There was a time, not too long ago at all, when the Marvel Cinematic Universe felt too big to fall. The popularity and discourse that seemed to peak around the release of Infinity War and Endgame was enormous, each movie earning obscene amounts of money at the box office.
For many that seemed like a natural endpoint, which might be one of the reasons why interest has flagged in the releases since then. It’s far from the only reason, though, and this loss of interest might mean that an evolution of the strategy is required for the franchise to have the impact that it once did.
Other Mediums
‘Cinematic universe’ is already a term that has to be applied loosely due to the importance that Marvel TV series now have in understanding the overall direction of the franchise. Some of these have been hits, some of them have been misses, but there’s no denying that there have been many of them – with that quantity often cited as being off-putting to newcomers or even those who just want to stay up to date.
However, Marvel has also recently found an enormous amount of success with video games. Recent titles like Spiderman 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy have found strong reviews, and it might be that they decide to pursue this. If they do, the mobile platform has shown to be lucrative with freemium games and online casinos like Crazy Vegas being popular, meaning that they could pursue this further – especially with the success of Marvel Snap.
Streamlining
As mentioned previously, the sheer amount of new content might be something that’s working against Marvel. While the interconnected storytelling of seemingly separate stories was once a major selling point, the idea of post-credits scenes and hints at future content being the major selling point means that the quality of the actual stories becomes secondary. In this sense, a major strength has slowly become detrimental to Marvel.
Having fewer releases is going to be a difficult adjustment for the business, but it could be something that has more attention drawn to each one – rather than allowing them to feel commonplace and unimportant. It’s the formula that allowed them to find success the first time, so it makes sense that it could be an option that is at least under consideration if audience interest dwindles.
The Next Endgame
In terms of recreating interest, Marvel will absolutely be looking to score big on the next major Avengers crossover. Of course, many of the cast members have left since then, replaced by new leads, meaning that this will undoubtedly impact audience engagement from those who were big fans of the old guard. While the titles for the next two-part Avengers movie have been announced, this has been thrown into question with the controversy surrounding a major cast member, and it is yet to be seen how the Kang storyline will be resolved or whether the foundational plans will change. It’s not just about those films themselves landing when they do arrive, though; the setup needs to be orchestrated to deliver that result.
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