The supremacy of superhero movies has come to an end: American moviegoers have superhero fatigue. In August, Marvel <a href="https://www.marvel.com/articles/live-events/d23-2026-all-the-marvel-news-recap">announced</a> a slew of new releases, including another reboot of the &#8220;X-Men&#8221; and a second television series featuring Paul Bettany’s Vision. Paired with a re-release of &#8220;Endgame,&#8221; these titles were criticized by fans for rehashing the same characters and plot lines. The culture has slowly been turning away from superhero movies. At its height during the 2010s, the superhero genre made between $6 and $8 billion annually. In comparison, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2025/08/25/from-superman-to-fantastic-four-its-the-worst-performing-superhero-year-since-2011/">2025</a> was the worst-performing year for superhero movies since 2011.
After the Marvel Cinematic Universe had a legendary run in the 2010s, with movies like &#8220;Avengers: Endgame&#8221; raking in over a billion dollars, the fad fizzled out in the 2020s. For many, the notion of a cinematic universe became too overwhelming, as it required audiences to watch dozens and dozens of movies to understand characters’ relationships and situations. For others, the genre had become stale, with narrative arcs sticking to a similar format from film to film. Some people complained about the kinds of heroes being portrayed, as attempts to expand the cinematic universe required both Marvel and DC to reach deeper into their archives to find fresh characters; others complained that they were sick of seeing the same faces over and over again, such as Robert Downey Jr., who played Iron Man in the namesake 2008 film and returned this year to play a different character, Dr. Doom. 
Beneath each of these complaints lies a deeper concern about how Hollywood has decided to portray heroes. One of the reasons why superhero movies became so popular in the 21st century was their ability to humanize larger-than-life characters. &#8220;Iron Man&#8221; became a hit because Tony Stark’s billionaire-playboy attitude gave him an oddly relatable edge. Every iteration of Spiderman, from Tobey Maguire to Tom Holland, showed him grappling with the tension between power, responsibility, and personal troubles, like getting a girlfriend and keeping your grades up. Both Peter Quill and Stephen Strange acted like jerks, and by the time &#8220;Captain America: Civil War&#8221; rolled around in 2016, even the all-American hero’s ethics were up for debate. 
Superhero movies gradually abandoned the premise that there are clearly defined good guys and bad guys. As the heroes became morally gray, the villains became likable and charming. Despite being the primary adversary in the &#8220;Avengers,&#8221; Loki was given a strange redemptive arc that left many audiences wondering whether his attempt to overthrow Earth was really that bad. In &#8220;Black Panther,&#8221; the villainous Killmonger was <a href="https://www.ign.com/articles/2017/07/24/comic-con-2017-what-motivates-villain-killmonger-in-black-panther">described</a> by his actor, Michael B. Jordan, as “strategic, thoughtful, patient.” Even the pinnacle of MCU malevolence, Thanos, had his plan to wipe out half of all life justified by a Marxist-adjacent desire to redistribute resources. 
Subversive storytelling muddies the definition of &#8220;good&#8221; and &#8220;bad&#8221; characters, and that’s what most of these comic book movies initially clung to. At the time, it felt fresh. Christopher Nolan’s &#8220;Dark Knight&#8221; trilogy had done something similar in the mid-2000s, to the tune of billions of dollars in success. Studios assumed people were tired of the good guy versus bad guy trope that had been circling Hollywood since its inception. While that may have been true for a little while, the endless attempts to blur the lines between heroes and villains eventually felt stale. 
The 2020s haven’t been particularly kind to the superhero genre: 2023’s &#8220;The Marvels&#8221; was a certified box office bomb, reportedly losing <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2024/05/04/the-marvels-reportedly-lost-237-million-last-year-much-more-than-the-flash/">$237 million</a>; 2021’s &#8220;Black Widow&#8221; failed to cover its <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinereid/2023/10/03/revealed-the-marvel-movies-that-failed-to-cover-their-production-costs-at-the-box-office/">production costs</a> at the box office, and the same year &#8220;The Eternals&#8221; lost Disney an estimated $50-$60 million. Sony’s infamous 2024 failure, &#8220;Madame Web,&#8221; lost the studio as much as $<a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/madame-box-office-much-did-162117602.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAFiA0MrC08eqqZoLsjh3DrVMX822uASuYSQpbxAyJAr0bGTrUoH0afHRQ3UZowJ2HT2WhMYL4ugQrj58H-ix07r_nDnM7jKqmsx7G79qdVo3TDcsD_uZEihjfRZqzTSvfkZax0_6iwNscVNaWBbK_zvWvP8R6FhtGorAer2X3MOq">100 million</a>. Each of these movies followed the now decade-old trend of spotlighting flawed heroes and finding grains of good in every villain. 
Audiences are naturally drawn to clearly defined stories about good versus evil. During World War II, stories that depicted the bravery of American soldiers were extremely popular. In midcentury America, westerns that showed cowboys facing off against bank robbers and invaders were all the rage. In the 1970s, timeless box office hits like &#8220;Jaws&#8221; and &#8220;Star Wars&#8221; showed the power of good triumphing over evil. The inversion of traditional heroism popped up in cinemas during the tail end of 1960s cultural changes. 1967’s &#8220;Bonnie and Clyde&#8221; depicted the criminal couple as cool and romantic. At the time, it was groundbreaking, but nearly 50 years later, it has become the blueprint for storytelling. 
Superhero movies are incredibly important. Human beings like to know that there is something good and true worth striving toward. When they are repeatedly told that goodness and success are out of reach, it is demoralizing. Young Americans are in the midst of a crisis: <a href="https://ifstudies.org/report-brief/americas-demoralized-men-part-ii-lost-pathways-greater-struggles">67%</a> of young men feel like they have “no control” over their lives and almost <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1613301/gen-z-often-anxious-depressed-by-age-us/">half</a> of all Zoomers experience mental health issues. Now, more than ever, young people need to be exposed to heroes. They need to see positive depictions of great men doing good things so they can be encouraged to emulate that greatness. Superhero movies are fun and often funny, but they serve a greater purpose: to represent that good will overcome evil. For a culture that feels like it has no control over its future, we may need a superhero now more than ever. 
***
Brooke Brandtjen is a writer and journalist from Wisconsin who focuses primarily on culture, politics, and religion. She is a senior contributor at New Guard Press, a publication she joined while attending Hillsdale College.
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

