You’ve surely heard the adage “absence makes the heart grow fonder” by now.
But did you know the flip side is true too? Persistence makes the heart grow weary… or something like that.
And that second phrase has proven demonstrably true with the current state of the flailing Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Superhero fatigue isn’t just real, it’s being actively exacerbated by every new Marvel film — with each new entry setting a seeming historic low.
And this is the big problem with market saturation, an issue that Disney and Marvel seem to be “retooling” around, according to a new report from The Hollywood Reporter.
“The studio’s golden box office aura has been dented, but chief architect Kevin Feige isn’t scrapping his years-long cinematic universe plan, just refining it,” the outlet reports.
“Dented” is an understatement.
2023 was an especially bad year for Disney and Marvel in theaters, and the small screen wasn’t much better.
As THR describes, those critical and commercial failures are “all uncharted territory for Marvel, which had steadily been generating box office gold for 15 years.”
Have you personally experienced some “superhero fatigue”?
But in lieu of any sort of true break or significant introspection, it looks like the best Marvel can do is simply rejigger things, according to THR.
The Hollywood Reporter notes that those follies (and some minimal recent fanfare) come as Feige “recalibrates the creative direction behind the scenes.”
“The focus is internal this year,” one source told THR in regards to Feige’s tinkering.
“They’re not going to give up,” another source told THR. “They want to make something great.”
“Giving up” may be embellished, but there’s no shame in admitting to needing a break — for both the people working on and consuming the media.
In fact, if you were to give Disney CEO Bob Iger or Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige a dose of truth serum, they would both probably tell you that the absolute best thing for the MCU would’ve been to take a deep and long break after 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame.”
“Endgame” was the culmination of an all-time run in theaters, with Marvel’s hits far outweighing the misses leading up to that epic film.
Since then?
Marvel has, easily, had way more misses than hits.
Imagine the clamoring for the next Marvel project if fans had only gotten five or six movies (instead of the 11 they’ve gotten post-“Endgame”) in the last four years.
Fans would be starving for content, and throwing down their hard-earned cash to watch the next Marvel event.
No amount of tinkering or recalibrating can make up for fatigue.
If Disney and Marvel don’t realize that (and to Iger’s minimal credit, THR notes he did seem to acknowledge needing a qualitative — not quantitative — approach to Disney properties), the MCU may lose whatever little mystique it has left.
And that’s the last thing the struggling House of Mouse needs.
