Despite a gloomy situation due to a certain weariness of films/series around superheroes, notable works such as a recent Spider-Man film are enjoying well-deserved success.
Released last year, the excellent animated film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has recently lost its box office results. These confirm its status as a total hit, in the middle of an anthology of works around superheroes which are struggling to find their audience.
Spider-Man Across The Spider-Verse has taken everything in its web
Following the already excellent Into the Spider-Verse, Across the Spider-Verse released in 2023 hit the nail on the head brilliantly. Miles Morales and all his counterparts in spider suits have literally taken the world into their web. Even to the point of rising to the rank of third highest-grossing film of last year, with 328 million dollars in profits. More precisely 598 million in total revenue, for 270 million spent, including 100 million for production, and the rest for advertising and distribution. For comparison, Into the Spider-Verse generated 384.2 million in total revenue.
Not content with surpassing its illustrious predecessor, the ultra-popular animated film Spider-Man can even boast of having been the most profitable superhero film of the year. It thus crushes productions that are for the most part more expensive released the same year, like for example the unloved The Marvels on the MCU side. Same observation for Ant-Man and the Wasp, New Beetle in the same universe. The situation is even sadder on the DCU side with the very disappointing Aquaman and The Flash. The only other superhero film that has done relatively well is Guardians of the Galaxy 3.
Does this mean that the Spider-Man franchise alone carries the film/series industry? Far from it if we count huge flops like Venom 2 in 2021 or Madame Web this year. The next movie being watched very closely by superhero fans is Deadpool 3. Red definitely seems to be an attention-grabbing color.