After a string of flops, Superman and The Fantastic Four: First Steps showed signs of life in the superhero genre once again. But what’s next?Maybe it’s true what they say about real life-or-death stakes not applying to superheroes. The past couple of years have looked pretty deadly for the once-ubiquitous American superhero movie, with just two such films placing on the list of 2024’s top-grossing movies in the US, and three in 2023. (2022 had as many as both of those years combined on its own list, and the top four of 2021 were all superhero-led.) More than the lack of hits – Deadpool & Wolverine certainly made enough on its own to encourage another decade of team-ups – the genre has been threatened by a growing number of flops. Sequels to blockbusters like Joker and Aquaman nosedived from their predecessors. Would-be franchise starters like The Flash, Madame Web and Kraven the Hunter failed to spark any interest. Even a Marvel movie literally called The Marvels underperformed.2025 seemed to follow this trend line, with Marvel’s Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts both underwhelming at the box office. Even reviews, so often prone to giving MCU entries a pass and conferring upon them a sense of unearned prestige, didn’t seem to move the needle much: Thunderbolts got much better notices, and that plus a plum summer-kickoff release date were good for ... well, slightly less money than the terrible Captain America sequel. But this July, things have been looking up. Specifically, up in the sky: DC kicked off their new cinematic universe with a Superman movie, just as it did in 2013 with Man of Steel, only this time, audiences and critics seem to actually like it as their signature hero flies past $500m worldwide in less than 20 days. Meanwhile, another reboot of the cursed-seeming Fantastic Four didn’t seem like a sure thing. But Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps is hitting numbers similar to Superman. It will likely pass both of its corporate siblings within a couple of weeks. Continue reading...