Hollywood's superhero boom strains as 2025 box office cools

Hollywood's once seemingly inexhaustible superhero boom is showing signs of strain as the genre struggles to produce the consistent, billion dollar blockbusters that defined the 2010s, industry observers said, even as occasional hits and streaming revivals remind studios of the format's enduring appeal. The shift has become especially visible in 2025, when several high-profile franchise entries underperformed at the box office and audiences increasingly turned to older or alternative superhero fare on streaming platforms.

The downturn follows a decade in which Marvel and DC films regularly dominated global ticket sales. Earlier tentpole releases such as Spider-Man No Way Home and the recent Deadpool Wolverine crossed the billion dollar mark, but box office receipts have not kept pace. Critics and box office analysts noted that 2025 was the first year since 2011 without a comic-book movie grossing more than 700 million worldwide, and that even well-received releases like Superman landed nearer to the 600 million range.

Filmmakers and commentators have pointed to several causes: audience fatigue from an abundance of interconnected projects, inconsistent creative quality since the...