Russo Brothers Say Marvel Isn't Out Of Touch, It's The Children Who Are Wrong

Four years after COVID-19 upended the world, we're all still just scrambling to catch up. So many industries are having a rough go of it, and Hollywood is no exception. Even the almighty Marvel Studios has fallen on hard times, with several Marvel Cinematic Universe films seeing lower-than-expected returns at the box office. That downward trend culminated with last year's "The Marvels" becoming the lowest-grossing MCU movie ever. How dire was it? The follow-up to the billion-dollar smash-hit that was 2019's "Captain Marvel" made less than DC's notorious "Green Lantern" from 2011, the first Nicolas Cage "Ghost Rider" movie, and the massive flop that was Fox's X-Men pic "Dark Phoenix." Just let that sink in for a minute.

So, what gives? Could it be that Disney saturating the market with MCU media, with an emphasis on quantity over quality, hurt the brand? Or that the continuing impact of the pandemic on the theatrical market is manifesting itself in Marvel's bottom line? Or are superhero movies seeing a natural decline in popularity after two decades of cultural and commercial supremacy? Or is film, in general, no longer quite the dominant art form that it was back in the 20th century thanks to the rise of the internet and streaming (coupled with people having home theater setups that are just as good, if not better, than what major theater chains offer)? Or maybe a combination of all these factors? 

Nah. According to Anthony and Joe Russo, the guys who gave us takes like "A.I.-driven entertainment is great, actually!" and seem more than happy to churn out an endless supply of forgettable "content" for Netflix (remember when "The Gray Man 2" was announced roughly 200 years ago? It's apparently still happening!), the issue is all those darned youths and their short attention spans.

Five years after the Russos brought the MCU to its box office peak with "Avengers: Endgame," the franchise is no longer the behemoth it once was, that much we can agree on. Speaking to GamesRadar+, Joe Russo suggested that Marvel's woes are "a reflection of the current state of everything. It's difficult right now, it's an interesting time. I think we're in a transitional period and people don't know quite yet how they're going to receive stories moving forward, or what kinds of stories they're going to want."

Continuing, Principal Skinner Russo added:

"There's a big generational divide about how you consume media. There's a generation that's used to appointment viewing and going to a theater on a certain date to see something, but it's aging out. Meanwhile the new generation are 'I want it now, I want to process it now,' then moving onto the next thing, which they process whilst doing two other things at the same time. You know, it's a very different moment in time than it's ever been. And so I think everyone, including Marvel, is experiencing the same thing, this transition. And I think that really is probably what's at play more than anything else."

It's certainly something, Russo saying this a year after "Oppenheimer" — a three-hour, partly black-and-white adult drama — brought in nearly a billion dollars. Not to mention that "Dune: Part Two," which is currently the highest-grossing film of 2024, is an almost three-hour and undeniably bleak epic about imperialism and the danger of messiahs. Then there's the whole irony of the Russos producing straight-to-streaming pablum that has little of value to say and exists primarily to be rapidly consumed and quickly disposed of. But no, they're right, it's the children who are the real problem.