Let’s be honest. Hollywood superhero movies have a quality problem

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There are many reasons why DC’s latest movie, Shazam! Fury of the Gods performed poorly, earning only $30.5 million in the US and Canada.

The production, with an estimated budget of $125 million, received critical acclaim. And maybe there just wasn’t that much interest in a “Shazam!” follow up first. The original “Shazam!” It started with a solid $53 million, but was not a runaway success, finishing at $140 million domestically, a mediocre 2.6 times its debut.

Maybe it was just hard to get DC fans to.

“Shazam!” starring Zachary Levi has always been a bit outside of the DC galaxy, and the sequel was a holdover from the previous Warner Bros. regime and isn’t set in the franchise’s future, which makes it a bit of a cripple victim of one change of strategy.

This situation makes it difficult for audiences to invest time in a movie, even if there are millions behind it in studio marketing (although there are some grumbles in town that Warner Bros.’s media spending was overdue).

Superhero fans want stories that connect, like James Gunn and Peter Safran did at Warner Bros. Discovery made long before they took control of DC.

But there’s a bigger problem: superhero movies have a serious quality versus quantity problem.

After last weekend’s dismal box office results, I kept reminding myself of comments Gunn made to entertainment journalists in January explaining his vision for DC’s future.

One of the most refreshing parts of that speech, given at the Warner Bros. estate. in Burbank, Gunn’s admission that superhero equality in Hollywood really is something that matters, wasn’t a mirage that only the originality-hungry film critics of the industry are. desert of flashy creativity.

“Superhero fatigue can get real once the movies get repetitive and too similar,” Gunn said during the Q&A session after discussing his and Safran’s plans for DC Studios and the expanding movie and television universe.

The genre can’t thrive on telling the same stories over and over — “good guy, bad guy, big thing in the sky,” said the Guardians of the Galaxy filmmaker. Superhero movies need more moral complexity. They need movies that “don’t just pretend to be different genres,” but are actually comedies, horror movies, and dramas involving superpowers.

Besides variety, quality control is also an important factor, as we mentioned as Marvel’s Phase 4 challenges unfolded. If audiences keep getting mediocre superhero content while studios work like Silly Putty to fill streaming services and theaters with more and more stuff, it will hurt the art form.

Kevin Feige’s previously untouchable operation at Disney has spawned some true critical failures since the end of the Infinity saga, most recently Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and, to a lesser extent, Thor: Love and Thunder. The quality of Marvel’s VFX and the effort it takes to make the movies has come under fire lately.

Opening weekend earnings for Marvel movies remain largely uncritical as far as anyone can tell, but the latest “Ant-Man” suffered a 70% drop the weekend after its debut.

Longtime Marvel executive, Victoria Alonso, who was in charge of visual effects and post-production, recently left the studio, Disney confirmed Monday. No reason was given for her departure, a rare example of high turnover at Feige’s store.

Yes, Marvel is still the most successful company in the movie industry. Still, it depends on whether the movies are good, but don’t always seem that way at first glance. Ultimately, the loss of fan goodwill hurts business as we remember the declining revenues of the Warner Bros. Remember Zack Snyder era. Even DC’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the first Suicide Squad did big business despite terrible announcements. The fallout didn’t happen until later.

The urgency to get it right is why DC isn’t taking any chances with Superman: Legacy, as the studio officially confirmed last week that Gunn will be writing the film in July 2025 alongside the script.

Gunn spoke at the January event about the importance of making sure scripts are in tip-top shape before shooting, rather than pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into a movie when “a script is only two-thirds done and we need to to finish it off while we’re making the movie.”

That kind of rushed production, followed by expensive reshoots, is fueled by the need to meet release dates set months and years in advance. Gunn cites this as a major reason for the “decline” of movie quality in recent decades, but notes that it’s not just a superhero problem.

When asked how much the new Superman movie – Clark Kent/Kal-El’s first standalone film since 2013’s Man of Steel – is getting, Gunn replied, “A lot.” There’s an eight- to 10-year plan at stake, and entertainment companies have a mixed record of building interconnected franchises without first building on hit, hit movies.

Even Marvel didn’t plan that much, at least in the beginning.

