Hollywood Isn't Going to Understand

The success of Spider-man: Brand New Day has led to a lot of people making their arm chair proclamations about just about everything. How the Marvel Cinematic UniverseWhen it first began in 2008 with a little film called Iron Man no one suspected the empire that would follow. Superhero movies in the past, especially those not featuring either Batman or Superman, were usually terrible. And yet, Iron Man would lead to a long series of successful films, launching the most successful cinema brand in history: the Marvel Cinematic Universe. is back on top! How this spells doom for the MCU! How Hollywood finally has a path forward for superhero films. How this means nothing for superhero films. How, somehow, this means the DC UniverseThe successor to WB's failed cinematic universe, the DCEU. Headed by James Gunn and Peter Safran, this new DC Universe carries over some continuity from the former film and TV series while crafting a new, rebooted universe for the future. is totally cooked! And, honestly, if you can even follow the logic on that one then you, like me, are way too deep into internet cinema culture and we all need to go outside and touch some grass.

In reality I think it’s too soon to make any proclamations about anything. Spider-man: Brand New Day certainly does illustrate some stuff for us, but we can’t really say definitively if it means anything about anything else until we have more data points. But hey, for the sake of argument, let’s look at these arguments and see what holds water and what is completely without merit:

The MCU Is Back On Top, Baby!

There is no doubt that Spider-man: Brand New Day is the most successful MCU film to come out in sometime. It very likely is going to prove to be the most successful MCU film since Avengers: Endgame, and there’s a very real possibility it could even beat that film and take the top spot, earnings wise, for the whole cinematic universe. But it might be too much to say that it shows there’s still real life in the MCU. If anything, it simply shows the power of SpidermanSure, DC Comics has Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, but among the most popular superheroes stands a guy from Marvel Comics, a younger hero dressed in red and blue who shoots webs and sticks to walls. Introduced in the 1960s, Spider-Man has been a constant presence in comics and more, featured in movies regularly since his big screen debut in 2002. above all else.

As I noted in my review of this fourth Spider-man film, Spidey is one of the four most popular superheroes of all time, right alongside SupermanThe first big superhero from DC Comics, Superman has survived any number of pretenders to the throne, besting not only other comic titans but even Wolrd War II to remain one of only three comics to continue publishing since the 1940s., BatmanOne of the longest running, consistently in-print superheroes ever (matched only by Superman and Wonder Woman), Batman has been a force in entertainment for nearly as long as there's been an entertainment industry. It only makes sense, then that he is also the most regularly adapted, and consistently successful, superhero to grace the Silver Screen., and Wonder WomanLong considered the third pillar of the DC Comics "Trinity", Wonder Woman was one of the first female superheroes ever created. Running for as long as Batman or Superman (and without breaks despite a comic downturn in the 60s that killed superhero comics for about a decade), Wondie has the honor to be one of the longest serving, and most prolific, superheroes ever. (DC’s Trinity). And between continuing solid comic book sales and a consistently good (if not always great) slate of Spider-man films (where, in this case, we can ignore any of the villain films, like Morbius and Kraven the Hunter that didn’t feature the web-head, since most audiences ignored them as well), I don’t think it’s hyperbole to call Spidey the most popular comic character in the world right now. He’s just that big.

When you combine the most popular character in the world with the fourth film in a film series that has only increased its take movie after movie (Homecoming made $880.9 Mil, Far From Home made $1.133 Bil, and No Way Home made $1.921 Bil), it’s no wonder that this fourth film has done gangbusters (and currently, one week in, shows no signs of stopping). I would go so far as to say that if Spider-man: Brand New Day wasn’t one of the most successful MCU films ever made, then something really wrong would have had to have happened.

But the success of Spider-man: Brand New Day says nothing about the overall health of the MCU. Yes, Marvel characters show up in the film, with the likes of The PunisherAn anti-hero who was never meant to be a hero in the same way as the Avengers, the Punisher has taken on his own life in pop-culture, but that doesn't change the troubling qualities to his characterization., Black WidowNatalia Romanova was one one of the greatest and most effective Russian spies, a deadly killer who could blend in anywhere. Then she was turned and became one of SHIELD's most effective, and trusted, agents. (Yelena’s Version), and the The HulkOnce the brilliant Dr. Bruce Banner had dreams of making the world a better place by building super soldiers to act as a shield for all mankind. Then an accident at his lab bathed him in gamma radiation. Now he has a living nightmare, as a big green guy lives within, just waiting for the rage to take over so he can be free. all popping up for cameos. And yes, Jean Grey is in the film as a villain (sorry if that’s a spoiler, but this is my third article in a row about the film so… you were already warned). But these characters aren’t really the selling point of the film. The MCU connections don’t hurt the movie at all, but this is first and foremost a Spider-man film. End of the day, what this really shows is that people like the MCU Spidey and will continue watching him in anything. The MCU is a mess, but Peter Parker still shines.

If Anything, This Is Bad for the MCU

I think the future for the MCU is actually still pretty bleak. Spider-man: Brand New Day is doing really well, and the fifth AvengersMarvel's answer to DC's Justice League, this team features many of Marvel's biggest superheroes working together to protect the world and avenge its evils. film, Avengers: Doomsday, is tracking to do decently well too (if not currently preselling at levels to match Spider-man: Brand New Day). But most characters aren’t able to carry their films the way Spidey has, and it’s hard to think that’s going to change any time soon. When the likes of Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts* (which was a secret Avengers film), and Fantastic Four: First Steps all underperform, that doesn’t speak to a strong and healthy cinematic universe.

