One question I have to ask with the DC Comics and Marvel Studios movie date announcements for the next six years, is are there way too many superhero movies? I mean, I enjoy seeing a superhero movie or two every year, especially during the Summer, but having up to 10 superhero movies in one year, I think that is going too overboard. Here is the movie schedule from DC and Marvel up until 2020.
2015
- May 1: Avengers: Age of Ultron
- July 17: Ant-Man
- August 7: Fantastic Four
2016
- February 12: Deadpool
- March 25: Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn Of Justice
- May 6: Captain America: Civil War
- May 27: X-Men: Apocalypse
- August 5: Suicide Squad
- November 4: Doctor Strange
- November 11: Sinister Six
2017
- March 3: Untitled Wolverine sequel
- May 5: Guardians of the Galaxy 2
- June 23: Wonder Woman
- July 14: Fantastic Four 2
- July 28: Thor: Ragnarok
- November 3: Black Panther
- November 17: Justice League, Part 1
- In 2017: Untitled Sony female Spider-Man spin-off
- In 2017: Sony Venom: Carnage Spider-Man spin-off
2018
- March 23: The Flash
- May 4: Avengers: Infinity War, Part 1
- July 6: Captain Marvel
- July 13: Untitled Fox Mystery Marvel film
- July 27: Aquaman
- November 2: Inhumans
- In 2018: Amazing Spider-Man 3
2019
- April 5: Shazam
- May 3: Avengers: Infinity War, Part 2
- June 14: Justice League, Part 2
2020
- April 3: Cyborg
- June 19: Green Lantern
As you can see, 2015 will be an easy year with only three superhero movies, and I want to see the second Avengers movie! But starting in 2016, all heck breaks loose! DC Comics and Marvel Studios are now in a war for the most eyeballs, and cash flow. And then Sony confirmed that at least four more Spider Man films are in the works. The studios like Disney, Sony, and Warner Bros., all throwing cash to make way too many superhero movies, and I believe we will see a superhero movie crash. Or what some people in the stock market call, a bubble bursting.
There are over 30 superhero movies in development between now and 2020. And that number could go up. At first, DC Comics released their movie plans until 2020, to show everyone, and Marvel, that they can compete in the superhero game. And then, Marvel said, we can show DC Comics what we are made of, and released their movie schedule through 2020. While some geeks and nerds were thrilled with the movie list, I became concerned, not because I am a fellow geek/nerd, but because people will soon grow tired of seeing a superhero flick, because there are too many of them!
Remember back in the good ole days, when Hollywood was producing non-stop Westerns? That soon faded, because audiences got tired of seeing western, another, western, another western, and so on. Today, there is an entire channel called Encore Westerns dedicated to western films and TV shows. I wonder how long it will take before Encore starts up a channel dedicated to all superhero movies and TV shows? Because there is way more than enough to do a channel now!
Back to the superhero topic, yes, CGI has made most superhero movies very awesome. I enjoy cities being destroyed, weapons firing, and the hero and villain clashing into each other. But, there is only so much CGI each person can handle each year. Plus, with the cost of a movie ticket getting higher and higher, people are going to be limited to which superhero movie they will see in the theater, and which superhero movies they will wait to see on Netflix. Heck, with the gut of superhero movies coming out, you might as well parody the whole thing, too late!
I am ultimately worried that the studios will wear out the genre or worse begin thinking anything with a superhero will work and flood the market with garbage. Not all superhero movies have been a major success, only a certain few like Guardians of the Galaxy do very well, most superhero movies do moderately well, while some superhero movies bomb, I am looking at you Batman and Robin! Most movies have a budget of around $200 million, and the studios can not sustain a budget like that for every superhero movie being made, they just can’t!
I guess the ultimate question is not about quantity, its quality. As long as the studios are making the big bucks, especially overseas, we continue to see superhero movies over and over again. But once the genre eventually gets boring, audiences will quit coming to superhero movies, no matter how good they are. So, when will the superhero movie burst? Who knows!
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