GettyImages-459252603

The Real Villain Behind The Death Of Superhero Movies

arts

box office

hollywood

marvel cinematic universe

superhero movies

Like many Americans, I no longer go to the movies as often as I used to. And on the relatively rare occasions I go, I find myself rather haunted by the movie theaters themselves, which are no longer the fun, energy-filled, boisterous communal places they once were but increasingly feel like weird, dark, ghostly husks, hulking and empty and unsettling in a way that feels sort of eldritch, almost Lovecraftian.
The more I dwell on this disquieting feeling, the more likely I won’t be going back.
Actually, many of the reasons I’ve stopped going to the movies are probably similar to most people. For one, popular movies these days are mostly pretty lame. Half seem to be superhero movies, perhaps the most detestable mainstream genre in cinematic history. And if they aren’t the ninth spinoff of some obscure comic book hero, the marquee blasts another remake or reboot nobody asked for, and nobody cares about (they’re remaking “The Bodyguard,” if you were interested, which of course you weren’t). And virtually every movie these days, like 99% of them, all look the same: Either garishly overlit and oversaturated, or else dull and listless and grayed out. It’s awful to look at. None of it looks normal. It all looks like junk. It all looks like Netflix.
And who wants to spend what seems like a mortgage payment for a listless, gray, unoriginal moviegoing experience? To put it mildly, movies are extremely expensive. It may seem incredible, but as recently as 2016 it was possible to get an evening ticket for a first-run premiere movie for around $8. Today a similar ticket costs about $16, nearly double the price. Throw in a $15 bag of popcorn and a $13 soda, and a date night can cost more than $60 (that’s not even including dinner!). Take your kids to the movies, and it might be over $100.
Bad movies and bad prices are a strong deterrent to moviegoing. Throw in the utter ubiquity of streaming and the resultant media oversaturation, and it’s not surprising that <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/03/06/as-the-academy-awards-approach-a-look-at-moviegoing-habits-in-the-united-states/">attendance at movie theaters is at historic lows</a>. The result is, increasingly, empty movie theaters.
It is true that theaters can at times seem full the way they used to. In 2026, for instance, we’ve seen multiple big-budget movies draw huge crowds to theaters: “The Odyssey,” “Toy Story 5,” and the latest “Spider-Man” release. Big-budget spectacle movies can still command huge box-office turnout. And even some lower-budget surprise hits can still draw a crowd, as did “Obsession” and “Backrooms.”
Yet ticket sales are ultimately a fraction of what they used to be. For example, Box Office Mojo <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/">reports</a> that in 1986 the domestic box office topped $3 billion; that’s about $9.3 billion in 2025 dollars, or about $1 billion more than the domestic box office in the latter year. And note that there were considerably fewer major film releases in 1986 compared to 2025, meaning theaters back then did more sales with much less. Big-budget movies and sleeper hits can drive brief surges in attendance, but otherwise people increasingly just aren’t going to the theater.
And there is something deeply haunting and discombobulating about an empty cineplex. It’s like being inside an empty airport, or a disused hospital wing, or an elementary school in July. Your brain kind of skips a beat in these situations, as if it’s trying to manually fill in the throngs of people it knows should be there.
A packed movie theater is full of electric charge; it’s a kinetic experience, active and dynamic and animated in a way that affirms your own essential humanness and your place in a human community: We’re all here having fun doing the same thing. An empty theater is one long, endless hallway, abandoned and forgotten, as if you yourself have been left behind and excluded from some vital inclusion. It’s like a memento mori with wall sconces.
Perhaps the most unnerving part of the empty theater is the auxiliary concession stands you find deep in the hallways of many theaters built in the 1980s and 1990s. These little islands were obviously built during a much more generous moviegoing heyday, when the crowds were so large that it made sense to have overflow capacity for the snack lines. These days they exist as nothing more than silent, empty shells, what some commentators <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AMCTheatres/comments/1trda1j/is_it_just_my_towns_two_theaters_or_do_yall_have/">refer to</a> as “ghost concession stands.” The candy display cases are empty. The soda taps are all dry and have been for years. There aren’t even any napkins or straws.
<div id="attachment_1164817" style="width: 1930px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1164817" class="size-full wp-image-1164817" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/IMG_5540-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="1920" height="2560" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/IMG_5540-scaled.jpg 1920w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/IMG_5540-225x300.jpg 225w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/IMG_5540-432x576.jpg 432w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/IMG_5540-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/IMG_5540-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/IMG_5540-1536x2048.jpg 1536w" sizes=" (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" />Credit: Daniel Payne</div>
Being in these theaters is an eerie, sad reminder of how degraded the theater economy has become. And in that, it’s a reminder of something larger and more important — how much better and stronger our social fabric used to be. An empty shell of a movie theater is much more what is signified than a signifier; it shows us not something that is coming to pass but something that has already come. It is not a harbinger but a harbinged.
The abandoned movie theater is a sign of our times — a sign of how deeply and fundamentally our social fabric has been ripped and torn over the last 20 years or so, and how the happy communal experiences we used to enjoy as a matter of course have largely ceased to exist. Yes, we no longer go see movies en masse. But something else has happened, too, something worse: The very notion of communal life itself has radically degraded.
Go out in any public place — literally anywhere there are lots of people, a restaurant, a music venue, a public park, a bookstore — and it is a pretty safe bet that very many, if not most, people there will be looking at their phones. This is not an idle directive: I urge you to really look the next time you’re out in a crowded public space. Once you really see it, you’ll never be able to unsee it: People are on their phones constantly, ceaselessly. Everywhere you go, it’s what nearly everybody is doing. The smartphone has become the universal experience for everyone, everywhere, pretty much all of the time.
The consequences for movie theaters are obvious: Presented with an endless glut of on-demand digital content, most people aren’t likely to drive to the suburbs and shell out $45 to take a risk on a movie they’ve never seen. Hence the haunting hallways and ghost concession stands. The consequences for the broader social infrastructure are more complex but no less ruinous: For millions and millions of us, life is increasingly a delivery mechanism for phone usage. <a href="https://www.harmonyhit.com/phone-screen-time-statistics/">Data indicate</a> that most people spend more than five hours on their phones every day, or about 30% of their waking hours. About a third of our lives is given over to looking at these devices every day. 
Everywhere we go, everything we do, the phone is a constant, endless, relentless presence — a never-ending loop of scrolling, tapping, scrolling, scrolling, tapping. It crowds out other, funner things, like movie theaters. It also crowds out better, more vital things, like human connection, communal awareness, a sense of place, a sense of belonging in one’s own neighborhood or city.
It has eroded manners and decorum in a way that would be shocking to people even a dozen years ago: It is now considered completely unremarkable to whip out one’s phone and devote one’s entire attention to it even when in the middle of a conversation. Everything is subordinate to the phone. It has become the dominant feature of nearly every part of our lives.
It is unsurprising that movie theaters are dying a slow death in this environment. It is less surprising still that the very basis of a rich social fabric — shared experiences, communal spaces, mutual attention — has degraded so sharply. Think about this the next time you pull out your phone, or the next time you see one of those ghost concession stands sitting dusty and empty and forgotten.
***
Daniel Payne is a senior editor at EWTN News. He lives in Virginia with his family.

