look at some of the studios that are adding to the yearly output of superhero movies and could cause the downfall of the genre:

Sony

Although we’ve recently seen Spider-Man show up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sony still owns the film rights to the character. After they made a mess out of their previous Spider-Man series (with the worst offender being Amazing Spider-Man 2, starring Andrew Garfield) they made a deal with Marvel to return the superhero to his past prime. As a result of this Sony is restricted in how it can use the character.

Since the studio is limited in its superhero catalog, they decided to launch a Spider-Man related universe, which – because of the deal – can’t contain Spider-Man. See, Marvel studios doesn’t want Sony’s Spider-Man related movies to be part of the Marvel canon. Yes, it’s weird, and you can read more about the deal here.

The first of those movies is Venom, which has gotten trashed by critics yet is on track to make money. We can see the perception of superhero movies suffering as a result of this, since the average audience could be confused about what counts as a Spider-Man movie, and what as a superhero movie.

Beyond this Sony is also investing in a Valiant cinematic universe. If you don’t know what Valiant is, it’s a smaller comic book publisher started in 1989. Its heroes obviously don’t enjoy the same fame as their DC/Marvel counterpart so the quality of these films will have to be high for them to draw an audience. Since the first movie in the universe will be Bloodshot, starring Vin Diesel, our hopes are low.

DC Films/Warner Bros.

Although DC comics boasts one hell of a superhero catalog (Superman! Batman! Wonder Woman!) their movie department has failed in utilizing them properly. The Nolan Batman films rank among the best superhero films have to offer, but beyond that there is mostly crap (such as Green Lantern, Justice League, Suicide Squad). The perception of the DC films has become so bad that despite having Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and The Flash, Justice League still turned out to be a box office bomb.

Next up for the studio is Aquaman, for which an extended trailer was just released and uh… it’s not great.

It’ll be interesting how this movie and after this Shazam do.

Netflix

Since Disney is launching its own streaming service in 2019, it will end its deal allowing Netflix to contain the Marvel films. As a result Netflix has already made a deal with comic book writer Mark Millar to produce and release his content. If Netflix manages to create successful superhero movies on its platform, will viewers still want to go to the cinema to see Venom III?

Any studios or franchises you are worried about? Let us know in the comments!