Can foreign superhero films ever reach mainstream status?

[Vakanai]

Eh, a bit of a shameless bump because I still find this topic interesting, and with covid-19 keeping Hollywood somewhat down it'd be nice if in the future mainstream entertainment wasn't so localized to Hollywood.

Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet-Li are action stars that made it big in America.

True, and I've always been a really huge Jackie Chan fan myself. None of the others can do as much as he does with as goofy a grin as he has - he's just such a happy guy it shines through in all his roles, something you don't get in most action stars. And using literally every bit of furniture as a weapon is just something no one else does, that it makes all his action scenes so unique. Shame he can't do quite as much of it lately now that he's older, because no one else comes close.

I could see a big budget Metal Men, Ultraman, or other sentai that is not inspiration to Power Rangers do amazingly well.

Ultraman I think especially could do well here in America given the right push, I've been watching some of the series thanks to the new Blu-rays from Mill Creek. If Japan could pull off several solo movies on the level of Godzilla (which can happen with the upcoming Shin Ultraman) or maybe some cartoons (I think there was a Netflix anime series), I think they could find a real foothold to try and get him into mainstream here.

[Starter Set]

Not even sure that outside of the US a lot of people would be that interested to make super hero movies for being honest. (and Japan of course)

People around the world enjoy to watch them sure enough, the big ones at least, but take France for example, it could be done as a comedy maybe but a serious super hero movie, nah.

And it's not even a budget or visual effects problem, though right now i don't think you would find many producers ready for an adventure, just that it's just not the kind of movie people would be interested to make here.

[marshal88]

Ultraman I think especially could do well here in America given the right push, I've been watching some of the series thanks to the new Blu-rays from Mill Creek. If Japan could pull off several solo movies on the level of Godzilla (which can happen with the upcoming Shin Ultraman) or maybe some cartoons (I think there was a Netflix anime series), I think they could find a real foothold to try and get him into mainstream here.

ultraman always had a fanbase in america - abeit limited since it started airing the original series eons ago , over the years , they have even have a ultraman usa cartoon and dubbed ultraman tiga over to the us , one of the first heisei ultra revival series who was my favorite series but it had limited success in the us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKBwH17FWJQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzwr49GDgXk

not sure it could ever catch on in the us like power rangers but it will still have its fans,

[Gotham citizen]

Can foreign superhero films ever reach mainstream status?

Obviously not, because the U.S. superhero concept is something typically American and (almost) every foreign superhero was an imitation of the American ones, so none of them was able to last on the long therm; even the most successful of them; for example here in Italy there were a lot of Italian superheroes: Fulmine (Lightning), Asso di Picche (Ace of Spades), Atomik, Misterix, Radar (the most successful of all with his 100 issues)…
Why?
Because often the foreign readers don't see the superhero like an interesting concept and if a population isn't interested in the superheroes, it will be very difficult that someone will be able to create successful characters using that concept.
I think the only possibility to have a foreign superhero enough successful to became a mainstream character, is to reinvent the concept in a way that is more interesting for the home readers. In the end this is what happened with the Japanese superheroes: the Japanese created their own superhero concept, without being influenced by the American superheroes tropes.

[Starter Set]

Well, now that i think of it, Asterix is kinda a superhero lol.

He has super powers, he stands for truth, justice and the Gaul way and he fights against an oppressive empire.

And he's definitely mainstream.

[Psy-lock]

Is anyone here even familiar with non-American/European originating comics and characters (as in they didn't come from an American or British/whatever publisher, so characters from other countries in Marvel/DC don't count)? Just something I'm kind of curious about learning more about

In Russia the biggest comic book publisher is Bubble Comics which publishes Major Grom, Demonslayer, Friar, Red Fury, Exlibrium and Meteora. Though most of these characters are superheroes in the same way James Bond and Harry Potter are "superheroes". Major Grom is getting a movie next year which will adapt the first arc of the comic. Can't really say much about its chances going mainstream, I don't even know if it's getting an international release.

[Gotham citizen]

[…]
Is anyone here even familiar with non-American/European originating comics and characters (as in they didn't come from an American or British/whatever publisher, so characters from other countries in Marvel/DC don't count)? Just something I'm kind of curious about learning more about.
[…]

This is the English characters' page of the Sergio Bonelli Editore (the greates Italian comic publisher) and like you can see very few characters are something vaguely similar to the superheroes: Lilith, who is some sort of time-traveler police officer, Dampyr, who is half human and half vampire, Volto Nascosto and Shanghai Devil (both of them are masked avengers) and Lukas, who is a man came back to the grave without memory. But actually they are totally different comics from the superhero ones, because their stories are more adventure comics than superhero; Dampyr and Lukas are urban-horror comics, Lilith is a sci-fi police comic, while Volto Nascosto and Shanghai Devil, even if they are masked heroes like the American ones, they don't have any fancy gadgets, so their modus operandi is more similar to the one we saw in certain TV show of the eighties like Magnum P.I. or Charlie's Angels than the Batman's one.