Ritz Theatre Blytheville Arkansas

How The Smartphone Crowded Out The Cineplex

lifestyle

movie theater industry

smartphone usage

social fabric

streaming services

Movies are back and, if not better than ever, at least they’re drawing a crowd at the cinema again. This summer generated more than <a href="https://variety.com/2026/film/box-office/movie-theater-owners-summer-box-office-fall-films-1236836744/">$4 billion at the U.S. box office</a>, the most since the pre-COVID-19 days of 2019.
But what about R-rated comedies, the films that made us howl but Hollywood deemed “problematic?” The last decade gave us: “Step Brothers,” “The Hangover,” “Bridesmaids,” “Old School,” “Wedding Crashers,”  and “Superbad.”
Well, we’re still waiting. As the Elon Musk-dubbed “woke mind virus” fades in Hollywood, roast comedies are back, and comedians aren’t being punished for telling the “wrong” jokes.
Even canceled comics like Shane Gillis and Louis C.K. are snagging sweet Netflix deals. Except we’re not seeing big-screen comedies take advantage of that pendulum swing.
The woke movement unofficially ended the industry’s hunger for R-rated humor. Movies like “Animal House” promoted toxic masculinity, or so said USA Today. “Get Hard,” a 2015 Will Ferrell/Kevin Hart comedy, was <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-32032467">deemed racist</a> even though its popular co-star was, and is, black. It made an impressive $90 million stateside.
Progressive Amy Schumer got attacked for two back-to-back comedies – “Snatched” (2017) and “I Feel Pretty” (2018). Why? The former was allegedly racist for making people of color the villains and using <a href="https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2017/05/154094/snatched-movie-racism-latino-stereotypes">racial stereotypes</a>, while the <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/bill-maher-defends-i-feel-pretty-amy-schumer-slams-critics-1201960712/">latter purportedly promoted fat shaming.</a>
Is it any wonder comedy stars decided to do something, anything, else rather than make big-screen comedies?
Even Todd Phillips (“The Hangover,” “Old School”) <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/10/joaquin-phoenix-cover-story">gave up on the genre</a>:
<blockquote>
Go try to be funny nowadays with this woke culture … There were articles written about why comedies don’t work anymore — I’ll tell you why, because all the f*cking funny guys are like, “F*ck this sh*t, because I don’t want to offend you.” It’s hard to argue with 30 million people on Twitter. You just can’t do it, right? So you just go, “I’m out.”
</blockquote>
That was in 2019, right before woke peaked with the George Floyd riots.
Seven years later, the landscape seems open to a bawdy, big-hearted comedy that offends and delights. Good luck finding them.
The quasi-comeback began with 2023’s “No Hard Feelings.” Star Jennifer Lawrence played a desperate woman being paid to take a young man’s virginity. The laughs flowed for the first two acts, and Lawrence proved game for the task at hand with an extended, comical nude scene. The larger-than-necessary budget ($45 million) made the film’s $87 million global haul less exciting.
“Dumb and Dumber” co-director Peter Farrelly vowed to personally bring back R-rated comedies, and his first attempt, 2024’s “Ricky Stanicky,” hit closer to the mark. The film debuted on Prime Video, not theaters, and it didn’t crash the zeitgeist like previous Farrelly romps “Kingpin” and “There’s Something About Mary.”
The director’s more recent film, the Prime Video exclusive “Balls Up,” netted terrible scores from critics and audiences alike at Rotten Tomatoes (23/29 percent “rotten”).
David Spade brought his comedy gravitas to an indie project that also vowed to bring back retro comedy fun. His independent 2026 film “Busboys,” co-starring Theo Von, made an anemic $2.6 million earlier this year.
This month’s “Super Troopers 3” hoped to build on that cult franchise’s R-rated vibes, but the film won’t break the $10 million mark in U.S. theaters. The cast told this critic they hoped to <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/super-troopers-3-interview-r-rated-comedies/">revive R-rated comedies</a> at the theatrical level.
No luck yet.
The only recent R-rated film to break out? The sixth installment of the “Scary Movie” franchise earned $231.4 million worldwide. The filmmakers vowed to offend everyone with the saga’s no-holds-barred approach, but the film itself proved mostly toothless.
Critics torched the film, but even steadfast fans of the franchise weren’t smitten – the film has a 64% “fresh” rating with general audiences at RottenTomatoes.com.
The year offers one more swing at the R-rated fences. Super hot stand-up comic Matt Rife is teaming with Owen Wilson (“Wedding Crashers”) for “Rolling Loud.” The Fall comedy finds Wilson losing his son at a hip-hop music festival, with Rife playing a local trying to reunite father and son.
The film’s first trailer flexes hip-hop-heavy cameos, but those looking for big laughs will have to bank on hope.
The culture at large may have changed, giving stand-ups and comedy podcasters more freedom moving forward, but the problem may persist behind the scenes.
Luke Wilson (“Old School”) hinted at that sorry state of affairs in a recent interview. The actor told podcaster John Feitelberg of the “Scene Stealers” podcast how one studio executive <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/luke-wilson-old-school-woke/">responded to an unnamed comedy script</a>:
<blockquote>
I got back a note about a joke in a script that said it was “imperialistic.” I was like, I don’t even know what the f*ck that means. Is imperial a compliment? Does that mean like empire building?
</blockquote>
Wilson, an industry veteran not used to rocking the culture war boat, shared a more global comment about the dearth of R-rated comedies. “The people in charge are just not funny and too careful and worried about feelings,” he said, warming to the topic. Then, he shared a specific example to prove his case. “There are so many things that wouldn’t get made today that used to get made in the old days,” he added.
Here’s guessing “Old School 2” isn’t happening anytime soon.
***
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of <a href="http://www.hollywoodintoto.com/">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News&#8217; Big Hollywood. He&#8217;s also the host of <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hollywood-in-toto-podcast-w-christian-toto/id1186449155">The Hollywood in Toto Podcast</a>. Follow him at <a href="https://twitter.com/HollywoodInToto?lang=en">@HollywoodInToto</a>.

