Fourth Time Might Not Be a Charm

Back in 2023, I wrote a research paper tracing America’s obsession with superheroes back, long before the days of cinema to the country’s founding –

“European cinema has exploited significant historical and mythical figures as canvases onto which cultural and socio-political values have been projected, in order to benefit from association with the characters in question. American filmmakers, with a less rich cast of ‘superheroic’ national characters, have increasingly projected their views and beliefs through comic book characters, imbued with superhero powers…the success of Superhero films demonstrates the nuanced relationships between the utilisation of superhero characters or storylines as an uniquely American canvas onto which ideas and beliefs and socio-political messages can be projected and that these relationships constitute an evolution of earlier histories of socio-political engagement through comic books and comic book-derived media, which in turn emanated from earlier cultural traditions dating back to the founding of America.”

While the longevity of artistic forms is readily apparent; the most ancient genres of the oral tradition (typically poems and hymns of often mythic and religious subject matter) predate the founding of America by over five thousand years, dwarfing the span of the recent love affair between Hollywood and superheroes, which in this iteration primarily dates back to the end of the twentieth century.

This gives rise to the questions of the longevity of genres and more particularly of franchises. Four of the top twelve grossing films of all time are from the superhero genre (three of these being Avengers films from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (AKA MCU) and the fourth being Spiderman: No Way Home, with Spidey having now also been integrated into the MCU. All four of these were released between 2018 and 2021. Of the eleven MCU films that have grossed over $1 billion at the box office, helping MCU’s $31.5 billion in takings to elevate it to the most commercially successful franchise of all time, 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine (in 6^th place of those 11 MCU offerings) is the only one released since 2021. Captain America Brave New World, released last month, seems unlikely to join that elite club, having taken less than $400 million so far (although against a budget of $180 million, that’s still a very good profit return for the studio).

It does raise the question of whether, at least temporarily, MCU’s flag may be fading slightly, and in particular, how much more potential there may be to unlock from the Captain America character/sub-franchise, especially in the short-term, noting of course that the character has been around in comic books (albeit with a significant hiatus) since 1940 and made his film debut in 1944. Changes in ownership of the  Captain America franchise allow Toho Studios to claim that Godzilla (original film released in 1954) is the longest-dated continued franchise.

Captain America Brave New World is the fourth offering in the modern series of Captain America films and attempts a radical update, featuring a new eponymous her (Sam Wilson, played by Anthony Mackie) adopting his old friend’s identity in order to try to live up to the Captain America’s legacy. Despite a well-written central character, no shortage of rousing speeches and outstandingly fight scenes (especially the battle with Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, now played by Harrison Ford after the passing of William Hurt), the film’s plot is not without weak spots, and at times feels like an unimaginative reboot of 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier (where Mackie debuted in the MCU as Falcon and which banked over $700 million at the box). It’s understandable of Brave New World’s director Julius Onah was influenced by Winter Soldier, whose reasonable degree of box office suffice was also complemented by a high degree of critical acclaim (90% rating by critics and 92% by fans according to Rotten Tomatoes, March 2025). However, revisiting former glories may not guarantee repeated successes and as well as a much lower box office take, fan approval is down by thirteen points to 79% and critical approval has almost halved, down to 48%.

If an updated rehash doesn’t guarantee success for a franchise, writers also have to be careful not to depart too far from the original treatment. While Bridget Jones Mad about the Boy, has had by far the most box office success within its series of four releases (surpassing the previous three films on an unadjusted basis), and while it has wooed the critics (getting at least a 10% higher rating than any of the prior three on both Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic) and while it’s an exceptionally well written, acted and filmed work, it hasn’t elicited an entirely positive audience reaction. Despite the continuity in the writing and production teams and in all ten main roles (being played by the same actors in all four releases, across a 24-year span), there is a sense that audiences (who found the current release 10% less satisfying than the original) missed the whimsy of the original film, which supplanted by the new film’s focus on bereavement and Bridget Jones’ lost sense of spark and soul. Arguably, in replacing the original naivety and vitality with a much deeper sense of sorrow, loss and aging makes for a much more profound and artistically successful output, maturing the franchise as its original audience also ages, it can be a challenge to present that without losing both the charm of the original film and the audience support, prompting one viewer to write “MAD ABOUT THE BOY offers a more reflective, melancholic Bridget in her fifties—some of the old chaos lingers, but it feels like the quiet ending of a story that was better left behind.”

That’s harsh but it highlights the dilemma of franchises:

– keep rehashing the tried and trusted and you run the risk that the audience gradually falls out of love with ever poorer copies of copies of copies which audiences don’t find this sufficiently satisfying;

• change the tone too much and you might antagonise your loyal audience by failing to fulfil their expectations of the franchise..

Nobody ever said that filmmaking was easy!