Culture news “Hollywood is suffering from a very serious illness” 36 years ago, this star predicted the fall of Marvel and DC
Long before the omnipresence of superhero films, this actor knew exactly how it was going to happen.
For several years now, superhero films have not been as popular as they used to be. Marvel is experiencing a real descent into hell, with increasingly recurring box office failures and several Razzie Award nominations, that is to say a ceremony which ironically rewards the worst feature films and acting performances of the year. The series broadcast on Disney+ do not benefit from a very high audience and the reviews are generally not very complimentary.
Last year, celebrities spoke out about the omnipresence of superhero films in cinemas. Martin Scorsese explained that he believed that this type of feature film was a danger for Hollywood and that it was the death of creativity. In short, a great deal of weariness is felt among spectators, but also among recognized personalities working in cinema. However, an actor had already predicted this situation long before the many Marvel and DC films saw the light of day. More precisely, it was Christopher Reeve who spoke on the subject 36 years ago!
Christopher Reeve predicted the decline of DC and Marvel films
More than three decades before the decline in audiences for Marvel and DC superhero films, the subject had already been raised. It was during an old interview, which recently resurfaced, that the now deceased actor indirectly explains this general disinterest :
Hollywood suffers from a very serious illness called sequelitis. Big companies take what made $100 million last year, take the key ingredients, and try to inflate it several times over. (…) Because often what they do, and I know it happened in the case of a film that I worked on, is they make all the promises. They take the heavyweights, the best actors, the director and everything else. And they’ll say, “It’s going to be wonderful. We’re really going to go back to the original. It will be great.” But they don’t give you the necessary resources…
In short, this madness of sequels galore was, unfortunately, already current 36 years ago. Hollywood simply didn’t learn from its mistakes, and went through with this process several years later.