John Belushi in Animal House

The R-Rated Comedy Comeback Is Still MIA

film industry

r-rated comedy

woke culture

Superhero blockbusters have been hit or miss for years now. But “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” is proof that the problem is not lack of an interested audience.
The latest Marvel Studios release was the fastest film to cross a half-billion at the domestic box office in just a week. This record was previously set by “Avengers: Endgame” in 2019, but it took that movie eight days to cross the $500 million threshold. 
“Brand New Day,” released on July 31, is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and stars Tom Holland and Zendaya. It’s the 23rd movie ever to make more than half a billion at the North American box office, and industry insiders are especially impressed by how well it’s performing on weekdays. Per <a href="https://deadline.com/2026/08/box-office-spider-man-brand-new-day-fastest-half-billion-record-1237028214/">Deadline</a>, it pulled in over $32 million this past Wednesday, which was the second best Wednesday ever for a non-opening title. 
Sony Pictures chief Tom Rothman credited the popularity of the film’s stars as being a huge draw for audiences, and speculated that the trend will continue. 
“They’re not popular because they’re popular,” he <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/spider-man-the-beatles-jumanji-sony-tom-rothman-interview-1236663221/">told</a> The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published earlier this week. “They’re popular because they’re talented, and they deserve their popularity. They’re lovely, decent, grounded, good-valued people, and they work really hard. So they’ve earned every ounce of their success.”
“All the geniuses who said that theatrical movies were dead, they’re not necessarily right. Actually, the theatrical marketplace is booming right now, and I’m excited about it. So I’m very optimistic,” Rothman told the outlet at another point.
Some reviewers have also pointed out that the movie marks a return to old-fashioned superhero storytelling. 
The official description states, “Fighting crime full-time as Spider-Man in a world that doesn’t remember him — and the pressure of seeing his old friends move on without him — sparks a change in Peter he may not have the power to control. But that transformation might also be the only thing that can stop a shocking new threat to the city and those he loves — a powerful villain no one can even see. The world may have forgotten Peter Parker, but he hasn’t forgotten them.”
It <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/spider_man_brand_new_day">currently has</a> a 90% critical rating and 98% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Spider Man

Spider-Man’s Massive Win Proves Audiences Were Never The Problem

marvel studios

spiderman brand new day

tom holland

zendaya

Spider-Man just beat the assembled Avengers where it counts — at the box office.
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” earned $360 million at the domestic box office in its opening weekend, making it the biggest opening of all time. The 2019 superhero extravaganza “Avengers: Endgame” held the previous record of $357 million.
Everyone’s favorite wall-crawler had a little help. The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) and The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) co-star in the fourth “Spider-Man” feature starring Tom Holland. Still, the film’s gargantuan take signals something profound.
Superhero fatigue is situational, at best, with the summer’s “Supergirl” revealing that its relevance still matters in extreme cases. Plus, reading the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s last rites may be premature, even if recent titles (“Captain America: Brave New World,” “Thunderbolts”) failed to blow away the competition.
Yet caveats abound, and they’re all worth exploring.
Let’s start with “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” The 2021 romp did more than unite three Peter Parkers in one film. It proved a nostalgic smart bomb, revisiting old villains for a near-perfect blend of action, adventure and humanity.
Plus, the film came out as the COVID-19 lockdowns were easing, letting the country enjoy the theatrical experience again. The goodwill generated by those elements proved massive, setting the stage for “Brand New Day.”
After all, the latest Spidey adventure doesn’t have a sizable hook. It doesn’t continue a major plot point from previous MCU films. The villain has been hidden in the marketing rollout, robbing the film of a key selling point.
