Intro for August 14, 2026

Dear Gossips,

After several straight years of mostly bad box office news, this year is mostly good box office news. A welcome change! 2026 continues on pace to be the biggest box office year since 2019, most recently bolstered by the twin billion-dollar successes of The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day. It’s Spider-Man I want to talk about, though, as the film continues to set records and hit milestones, most recently joining the 700 Club—films that have earned $700 million domestically.

For the last few years, superhero movies have been struggling. Marvel, DC, doesn’t matter, the genre is obviously not as strong as it was in the 2010s, when superheroes dominated all of pop culture. There has been an ongoing discussion about superhero fatigue, one that is now reengaged given Brand New Day’s jumbo-sized success. Is there superhero fatigue? Or not? It’s Schrödinger’s Superhero Fatigue, as opinions swing based on the latest box office returns. Last year was a perfect example, Superman did better than expected, but then Fantastic Four didn’t quite meet expectations, so…

Fatigue, yay or nay?

I don’t think there’s any doubt that audiences are not as willing to just watch whatever. There is and has been since the post-pandemic bounce back a kind of refreshed discernment from audiences. There is obviously a taste for something new and different, as movies that take big swings, like Barbie, are rewarded, but movies that feel like reheated Millennial leftovers, like Masters of the Universe, bomb (although Masters is better than it has any right to be, clearly, audiences were not biting).

But on the topic of superheroes, specifically, I don’t think audiences are entirely done with the genre. The Batman: Part II remains highly anticipated, even as it has been delayed to 2028. There’s a decent amount of hype for Man of Tomorrow, the Superman sequel, even as audiences shrugged at Supergirl. And even though opening on the same day as Dune: Part Three is needlessly stupid, Avengers: Doomsday WILL make money, it’s just a question of how much.

So, where are we at with superhero fatigue? And now that Marvel is setting up a real run at bringing the X-Men—perennially popular with audiences—into the MCU, how long do we keep having the fatigue conversation? Will we ultimately chalk up the up-and-down performance of the mid-2020s to indecisive audiences, or are we genuinely entering a new normal where people are just less willing to support superhero glut? As everyone is raving about Spider-Man, how fatigued are you, really?

Live long and gossip,

Sarah