REPORT: Should We Prepare Ourselves For The "Death Of The Superhero Movie"?

Like dubstep, emo, chavs, Harry Potter and Captain Jack Sparrow, Superhero movies are a thing of the noughties. The noughties were over last year. All things associated with the noughties will follow.
Green Lantern was the deathblow.
Superman will be the last gasp.

Although I believe we have hit a sort of 'critical mass' of CBM I don't think the argument that the studios are running out of characters is all that valid. At least not enough to warrant a death of the genre.

Studios will just have to be a bit more clever how they market and fund their properties.

Basically a good film is a good story well told. If the studios keep that end of the bargin up then there won't be that much of a problem. Less familiar characters may need smaller intial budgets in order to be profitable but that will be the only change.

Major characters will always stand a good chance.

No genre is completely safe however. Westerns and Melodramas have had to take a back seat over recent decades but they still get made.

All hail GALACTUS!

No TDK #s will keep companies throwing money at the screen.

I don't buy into this way of thinking. If the film is good, people will see it. The characters used in these films does not have to be an A-list character, just translatable into a good story.

As for the studios not making a huge appearance at CC....why should they spend tons of money to sell these films to a people who are already sold on them? The people at Comic Con are the "built in" fan base that are going to catch these films at the theater almost regardless. Following that train of thought, they can also give a huge mis-read on the public's reaction to a film. It's the general public that makes or breaks a CBM not the fans. So, the general public is who the studios have to aim their marketing at.

The last few years the studios have went all out with marketing at Comic Con and received huge responses only to have films fail because the fan base they were testing was not enough to sustain a film.

While we love seeing everything a studio has to offer at CC, it is an unnecessary expense on the studios part. We, the fans, will see the film regardless.

So long as the action genre is still going superhero movies will be fine. I don't really consider superhero films their own genre, since they essentially are just action movies featuring a comic book character. Running out of characters won't be a huge problem for a while though, just because there are so many characters. Look at batman, we had the original 4 movies, then the character took some time off and came back stronger than ever.

Bropous@
Nice Avatar. Newmar? Mrowr.

If you make shitty movies they don't make money.

REBOOTS!!!!

I think people who choose side like Marvel fanboys or DC fanboys are helping this happen. Wishing for a film to fail and that company to fail will help this happen. Fans should just hope all comicbook films turn out great.

Sorry sides. I can't edit.

yeah it maybe the end for dc characters but marvel are just growing in strength & will continue there dominance.

I've always thought that DC should start looking deeper at their villains. Things that could work would be-

A Secret Six tv show

A Solomon Grundy movie that's more of a john Carpenter Horror style:

These type of outlooks are what DC needs IMO

Yeah, there might be some truth to this i think after the avengers theres not much left but b rate charecters left to make i mean really what's left .I don't see them taking a huge risk on lesser known charecters like Moonight and Alpha-flight.Still would be cool to see Silver surfer in his own film

Fangz: Interesting post, with many good points. Could we compare the 'comic book movie' to the animated feature? The animated feature used to be something special when only Disney did them, and later Pixar. Now, there is a new one coming out almost monthly. It just isn't special or unique anymore. I think a lot of mainstream audiences are starting to feel the same way about comic book movies. They're rolling their eyes like "Lord! ANOTHER superhero film? Meh!" They'll need something really special to bring in those mainstream audiences that are superhero-ed out. Then we get into the whole thing of directors that completely change what the character is all about to fit their arrogant "vision" or re-whatever. I'd personally just as soon not see superhero films at all as to see them where a character I've read for thirty years is unrecognizable to me (gee, seems like there is a GREAT example of that coming out real soon!). It's not hard to do a great superhero film. There are decades worth of awesome stories waiting to be filmed. And they're already storyboarded out, all that's needed is a script, some actors, and a set.

One more thing: For as much as people look down on disco music, it should be properly recognized as the forefather of all of the many genres of dance music that followed. And some of it wasn't that bad.

I'm sooo glad that Marvel is doing very well although I can't help but be nervous about Avengers. I'm not a fan of DC much at all but it's a bummer to see such a big name not succeed with movie adaptations.

Seems like Batman is their only hope right now and that's more of a standalone universe within the DCU and not really associated with the rest of it (in the general mainstream mindset). People may be aware of the connection but still think of Batman as his own thing whereas Iron Man will always be associate with the Avengers, Wolverine will always be associated with X-men...

Spiderman is kinda like Batman in that regard but he is still a quite bit more intertwined with the greater Marvel Universe than Batman is with DCU. Now to fixt those movie rights issues.

@ razor- I am in agreement with you. First off, we have more, potentially better stories to translate to the big screen for Thor, Captain America, Spiderman, Superman, Batman, and Green Lantern. Granted this year seems like a saturated market for the comic book genre but in this economy all of these movies are doing great. I have been to more midnight showings this year that ever before and I wouldn't stop doing that with any sequels.

The comic book movie limits are set in an open range of endless possibilities but what this "anal-yst" (good one Digitaria51) does not seem to understand is there is even more beyond the horizon that makes for even better film making when it comes to CBMs. When these movies are done the right way no one complains and all attend. This has been proven with Thor, X-Men, Transformers, and even Harry Potter. And every movie is outdoing the previous one and setting records that is completely opposite of where the world economy stands right now!!

No, I don't see a slow down. I see continued success with this year being a test on whether multiple CBMs in succession is sustainable. And guess what, IT IS! When I go to the theater I say "Make mine a CBM!!!"