Super Burnout: With Most Superhero Movies Flopping, Can Marvel and DC’s 2025 Slates Reverse an Unprecedented Box Office Drought?
Super Burnout: With Most Superhero Movies Flopping, Can Marvel and DC’s 2025 Slates Reverse an Unprecedented Box Office Drought?
Other than "Deadpool & Wolverine," superhero cinema has suffered a major box office drought. Can DC's Superman and Marvel's Captain America reverse the trend in 2025?
It all comes down to James Gunn & Peter Safran.
DC was late out of the gate when it comes to shared universes. Initially it's not their fault, they were wrapping up the Nolan Dark Knight trilogy right around the time the MCU was releasing the Avengers.
It was very clear that DC wanted that Avengers movie and they wanted it yesterday. They brought in Zack Snyder who I think got things off to an ok start, but DC was ready to burn through stories. Superman gets one film and then we have him fight Batman and die off. But don't worry Justice League next week so he'll be right back.
Wonder Woman was given a little more room to breathe with her solo film and it shows. Aquaman and Shazam got breathing room of their own, and each of their first films came out ok.
But as soon as those first films were successful they got sequels and a release date long before they had any idea what to do with them. They got sequels because Marvel did sequels, so they would probably work out. Spoiler, they did not.
Then they banked it all on The Flash. The Flash would reset things and they could get it right from the start. Except... Ezra Miller couldn't be a regular dude and had to be a raging asshole. Now the Flash film we got wasn't that bad. But it was too little too late.
But luckily for DC, one random Disney executive fucked up. They fired James Gunn over in the public and apologized for content, that was never really that bad to begin with. Disney fixed their mistake, but not before DC scooped him up.
Now my hope is James Gunn and Peter Safran have a good plan. The Suicide Squad was great and Peacemaker was fantastic. Not to mention the Guardians trilogy being one of the best trilogies in the MCU. Hopefully DC studio heads don't fuck things up.
I get it, we're in "Superhero Burnout" time. But that's not really true. People just want good films & TV. Spider-Verse 3? Highly anticipated. Agatha All Along? Nailing it so far. The Penguin? Possibly the best show of the year.