The MCU didn’t hire a “name” director (think Spielberg, Tarantino or Villeneuve) to tackle the assignment. Destin Daniel Cretton previously helmed “Shang-Chi,” a well-received MCU effort but far from a blockbuster.
There’s something deeper here — a type of attraction that demands the attention of not just superfans or Marvel acolytes. America’s favorite wall-crawler holds special appeal that can’t be relegated to the halls of Comic-Con like some obscure spin-off side character. Spider-Man has been part of Western culture for decades, from the animated TV show with the catchy theme song (“… Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can”) to Saturday-morning cartoons and a late-1970s TV show with Nicholas Hammond.
He’s a science nerd and social outcast, the kid who got bullied in school until a radioactive spider changed, well, everything. He remains relatable and real, even if we can’t swing from skyscraper to skyscraper.
Plus, he’s had the benefit of sublime actors bringing him to life. Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield proved to be critical casting choices, while Holland has masterfully allowed his Peter Parker to mature before our eyes.
The new film finds him fighting crime while missing his best bud, Ned (Jacob Batalon), and his girlfriend, MJ (Zendaya). That matters.
The “Spider-Man” films fall under the Sony banner, even while Disney’s MCU recently paired up with the film studio. That means the live-action Spider-verse didn’t follow the woke road that derailed the MCU in recent years.
No forced identity politics or woke plot points. The Sony films proved smart, resourceful and effective. The same can’t be said for MCU clunkers like “The Marvels” and “Eternals.”
The MCU has course-corrected of late, even including some pro-life messaging in last year’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.”
The MCU still has a galaxy of minor heroes who could save the day (and crush the box office), but they must be launched wisely. Most people didn’t know what a Deadpool was, but star Ryan Reynolds used his personal touch and plenty of humor to <a href="https://ew.com/article/2016/02/17/deadpool-viral-marketing-campaign/?srsltid=AfmBOorzn6DjOSRQkkS7_oTgEF4iEAMZhxtAUCkv5FVQEl41jDfZp8oi">sell the character to the masses.</a>
A decade after its solo film debut, Deadpool is a familiar pop culture staple and a phenomenon that has far exceeded the 2016 film’s modest $58 million budget.
Reynolds &amp; co. also showed fidelity to the source material, telling fans they could trust the stories coming to their local cineplex. Geek Nation is a tiny fragment of the movie-going audience, but its members are the best marketers an MCU film can have when they’re working on your behalf.
Holland himself has played a key role in this MCU success story. The British actor doesn’t say a peep about ICE, voter ID, or other red-hot-button issues. He’s charming in publicity interviews, even keeping a low boil on his marriage to fellow superstar Zendaya, a kind of humility akin to “Brand New Day” — even down to the old-school Spidey suit that goes without the bells and whistles seen in recent MCU adventures.
That goodwill matters. Plus, <a href="https://screenrant.com/spider-man-brand-new-day-hulk-return-success-mark-ruffalo-comment/">Team MCU apparently benched Ruffalo</a> during the “Brand New Day” press tour, knowing the far-Left actor would likely distract from the film with his progressive lectures.
It’ll be much harder to silence the crush of stars assembling for this winter’s “Avengers: Doomsday” feature. The December 18 release is a who’s who of superhero actors, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.
If an “Avengers” film can’t pull off Spidey-sized numbers, then the MCU will be better off hyping their best individual characters moving forward. Why spend all that money on a film that can’t outperform a geeky wall crawler?
The X factor that can’t be overlooked? The old saw “a rising tide lifts all boats” still matters. The theatrical model made a stunning comeback this year, with breakout hits like “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” “Project Hail Mary,” “Toy Story 5” and “Obsession.”
Suddenly, going to the movies is cool again, with Gen Z often leading the way. That might be the one superpower the MCU needed most of all.
***
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic, and editor of <a href="http://www.hollywoodintoto.com/">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News&#8217; Big Hollywood. He&#8217;s also the host of <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hollywood-in-toto-podcast-w-christian-toto/id1186449155">The Hollywood in Toto Podcast</a>. Follow him at <a href="https://twitter.com/HollywoodInToto?lang=en">@HollywoodInToto</a>.

