After months of building hype among fans, Spider-Man: Brand New Day debuted to an absolutely colossal opening weekend box office of $932 million worldwide. That superhero film dethroned Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, a literary blockbuster that is steadily sailing its way towards a billion dollars at the box office. Throw in the success of some surprise summer hits like Obsession and Backrooms (two microbudget horror films that made a real killing in theaters), and you have some downright shocking news: movies are back, baby! Back so much that this will likely be the most profitable year for films since the pandemic.
That’s great news for movie lovers everywhere. During the darker days of the pandemic, it seemed like the entire movie theater industry was likely to implode, leaving us with a hellscape of direct-to-streaming crap. Now, it seems that cinema is here to stay, and more people are discovering (or rediscovering) the joy of seeing films on the biggest screen possible. Unfortunately, the unexpected health of the industry has revealed that this summer’s biggest bombs had no real excuse for their failure. The Mandalorian and Grogu and Supergirl were huge flops, and it wasn’t due to franchise fatigue or economic woes. Nope; these movies failed because they failed to find an audience!
Star Wars’ Big Comeback Was A Huge Failure
You never know when an expensive blockbuster is going to flop at the box office. You do know, however, exactly what happens next: the excuses. When The Mandalorian and Grogu became the lowest-grossing live-action film in Star Wars history, fans and critics alike tried to contextualize that failure. Some thought the movie bombed because it was just an extended episode of a TV show nobody really cared about anymore; others thought the lingering stink of the Sequel Trilogy had sabotaged the chances for a major sci-fi movie to succeed. And, of course, some argued that fans avoided the theaters, knowing they’d soon be able to watch this movie on Disney+, right alongside The Mandalorian.
When Supergirl flopped even harder, there was a different bevy of excuses. Some claimed the movie bombed because of good, old-fashioned misogyny; that is, that general moviegoers weren’t ready for such a strong female lead. Others argued that the movie was a failed copycat, trying and failing to emulate the grimy, cosmic wackiness of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. Needless to say, others blamed superhero fatigue, claiming that general audiences were missing out on something great because they had gotten so collectively sick of superhero cinema. However, based on the most successful movies of the summer, we know that none of these excuses truly explained why these movies failed.
Audiences Stayed Up, Up, And (Far) Away
When it comes to Supergirl, the runaway success of Spider-Man: Brand New Day proves that superhero fatigue isn’t a thing; rather, audiences had simply increased their standards for such movies, and Supergirl failed to meet those standards. Incidentally, the success of The Devil Wears Prada 2 illustrates that general audiences don’t actually have a problem with strong female leads. As for The Mandalorian and Grogu, the major buzz and box office success of Project Hail Mary proves that moviegoers still love ambitious, big-budget sci-fi when it’s done right. That movie, along with The Odyssey, proves that audiences won’t wait for streaming when the right spectacle is offered to them.
Why, then, did Star Wars and DC actually lose big this summer? The simple answer is that audiences want something that feels fresh and original. As Obsession director Curry Barker said on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast, Gen Z in particular is “tired of slop” but will “show up for an original film,” or even an unoriginal film if it doesn’t “feel rushed or overly produced.” The Odyssey felt fresh because it was a rock star director’s epic take on an ancient text; Project Hail Mary felt fresh because it was an exciting new IP. Even Spider-Man: Brand New Day felt fresh because it had a new director and a bold new storytelling approach.
Audiences Want Something New
Conversely, The Mandalorian and Grogu failed because it was just a bunch of action porn with once-popular TV characters stapled onto it. Star Wars used to feel like a special event, but this felt like a sloppy, direct-to-DVD movie that somehow ended up on the big screen. Supergirl, meanwhile, was a derivative hodgepodge of different IPs and stories, mixed and matched in an effort to seem original. It didn’t work, though, and everyone could tell Warner Bros. was just throwing a bunch of old ideas onto a cold plate and acting like this was an exciting, original film when it was anything but.
What’s the lesson, both for directors and would-be filmmakers? When it comes to movies, general audiences prefer something genuinely original. Even if it’s not completely original, it needs to have an innovative angle: Obsession is a fresh take on the classic Monkey’s Paw story, and The Odyssey is a post-9/11 take on the scars war leaves on even the best soldier. Heck, even Spider-Man: Brand New Day examines the intersection of love, duty, and self-care through a superhero lens. In short, today’s audiences demand more from movies than recycled ideas. And if a movie has nothing original to offer, we’ll just stay home and stream the better films that it stole from!
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