Movies: Stop Blaming Superhero Movies for Cinema’s Decline

When it comes to movies, everyone has an opinion on the remakes and the sequels and the overdoing of what we’ve already seen. “Oh great, they’re making another (insert movie here)” has been said more times in the past few years that probably in the history of movies. But we can’t blame the studios for every changing landscape of box office success.

Hollywood isn’t running out of ideas, they’re just less likely to take risks and that’s not on them. With the current landscape, when it comes to new release movies, studios don’t want to invest in films that might flop. They only want to back something they know will either profit heavily or spawn multiple avenues to earn in the future. They’re not remaking movies and setting up sequels because they’re unoriginal, they’re doing it because it almost guarantees those films won’t flop.

Sure you can blame the big-budget blockbusters like Marvel’s Cinematic Universe for the skew in film, but the shift didn’t even start with them. Action films have always kicked spending up a notch in Hollywood. Explosions and shutting blocks down for chase scenes and all the fun stuff that goes with those style films have always cost a pretty penny.

The difference is now, action films just went from heist movies about kidnapping a heroes family and robbing banks to superhero films straight out of a comic book. Every old-timer in cinema can blame the decline in box office numbers on these types of films all they want but in reality, they’re what is keeping people in theaters.

The real culprit and enemies of the studio are the demand for movies in general. With movies these days, the on-demand straight to consumer model is what is killing the box office. Movies that audiences used to gamble on don’t bring people to the theaters anymore.

More and more flops are happening in Hollywood because these word-of-mouth cult classics people aren’t flocking to see anymore because they’ll be on-demand shortly after they finish their theatrical run. You can rent movies fresh out of the theater on Amazon, iTunes, or right from your cable subscriber. People don’t feel the need to rush out and see movies anymore because they no longer have the fear of missing out on the movies everyone is talking about, because if they don’t catch them in theaters they can see them a week or two later in the comfort of their own home.

Anywhere from 11-13 bucks per person plus popcorn, drinks, and snacks and by the time you’re done for a family of 4 to hit the theaters you’re well over $100 per trip to the local theater. So why would audiences and studios alike gamble on movies that they not sure will be worth their hard earned money? From a studio stand point remakes and sequels of prior success are less of a risk that a fresh outlook movie. As a consumer, remakes and sequels pull you in to the continuity of the story you’ve already fell in love with.

Blame superhero movies all you want for box office numbers all you want but they’re not the major cause. The preconditioned manner in which consumers have been programmed to wait until movies they’d normally roll the dice on are on demand is at the root of the problem. Why spend over $100 when a month or two later $5.99 to rent and $35 in delivered food will keep the whole family happy for the night in the comfort of their own home. Argue what is and what isn’t cinema all you want, it’s not superheroes that are ruining our movie going experience.