Have superhero movies lost their Shazam? The future of men in tights

Kaleb Gonzalez

Managing Editor

“Shazam! Fury of the Gods” performed poorly at the box office with about a $30 million opening weekend March 17-19. With “AntMan and the Wasp: Quantumania” receiving a 47 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, are superhero movies losing their magic?

Reviews and ratings tanked for the “Shazam” sequel compared to its predecessor, and fans are starting to experience fatigue from the superhero genre.

“Hardly a month goes by that you don’t have one,” said Matthew Price, owner of Speeding Bullet Comics in Norman. “I think it’s in a strong place, but the question is, can we keep making these movies forever?”

Price, the former features editor at The Oklahoman and current author of “Word Balloons” at Substack, said Marvel plays a vital part in the future of superhero movies. Marvel has dominated the genre for over a decade and has announced new plans for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

“I think people have experienced some fatigue, but people like the same but different. There is sort of a desire for familiarity, and that’s why

I think comics have been so helpful, because there’s all this source material out there,” Price said.

Although there may be fatigue, Price said that people still want to see good overcoming evil or have a baseline desire for those types of stories. The future could expand to more than just DC and Marvel, but rather original content produced by others.

“I would love to see more people that will try to create original material and create their own superheroes,” Price said.

The steady decrease in profit for these big-budget superhero films like the second “Shazam” and the third “Ant-Man,” money must be considered for the future success or failure of the genre.

“Just because a movie is good or bad, it doesn’t mean it will make money,” Price said. “We’ll see how long Marvel can keep putting out hits because they’ve had so many hits in a row, they’ve made money.”