This is a time of dramatic, much-needed transition for DC. There’s a reason DC’s new leaders are poised to take on heavyweights, including Patty Jenkins, Henry Cavill, and Dwayne Johnson, the latter of whom spoke about the direction of the DC franchise on the Black Adam press tour, as if he was convinced he would have. a large part in it.

Gunn and Safran still have a few old movies they need to finish before 2025. DC’s $200 million movie The Flash is due out in June after debuting at CinemaCon next month. Gunn called it “probably one of the best superhero movies ever made,” and there’s bound to be some interest in Ezra Miller’s controversial element.

Sure, Fury of the Gods suffered from being on the border between Warner Bros. era Jason Kilar-Ann Sarnoff. Party Favors”) and what the DC Universe looks like under the new David Zaslav-approved management team.

But if the movies just aren’t very good, strategic business planning can’t do much about it.

things we wrote

— Here we go: Authors begin tense contract negotiations with Hollywood studios. Talks between writers and studios are being closely monitored as many in Hollywood fear this year’s contract renegotiations could lead to a strike.

— Is AI the future of Hollywood? How the hype matches reality. At SXSW, the annual summit of tech boosters, all eyes were on AI – and specifically what the burgeoning sector means for entertainment.

— What Netflix’s Nancy Meyers drama says about the state of the Hollywood rom-com. Netflix pulled out of Paris Paramount after budget disagreements. What price makes sense for the romantic comedy genre in 2023? Now Warner Bros. record per project.

— His LA-based podcast company was at a crossroads. Now it is owned by Jesse Thorn’s staff. Despite offers from big companies to sell his podcasting business, the host of “Bullseye With Jesse Thorn” – something of a millennial “fresh air” starring Terry Gross – decides to sell his company to his employees.

— The owner of the nation’s largest local sports network files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Sinclair’s Diamond Sports Group said it will continue to broadcast live matches on its Bally Sports channels during the bankruptcy proceedings. The struggle for unity is the clearest sign yet that the way local sports broadcasts are being broadcast is unraveling.

— Jen Psaki will now post the questions on MSNBC. President Biden’s former press secretary is taking on a new role as Sunday cable anchor for a show that will also be available on NBC’s Peacock streaming service.

— ABC’s Oscars show had the largest audience since 2020 with 18.8 million viewers. The scandal surrounding last year’s slapstick and high-profile Best Picture winner, “Everything at Once,” drew more TV viewers to this year’s event.

number of the week

Another week, another mass layoff at tech companies. Amazon announced 9,000 job cuts on Monday, up from the previously announced 18,000.

Amazon Studios doesn’t get the hit here. Instead, employees will work in cloud computing unit Amazon Web Services (CEO Andy Jassy’s former Lean), in advertising, in human resources and on Twitch, the streaming platform for watching live video games and other web video programs together.

That obviously has a lot to do with the broader tech sector struggle amid post-pandemic burnout and ad slowdown. Facebook owner Meta also recently reported a second round of budget cuts that saw 10,000 jobs cut.

Twitch is cutting about 400 jobs. “Like many businesses, our business has been impacted by the current macroeconomic environment, and user and revenue growth has not met our expectations,” new Twitch CEO Dan Clancy wrote in a blog post.

Amazon bought Twitch in 2014 for $970 million to access the growing world of gaming and esports. But while Twitch has grown, it hasn’t exactly become Amazon’s YouTube. Former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear resigned last week to take on an advisory role, saying he wants to stay home to raise his son.

The best of the internet

— Tilda Swinton on set discussing COVID masking rules. (Diversity)
– Missed earlier this month: Behind the Making of ‘Shakespeare in Love’. (airmail)
– The Fox News lawsuit revolves around Sidney Powell and a ‘wackadoodle’ email. (Washington Post)
– Haters Gonna Hate: Taylor Swift’s $150 million real estate empire. (Wall Street Journal)
— Kal Penn on The Daily Show as a host and comedy: “I don’t have to apologize for loving the humor as a sophomore or reading The Economist.” (Esquire)

Make a movie

Latest movie dates from FilmLA.

Finally…

Every time The Wire star Lance Reddick appeared in a movie or television show – be it the John Wick franchise or Lost – the project was better for his presence. He died Friday at the age of 60.