Is There Superhero Fatigue or MCU Fatigue? F4’s Disappointing 2nd Weekend Dropoff!
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is the latest comic book movie to hit the big screen. It’s second weekend was this past weekend and simply put, it didn’t have a great hold. When you compare these numbers to Superman, that movie is doing better. The question is raised, is there superhero fatigue or MCU fatigue? Let’s talk about it!
The Numbers: With this, it’s important to talk about The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ box office numbers so far. On its opening weekend it debuted to $117 million. As a point of reference, Captain America: Brave New World opened to $88 million, Thunderbolts* opened to $77 million, and Superman opened to $125 million. During its first weekend, it looked like F4 was going to be a bit hit at the box office. While it’ll still be profitable. The film had a bad second weekend drop, dropping 67.1% only making $38 million in its second weekend. Once again as a point of reference, Superman dropped 53.2%, Thunderbolts* dropped 56.4%, and Brave New World dropped 68.3%. Despite having the second biggest opening for a comic book movie of 2025, it had the 2nd worst drop 2nd weekend drop for a comic book movie in 2025.
What is Superhero Fatigue? With that knowledge out of the way, I wanted to answer the question listed above. If you don’t know superhero fatigue is, it started within the last couple of years where we had so many comic book movies come out that disappointed. The MCU was putting out the same amount of movies but adding tv shows and special presentations. The MCU had a massive drop in quality because they were focused on quantity over quality. Between the disappointment of the show plus several films, the overall vibe and excitement for comic book movies went down. When the MCU was at its peak disappointment we knew that the DCEU was ending so that let out all of the excitement for 2023’s DCEU films where all of them either underperformed or bombed. Starting in 2023 it became clear that people won’t go see a comic book movie just because a new one came out. It had to be good and worth spending $15 on a ticket, plus snacks, plus driving to the theater, and more. Films like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 got great reviews and made over $800 million. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is the worst reviewed MCU film and it made under $500 million. Deadpool & Wolverine was this special event film that made $1.3 billion, surpassing Joker for being the highest grossing R-rated film of all time. When I say superhero fatigue, it’s not that people are tired of all superhero movies but they only want to go see it if they feel it’s worth seeing.
2025 MCU Films vs Superman: With 2025 giving us three MCU movies plus Superman, there was an interesting discussion to be had as to whether or not people are burned on COMIC BOOK movies or just the MCU? Superman had a $125 million opening which is the biggest opening ever for a solo Superman film. It got great reviews, on par with what Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: First Steps got. But Superman has better legs whether that’s weekend drops ranging from 44.8% to 57.5% or daily drops. Its first Monday and Tuesday after release were the biggest Monday and Tuesdays of 2025. It’s having much better legs, so far it’s made $551 million and will likely be the highest grossing comic book movie of 2025. Granted, Superman is doing better at the box office but it’s still not knocking it out of the park. Domestically it’s doing well, so far it’s made $316 million which is a good number. It’s very close to passing Batman v Superman at the domestic box office, to become the highest grossing Superman film domestically. However, Superman’s international numbers aren’t great, it’s about $235 million and it’s opened in every major country. If its international numbers were better than its domestic numbers, it already would’ve made close to $700 million, maybe even passed $700 million. I’m not treating Superman as this gigantic box office hit and 2025’s MCU films are big failures. But all of this background information is the starting point for the purpose of this blog post and answering…
Is There MCU Fatigue or Superhero Movie Fatigue?
Simply put, I’m starting to wonder if people are more burned out on the MCU than they are on comic book movies in general. I think with Superman’s box office being good not great means that there’s a little bit of superhero movie fatigue and people being burned out on the genre. More evidence is that if you look at the viewership for tv shows. The Penguin’s viewership was so much better then I believe all of the MCU shows. Even the hit shows like WandaVision and Loki, The Penguin did significantly better. In general, I think the conversation and vibe is switching towards people being burnt out on the MCU but they get more excited for non-MCU comic book films. I’m not saying all future MCU films will be duds, next year we’re getting Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday, both of those are very likely to make $1 billion. DC is giving us Supergirl and Clayface. Films that if they get good reviews I think will do great at the box office, but they won’t do Spider-Man or Avengers numbers. 2025 will be DC’s year but I think 2026 will be Marvel’s year.
I think the reason why Superman is doing better than the MCU films is because it’s something different. The MCU is almost 20 years old. In May 2028, the original Iron Man will turn 20 years old. The MCU has sort of become this multigenerational franchise now. There’s 37 movies plus multiple tv shows, equaling 53 projects in the MCU. That’s a lot that means that there’s great stuff, there’s bad stuff, there’s mediocre stuff, there’s all sorts of stuff ranging in quality. Given the MCU has been a mess lately with not having a clear focus with the direction or even the main characters. In The Infinity Saga we had Iron Man and Captain America that we were following and who we were invested in. We wanted the next adventure with them to see their story progress. The Multiverse Saga hasn’t done that, so there’s not that investment in a specific character that we had in the past. I say all of this because Superman is a fresh start. The DCEU was a dead franchise that was a mess from the beginning. WB made the wise choice to kick off a new DC universe with James Gunn at the helm. There’s heavy rumors and interviews with Kevin Feige implying that the MCU will reboot after Avengers: Secret Wars in 2027 and I think that’s a good thing. I don’t know if I’d say the MCU needs to die, but the MCU needs to reboot and change things up. Because we’ve been dealing with the MCU for 18 years releasing multiple projects every year.
Final thoughts, I think 2025 is a good reminder that comic book movies aren’t what they used to be. They don’t sell tickets like they used to and I think the industry is going to look at these numbers and be “maybe we need to put out less comic book movies.” Every year we should spread out comic book movies. 2025 gave us one comic book movie in February, one in May, and two in July. 2026 is better but even then I think it could be spaced out. We’re getting Supergirl in June, Spider-Man: Brand New Day in July, Clayface in September, and Avengers: Doomsday in December. Supergirl has finished filming, maybe push that film up to the beginning of May to be our 2026 summer kick off film. I think having four comic book movies each year and having one release in each quarter so each of them feels like events and there can be more excitement.
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