Los Angeles Premiere Of Columbia Pictures’ “Spider-Man: Brand New Day”

Is ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ The MCU Superhero That Saves Hollywood’s Summer?

avengers doomsday

spider man brand new day

Not since “Avengers: Endgame” have theatergoers been this happy. “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” just had the biggest opening weekend in box office history, beating out the Avengers finale with $360 million in sales. Audiences <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/spider_man_brand_new_day">love it</a>, and it’s proving that the age of superhero movies isn’t over; just the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hollywood-made-another-modern-woman-hero-heres-how-it-went">stupid ones</a>. 
It’s not hard to see why the movie has been so successful. Despite becoming the third Spider-Man actor in the span of just 15 years, Tom Holland stands on his own, exuding a boyish charm and an innocence without naivete that his predecessors never mastered (all due respect to Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield).
“Spider-Man” also manages a few cameos (Black Widow, Hulk) that make the story more dynamic rather than feeling like Marvel product placement. And if you haven’t yet seen Holland’s previous appearances in “Captain America: Civil War,” “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” you can watch this one anyway without getting lost.
Audiences will reward good storytelling, and “Brand New Day” hits Spider-Man’s sweet spot: sometimes light and funny, sometimes exploring deeper themes of isolation and belonging.
After the death of his aunt, Peter Parker has spent four years crime-fighting alone. In “No Way Home,” his secret identity was revealed, so in order to protect the ones he loves — his girlfriend, MJ, and his best friend, Ned — he asked for Doctor Strange to wipe the entire world’s memory of Peter. Now his only personal connection is to an NYPD detective who chastises him for not even knowing the names of her children. These days, he’s all business. 
But when government facilities start being attacked by a telepath who can jump into people’s minds to control them, danger finds Peter’s friends anyway, and he realizes that his secluded life is hurting more than just himself. 
Every good superhero film needs a compelling villain, and Jean Grey (played by Sadie Sink) delivers. She’s no Green Goblin or Doc Ock, but her powers are terrifying, and her anxieties existential. Producer Amy Pascal suggested that Jean Grey’s character represents much of Gen Z. 
“We picked Jean [Grey] because [director] Destin [Daniel Cretton] came in and said, ‘If you guys want to do a movie that is about the way people feel isolated, even more today than ever, because of our technology and everything else — and not just young people, but everybody, but it has afflicted young people so much — if we can do a movie that is about how reaching out and making a connection to someone is the most important thing that you can do, then I understand how to do this movie,’” she <a href="https://deadline.com/2026/08/spider-man-brand-new-day-amy-pascal-interview-1237016593/">told</a> Deadline.
Peter’s own struggle with hermit-hood ends when MJ (Zendaya) reprimands him for wiping her memory and staying aloof, not giving her the choice to decide for herself whether she wants to be a part of his life. Peter may have good intentions for his solitude, and even though he can boast that he’s fighting crime bosses and mechanical scorpions, he finds that the results of his isolation are the same as they would be for any of us: He loses sight of who he is and what he can offer the world. To quote the Good Book, “It is not good for the man to be alone.”
Near the end of the film, Peter delivers a key line that came from Holland’s ad-libbing. Speaking of a day spent shooting scenes at Aunt May’s grave, director Destin Daniel Cretton <a href="https://deadline.com/2026/08/spider-man-brand-new-day-director-explains-ending-sadie-sink-1237016256/">said</a> Holland “came up to me and said, ‘I’m just going to try some dialogue.’ I said, ‘Great.’ So we mic’d him up, and he squatted down, gave the flowers to Aunt May, and said the lines that ended up in the movie.”
“At the time, I didn’t think much of it,” Cretton continued. “I was just letting him improvise. But as soon as he said, ‘You’d be happy to know that I’ve decided I’m not going to do this alone anymore,’ that statement became the north star of the entire movie. Now it feels obvious that’s where the movie was always headed, but at the time we shot it, we didn’t really have that simple core idea yet. We worked backward from that point and realized, ‘That’s where we’re going.’ To me, that’s the entire movie right there.”
Tom Holland&#8217;s Spider-Man has the peculiar winsomeness needed to experience great personal tragedy and still believe in the goodness and sanctity of life. No more jaded superheroes, please. Our heroes should inspire us, and that&#8217;s exactly what this Spider-Man does.
***
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

