For over two decades, superhero movies have ruled the box office, thundering in with billion-dollar openings, pop-culture dominance, and fan armies that treated each release like an event. But the summer of 2025 doesn’t feel like those days. It feels more like a test.
Marvel and DC aren’t just releasing two new titles, The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Superman, they’re betting the future of the genre on them. And make no mistake: this isn’t a victory lap. It’s a desperate act of reinvention.
The warning signs have been flashing for a while. Marvel’s Thunderbolts* opened to strong reviews, a return to the tighter storytelling and emotional stakes fans once loved. But box office numbers told a different story. Thunderbolts* has made less in its entire run than Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness made in its opening weekend. Marvel knows what that means, and so, dates for Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars have been pushed back, while three untitled films were yanked off the schedule completely.
This isn’t just Marvel fatigue. It’s superhero fatigue.
But before we sound the death knell, let’s not forget the exceptions, Deadpool & Wolverine will almost certainly explode at the box office. Across the Spider-Verse and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 reminded us that if the story is good and the characters feel real, audiences still show up. What people are tired of isn’t capes it’s formulas.
And that’s where this summer gets interesting.
James Gunn’s Superman is trying something radically different, not just another alien-savior origin story, but a fully packed world of DC heroes and side characters. It’s a test to see if general audiences can handle comic-book-style storytelling: dense, interconnected, and ensemble-driven.
Meanwhile, Marvel’s Fantastic Four is stepping away from the main MCU entirely. No baggage. No multiverse. A fresh, retro-futuristic vibe in 1960s New York, led by a star-studded cast. It’s Marvel’s way of saying, “Let’s try being weird again.”
Both films have everything to gain, and even more to lose.
If Superman fails, DC’s new cinematic universe might collapse before it even begins. If Fantastic Four stumbles, Marvel’s upcoming Avengers epics (Doomsday and Secret Wars) will feel like finales to a party people already left.
So, will this summer be the revival of the genre or its quiet fading into the background, like Westerns and rom-coms before it?
It’s not about whether audiences still like superheroes. It’s whether studios can make us care again.
And if they do, there may be fewer superhero movies on the calendar, but the ones that remain might actually be worth watching.