The Superhero movie trend won’t end until entertainment trends change globally?

[mathew101281]

It isn’t like the western, which is tied to a real time in history and thus is impacted by how we view that time.
Superheroes are popular because they are the one genre that still have universal appeal, in a world of ever increasing compartmentalized entertainment. Any genre that intends to replace supers as “the genre” are going to have to do three things...

1. Be popular globally: a blockbuster really can’t be just a local hit anymore. This pretty much curtails many genres from being as popular as Superheroes, since many are very specific to their culture, it’s why Bollywood musicals rarely have global success, and comedies rarely make as much as Superhero films (humor is very subjective even within cultures). Anything that knocks off Supers is going need to travel well.

2. Appeal to both male and female viewers: The problem with a lot of other genres is that they are very gendered. Historicallly Superheroes have been to, but that has really changed in the last decade and a half. That’s what will always keep romance, and more traditional macho action movies down. This is also what keeps religious(Christian) film down to, since their demographic is almost exclusively women.

3. Appeal to multiple ages: the main reason why Marvel movies clean up is the fact that they appeal both to children and adults. It’s really difficult for movies made almost exclusively for adults or exclusively for kids to pull in the kind of dollars. Sure you have your exceptions, but for the most part pg13 movies are the engine that drive Hollywood.