When Hollywood’s summer movie season begins on Friday, theater owners will rely on the high-heeled ladies of “The Devil Wears Prada 2” rather than cape-wearing superheroes to attract audiences to cineplexes, according to Reuters.
For the past two decades, the first weekend in May featured a superhero film or other high-octane adventure on the big screen.
Walt Disney had planned to release “Avengers: Doomsday” in the slot this year, but switched to the comedy “Prada 2,” starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, when filmmakers needed more time on the Marvel film.
Box office analysts say the move is expected to give “Prada” a strong opening. It also coincides with a decline in box office power for action films, according to an analysis of US and Canadian box office receipts by TD Cowen analyst Doug Creutz.
In 2025, “Superman,” “F1” and other action/adventure films will account for 35% of ticket sales among the top 100 movies, Creutz said.
This amounts to the lowest share since 2010 and remains in the mid-30% range for the third consecutive year.
Disney’s Marvel superhero films and Universal’s “Fast & Furious” racing films attracted large numbers of audiences to theaters in the 2010s.
As recently as 2022, action films brought in 56% of domestic box office dollars, with Tom Cruise’s “Top Gun: Maverick” picking up the share.
The number of action films sent to theaters has remained steady at around 25 annually for over a decade.
Part, but not all, of the decline in sales may be related to lower quality, Crutz said. But even films with positive reviews from critics earned less at the box office than in previous years, he said.
“It appears that audiences today are not as eager to see good superhero movies as they were before the pandemic,” Creutz said in a research note.
On the contrary, family films, like horror films, are also on the rise. Recent hits include “Lilo & Stitch,” “Zootopia 2” and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.”
Theater owners said the popularity of the genre is cyclical. The key to success, he said, is a wide range of films throughout the year.—Reuters
