AESTHETICS BLOG #3
CAPITALIST AESTHETICS AND THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE
Movies (especially those from franchises) are currently seen by many not as beautiful artworks but as mere products and commodities. The future of a movie (i.e., its sequel, prequel, or spin-offs) now depends on its income and on its box-office performance. The epitome of this phenomenon is the franchise of Marvel Studios, a.k.a. the "Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)." Sequels after sequels (and numerous spin-offs) have already been planned even if some films had a negative reception from critics and audiences. Although there are many good Marvel films, I still get the feeling that some of their stories are just done for milking profit.
Turning to what the figures say, we find that the MCU already has a $22.93 billion total worldwide box-office revenue; their 2019 entry, Avengers: Endgame, secured $2.8 billion in the box-office, thereby making it the highest-grossing film of that same year (and the second highest-grossing film of all time). However, there were also entries that performed well commercially but were somehow panned by audiences and critics. Examples of these are the films Thor: The Dark World (2013) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). The former made $644.8 million, while the latter made $1.403 billion. These films were greatly criticized by fans for various reasons (e.g. generic villain, unengaging plot, etc.). Nevertheless, these two were very saleable in the market.
This is what is happening in the film industry. But, people are too engaged in the system that they either become ignorant of such phenomenon, or they become indifferent towards it. This capitalistic framework have made people willing victims of these products.
data from:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/317408/highest-grossing-film-franchises-series/