Is the era of the superhero over? The box office of Marvel and DC is not as good as "Journey to the Bell Bud" that was released for three days

Makoto Shinkai's "Journey to the Bell Buds" has been unique since its release.

Pre-sales exceeded 100 million, the number of people who wanted to see exceeded 1 million, the number of films ranked was as high as more than 43%, the single-day box office was greater than 90 million, and the cumulative box office in three days has exceeded 340 million.

According to such a box office trend, "Journey to the Bell Buds" is very likely to break Makoto Shinkai's "Your Name." With a box office record of 575 million, it became Japan's highest-grossing film in China.

But the high box office is accompanied by the polarization of word of mouth.

Some people say that the story is too fragmented, the pattern of the first half of the road film is very good, and the second half directly collapses.

Some people say that it is very healing, the beautiful picture, touching love and affection, and Shinkai Makoto's care for reality are all loved.

Regardless of where the final rating of "Journey to the Bell Buds" stays, there is one fact that must be admitted,

That is, with a box office of only three days, "Journey to the Bell Bud" has become the box office champion of imported films in 2023, and far exceeds other foreign blockbusters.

In the mainland, Marvel released "Black Panther 2" and "Ant-Man 3", and DC released "Thunder Shazam!" Wrath of the Gods".

The box office was 106 million, 272 million and 39.669 million respectively, and the box office of each film was not comparable to the box office of "Journey to the Bell Bud" in three days. 

The total box office of the three superheroes combined is 417 million, and according to forecasts, "Journey to the Bell Bud" will reach 421 million at the box office on the sixth day of release, easily surpassing the superhero, which was unthinkable before.

The time has come for a change in the Premier League, not only China, but also its global box office is not as invincible as before.

The third phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies have billions of dollars at the global box office, such as "Captain America 3", "Spider-Man: Far From Home", "Black Panther" and "Captain Marvel".

"Avengers 3" and "Avengers 4" have reached a terrifying $2 billion +, and "Ant-Man 2", the world's lowest box office in the third phase, has $624 million, and other movies are not less than $800 million.

On the other hand, the fourth stage is simply a "gnawing old people" sitting on a mountain.

"Black Widow" $379 million, "Shangqi" $432 million, "Eternals" $402 million.

"Spider-Man: Homeless" $1.971 billion, "Doctor Strange 2" $955 million, "Thor 4" $760 million, "Black Panther 2" $856 million.

Of the seven movies, only "Spider-Man: Homeless" broke a billion dollars, or because of the emotional bonus of the three worms in the same frame.

The box office results of the remaining films directly shrank by more than half, and compared with the third stage, where every movie swept the world, the fourth stage is simply a dou that cannot be supported.

The fifth stage of the first shot "Ant-Man 3" also did not start.

The global box office is 465 million US dollars, which is not the same as the previous work, and the IMDb score is only 6.4, and the box office and word of mouth have completely failed.

The same story and slightly rough special effects have made "Ant-Man 3" difficult to return to its former glory, and even Marvel's own proud visual spectacle has been lost.

Marvel is at least a skinny camel, and look at DC, the scenery of the Batman trilogy is so beautiful, but now it is sunset.

So far, the highest global box office of DC movies is still "Aquaman" with $1.154 billion, and even "Justice League" has only $657 million.

The just-released Thunder Shazam! Wrath of the Gods", the total box office in China is not even half of the first-day box office of "Thunder Shazam 1", and the North American box office is even worse than one day, and the global box office has not exceeded 100 million so far.

Although James Gunn began to take charge of the DC Universe, it is difficult to turn the tide alone, coupled with many bad things in Warner's top management, and their old love to intervene, DC's future will definitely be hindered, and the prospects are not optimistic.

Why did Marvel and DC fall into such a field?

DC simply doesn't know what he wants, Marvel shoots what he follows, has no ideas of his own, and will not systematically unfold the universe like Marvel.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has two main backbones, Iron Man and Captain America, both of which are representatives of high reputation and high box office, and the first three stages rely on these two superheroes, which makes the Marvel Universe branch.

And DC? Their backbones are Batman and Superman, but DC did not develop around them.

Instead, they always let them make cameos for second- and third-tier heroes, wasting great resources, losing watermelons and sesame, and nothing fell.

Fortunately, DC was also alert, and after not achieving much in the universe, it began to find another way and expand into film genres, such as the detective movie "The New Batman" and the realist "Joker".

This direction of discovering the details of big IP may be the future of DC, blindly following Marvel, can only pick up people's teeth, but now, Marvel's life is not good, DC can not pick up any sweetness.

As for Marvel, it is indeed a good hand played thinly.

There is a paragraph about Marvel's movie script, after the Marvel screenwriter has written the story, he will first tell it to a 5-year-old child, and if he can understand it, then start shooting.

It can be seen from this that the scripts of Marvel movies are basically pasted and copied from the young, frequently saving the country, the world, and the universe, and it seems that superheroes should do this in their definition.

If you see more of this homogeneous thing, the audience will naturally be aesthetically fatigued.

But Marvel still doesn't know how to change, and is still repeating its old routine of 10,000 years of change, forgetting that superheroes don't save the world, and they can do other things that are enough to be called heroes.

For example, learning Nolan's "Batman" trilogy, the genre of police and gangster films fighting crime is also a superhero, and learning the inspirational elements of "Forrest Gump" to inspire others to live actively is also a superhero.

The decline in the global status of the United States is also one of the reasons why Marvel's superhero is no longer so popular.

The former United States was the world's unique hegemon, exporting their values to the world, making everyone feel that the United States was a beacon and that only they could save the world.

When such themes are featured in superhero films, audiences will be convinced, because they subconsciously acquiesce that this kind of thing should be done by the United States, and now that the hegemony of the United States is shaken, the credibility of this set of values is unbalanced.

Today's audiences like to deconstruct, they associate the superhero with the current situation in the United States, and then deconstruct by the way, the righteous rhetoric in the movie will not stand, and Marvel's appeal will decline.

Another point is that the global economy is not stable and improving, but showing a downward trend, resulting in the audience running out of money in their pockets.

In the past, it was more abundant, even if you watch one or two bad movies, you can afford it, but now the pocket is cleaner than the face, and the money has to be used on the blade, and naturally choose contrast, Marvel, DC are no longer the brainless first choice.

On the whole, Marvel and DC can still make money now because of the foil of their peers.

The entire film market is rotten, either sequels or remakes, this unenterprising environment, so that the superhero still has room to live, after all, there is no one to see what type of film can replace the superhero.

I hope that the future of movies is not the only one of the superheroes, and there will be other films to stand out, otherwise the death of the movie will no longer be a warning, but a real reality.