Steven Spielberg Predicts Decline of Superhero Movies

Marvel and Warner Bros./DC Entertainment have movie slates planned through 2020, but director Steven Spielberg predicts that these superhero films will soon diminish much like Westerns did in the early 1970s.

“We were around when the Western died and there will be a time when the superhero movie goes the way of the Western”, Spielberg said.

Now, on one level, nothing Spielberg is saying is that controversial, let alone quibble-worthy.

It’s just kind of wack to hear and see the legend making headlines whining about the current state of things when he hasn’t contributed a good movie in literally 10 years. It’s something that made a big impression on me as a kid. So where are we two years later at the box office? Though Spielberg’s next film will be the Cold War-era thriller Bridge of Spies, he’s also got the fantastical movie adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The BFG in the works as well as the sci-fi epic Ready Player One now in pre-production. That was the year that Sony Pictures released “Spider-Man”, which starred Tobey Maguire.

It’s a pace that Spielberg, 68, says he plans to continue. Which sounds a bit like having your Reese’s Pieces and eating them, too. And while I dont believe that the industry is facing a “Superhero Fatigue”, as has been discussed in certain corners, I do think that like the Western, well eventually see a decrease in the number of superhero films that are generated by the studio system in a decade, after numerous storylines have been explored and primary characters have played out their run. True Grit, directed by the Cohen Brothers, while a remake, was still a Western, and was wildly popular, and was nominated for several Academy Awards.

The Western was once the lifeblood of the Hollywood movie industry, but changing times in the 1960s led to the genre’s decline.

Which brings us right back to Spielberg and his “Jurassic” success.

Hanks is set to take on the central and real-life role of James Donovan and the double Oscar victor takes centre stage in the brand new poster for the film.

Yet again, all these roads seem to lead us right back to Spielberg and Lucas, who in the mid-’70s helped birth the Summer Event film.