spiderman

Why ‘Spider-Man’ Is Succeeding Where So Many Superhero Movies Failed

Christopher Nolan&#8217;s “The Odyssey” delivered the biggest opening weekend of the director&#8217;s career, generating $264.1 million worldwide, including $139.6 million internationally and $124.5 million domestically, according to <a href="https://variety.com/2026/film/box-office/the-odyssey-christopher-nolan-biggest-global-debut-1236815981/">Variety</a>. 
“The Odyssey” has become the biggest worldwide opening of Nolan’s career, a record previously held by “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012), which earned $249 million, and “The Dark Knight,” which earned $198 million, as the outlet noted. 
The film&#8217;s record-setting debut comes despite pre-release criticism from some conservatives over several casting decisions. After seeing the movie, however, many have praised Nolan&#8217;s latest epic.
Several conservatives admit that despite a lot of build-up about casting decisions Nolan made, including putting in transgender-identifying actress Elliot Page as a male character and race-swapping Helen of Troy by casting Lupita Nyong’o, the movie is absolutely worth seeing. 
Ben Shapiro, Editor Emeritus of The Daily Wire, had heaps of praise for the film, saying there were flaws, but they weren’t enough to spoil the entire movie. 
“Nolan is unparalleled. He’s the best director working today, without a doubt. He just creates iconic movie after iconic movie,” Shapiro said during his review. 
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Ben Shapiro Reviews The Odyssey" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MQrF748gmRg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;
He also said Matt Damon shined as the movie’s lead. “I think he’s great in nearly everything. He sort of disappears into the part in a way that he doesn’t in a lot of other movies. He’s great as Odysseus.”
As for other casting decisions, Shapiro was also full of praise, save for a few of the more glaring choices. “Robert Pattinson as Antinous is an excellent antagonist. He’s sleazy and gross. Tom Holland as Telemachus is excellent, well cast. Anne Hathaway does a great job as Penelope,” he said.
Shapiro said Nyong’o was actually a fine choice of Helen of Troy unless Nolan was going to cast an actual Greek star in her place.
“So, I know a lot of people were like, ‘Oh my god, Lupita Nyong’o is supposed to look like Diane Kruger.’ I don’t know. Diane Kruger doesn’t look very Greek. She’s German,” Shapiro said. “Lupita Nyong’o is a beautiful woman. But here’s the thing, actually, in the script, Nolan goes out of his way to explain that the war wasn’t really launched over Helen being gorgeous.”
Shapiro did mention Page’s casting as Sinon, saying it was an “absolute puzzler” from Nolan because the actress is “about 5’2 and 105 pounds soaking wet and has the voice of a woman. It doesn’t work.”
Madeline Fry Schultz <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/go-ahead-watch-the-odyssey">reviewed</a> the film for The Daily Wire&#8217;s Upstream, calling it, “a big, glorious summer blockbuster based on a pillar of the Western canon. It explores mercy, hospitality, vengeance, family bonds, honor, and, of course, homecoming.” 
Like Shapiro, she said the issues with the film don’t outweigh the benefits. “With the ‘Odyssey’ controversy, conservatives are getting hung up on the details (some more troublesome than others) when the headline is that one of Hollywood’s best directors just made a three-hour-long film about a father returning home to his family, facing terrifying monsters and deftly wielding his bow and arrows on the way.”
“It’s beautifully shot, it has mass appeal, and there’s little in the film itself to subvert Homer’s epic tale, which is now reaching a new audience,” Schultz wrote. 
Another Upstream reviewer pointed out what many others were saying: that the film is infused with Christian themes.
“Christian morality has become so deeply embedded in Western life that even secular people treat many of its assumptions as universal. They reject Christianity as a religion while continuing to believe that compassion is superior to force, that the weak and downtrodden possess inherent moral worth, that guilt should result from cruelty, and that forgiveness rather than retaliation is a sign of strength,” Rob Henderson <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/what-christopher-nolan-couldnt-bring-himself-to-do?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Rob+Henderson&amp;category=Upstream&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=What+Christopher+Nolan+Couldn%E2%80%99t+Bring+Himself+To+Do">wrote</a>. “Nolan can’t resist placing a Christian (or secular Post-Christian) moral code within a pagan hero.”
Critics and audiences agree that, despite its flaws, “The Odyssey” is a masterpiece. It currently has a 95% critical rating and an audience score of 97%.