Sure, you could argue that many of the films that have underperformed weren’t the best films that Marvel could have made. Captain America: Brave New World was a mangled movie plagued by reshoots while also being a closet Hulk film that, for some reason, didn’t feature the actual Hulk. For many reasons that film didn’t work, and there were flaws with many others. But in the past, Marvel could release a flawed film as part of the MCU and it would still make $750 Mil or more. By the end of Phase III everything was making $1 Bil-plus without breaking a sweat. Those days are gone.

And that’s because, stretching on from the early days of Phase IV onwards, Marvel has made a lot of shitty movies that no one really asked for. No one was really thrilled by the likes of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Eternals, or Black Widow. While not every movie they made was bad, there was enough crap in the mix that it was hard to trust Marvel with your hard earned money. Especially when the films would show up on Disney+Disney's answer in the streaming service game, Disney+ features the studio's (nearly) full back catalog, plus new movies and shows from the likes of the MCU and Star Wars. later, and there were also all the shows that fans had to keep up with, and… Yeah, Marvel did itself no favors.

We’ve talked about all of this before, a few times, so I’ll stop belaboring the point. Suffice it to say, though, that the success of Spider-man: Brand New Day (and the likely success of Avengers: Doomsday) doesn’t say, “hey, the MCU is alright again!”. All it says is that Marvel has a couple of tentpoles it can rely on (Spidey and the Avengers) and, as far as audiences are concerned, everyone else is an afterthought. Marvel is going to have to do a lot of work, and really focus on providing must watch experiences for a few years, before audience trust is going to be earned once more. Spider-man: Brand New Day shows that if a character is treated well, and cared for, audiences will show up. More of that is needed for everyone else.

But hey, if Marvel can do the same for the X-MenLaunched in 1963 and written by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the X-Men featured heroes distinctly different from those featured in the pages of DC Comics. Mutants who didn't ask for their powers (and very often didn't want them), these heroes, who constantly fought against humans who didn't want "muties" around, served as metaphors for oppression and racism. Their powerful stories would form this group into one of the most recognizable superhero teams in comics (and a successful series of movies as well). in their upcoming Mutant Saga for the MCU, then maybe they’ll have a bunch of new characters they can play with that people will care about. It is a path forward… just one they’ll have to be cautious about, to be sure.

And Hollywood Won’t Learn Anything From This

The success of Spider-man: Brand New Day also says nothing about the general strength of the superhero genre as a whole. All it shows is that a good character can sell movies, but people still aren’t interested in superheroes in general. We saw the release of Supergirl earlier this year and that film flopped at the Box Office (despite not being all that bad). When people caught up with it later on streaming, the general sentiment was, “how did this film fail? It was pretty decent.” Well, it failed because people didn’t show up. It’s also why Thunderbolts* underperformed last year. People are sick of bad superhero films to the point that even good ones struggle to catch on without a named character people love.

That’s why Superman did pretty well last year (and why Man of Tomorrow could end up doing even better next year). That’s why The Batman did excellently in 2022, despite no one enjoying DC movies at the time, and while The Batman Part II is so hotly anticipated. DC is functionally in the same boat as Marvel right now, where they can’t get audiences to see any of their other characters outside their Big Three, even when those characters are so obviously connected (such as in the case of Supergirl).

Although, with that said, DC might have an easier time getting people in the long term. Not only do they have three heroes that people love (the aforementioned Supes, Bats, and Wondie), but they are also killing it in comic sales right now. The Absolute Universe line is outperforming all other comics on the market right now, and DC has noticed. They’ve already greenlit an Absolute Batman animated series, and it’s likely that if that show does well, the other heroes from that universe will get their own spin-offs. Good comic sales, and good word of mouth about the TV shows, could translate into movie sales down the road, given five years or so. It’s a slow building process, but we can see a path forward.

But that assumes Hollywood does things in a smart and measured manner, which isn’t exactly something the studios are known to do. Rumors swirl that Man of Tomorrow could be James Gunn’s last movie as co-head of DC Studios, while we can take those rumors with at least a few grains of salt, it’s also easy to see how if Man of Tomorrow underperforms (it doesn’t even have to flop the way Supergirl did, it could simply fail to make what the WB studio heads think it “should” make) then some big changes at DC could happen. And then some new person would come in, throw out everything that was just worked on, push some new ideas out the door, and ruin a careful plan just to please the studio heads.

That is Hollywood’s way, after all. Studios jump on trends when they’re big, and then they expect every film they make in a genre to be Billion Dollar Babies. And when that doesn’t work out they panic and flail wildly when calm, measured decisions really should be made. Right now it doesn’t seem like the WB is looking to rock the boat… but in a year or two, who knows.

Final Thoughts

So yeah, the success of Spider-man: Brand New Day means absolutely nothing other than that it’s a great time to be a Spidey fan. We’ve gotten a series of fantastic movies (and, if you count the Spider-Verse films as well, that’s six in succession that have rocked) and there’s no sign that will be stopping any time soon. Spidey is in a great place, and I, for one, love to see it. I’ll keep going to his films as long as they’re good, and so far it seems like if the Spider-man name is attached, it’s going to be a good film.

But that doesn’t mean jack squat for the rest of the MCU, superhero films, or Hollywood in general. If we want to learn a lesson from this, it’s simply: launch a film franchise and slowly and carefully maintain it for twenty-plus years. If you do that then, yeah, you’re going to be able to launch a film that makes $1 Bil in less than a week. That’s how we got Spider-man: Brand New Day’s unexpected, and amazing, success. But that’s not something Hollywood can do right now, and it’s hard to know if any franchise can somehow follow in Spidey’s footsteps. It’ll take two decades at least for us to see…