The Odyssey

Conservatives Had Concerns About ‘The Odyssey.’ Now They’re Praising It.

christopher nolan

entertainment

Movies

the odyssey

Disney’s live-action version of “Moana” starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson did abysmal numbers at the box office over the weekend, thanks in part to poor pre-sales and terrible reviews. 
The film brought in $43 million across 3,827 North American screens, barely making a dent in its massive $250 million production budget, which doesn&#8217;t even include the astronomical cost of marketing efforts.
Many of these remakes have earned a massive haul for Disney, notably “Beauty and the Beast” (2017) and more recently “Lilo &amp; Stitch” (2025). But there have also been some fantastic flops like “Snow White” last year. 
As of last month, &#8220;Moana&#8221; was <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/movies/articles/moana-live-action-movie-box-215720407.html">predicted to pull in</a> $80 to $105 million during its opening weekend. But those numbers dropped as its July 10 release day grew closer. 
It currently has a 33% critical score on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. “Virtually every line, beat, and song in the new movie is identical to the 2016 version, apart from a few minor punch-ups or extra comedy tags here and there&#8230; There’s no artistic or aesthetic reason for the live-action Moana to exist,” one <a href="https://www.polygon.com/moana-review-live-action-2026/">review</a> says. 
“The film doesn’t worry about novel turns. It just walks us through the familiar avenues like a dutiful tour guide. A lazy, lazy work that sullies the good name of ‘content,’” <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/review/2026/07/08/moana-review-lazy-disney-live-action-remake-sullies-the-good-name-of-content/">says</a> another.
“It evoked in me a similar reaction to AI slop, where I cringe at the unnerving blend of the familiar and the not-quite-right,” a third <a href="https://mashable.com/entertainment/moana-live-action-2026-review">reviewer</a> agreed.
Movie fans point out that something is lost when animated films are redone with real actors — a criticism that keeps coming up in the early reviews of Moana, too. “From start to finish, ‘Moana’ stands out as one of the ugliest films of the year. The cinematography is washed out and dull, even when it is simply attempting to capture the beauty of Motunui, shot on location in Hawaii,” one <a href="https://discussingfilm.net/2026/07/08/moana-review-heartless-remake-disney/">review</a> says. 
“There are visual gags from the original film that look bizarre in live-action, such as the way Maui repeatedly tosses Moana off her boat. The non-human characters, once full of expression and personality, have lost all their charm.”
Interestingly, the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is far more positive, holding strong at 90% as of Monday morning. This includes verified viewers.
<div class="card-wrap">
<div class="content-wrap">
<div class="rr-wrap">
<div class="drawer">
&#8220;Same as the animated film. Nice summer movie, however if you’ve seen the animated film you’ve seen both!&#8221; one reviewer wrote, echoing what many others have said.
But another movie fan disagreed, writing, &#8220;Where’s all the hate coming from? Moana is a really good movie that’s [sic] best decision is to stick to the original.&#8221;
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Moana

Disney’s Latest Live Action Bombs At The Box Office

Disney's Live Action Moana Totally Bombs At The Box Office

disney

To the surprise of almost no one, “Supergirl” bombed over the weekend following months of bad press, thanks in part to comments made by the film’s lead star, Milly Alcock, and negative reviews ahead of the premiere.
The Warner Bros. and DC Studios adaptation centered on Superman’s cousin, Kara Zor-El, earned $38 million domestically and $68 million globally during its opening weekend, well below expectations. Studio co-CEO Peter Safran acknowledged the disappointing numbers, but insisted it would not alter the studio&#8217;s plans. 
“While Supergirl didn’t meet our box office expectations, it’s just one component of a broader, long-term strategy at DC Studios that we remain confident in,” Safran <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/28/business/media/supergirl-box-office.html">told</a> the New York Times.
Per <a href="https://variety.com/2026/film/box-office/supergirl-box-office-bomb-dc-studios-1236797855/">Variety</a>, Warner Bros. and DC spent $170 million on production and around $120 million on marketing the film. But Alcock, who played the titular star, seemed determined to compete with Rachel Zegler in terms of tanking her own film before it ever came out.
The 26-year-old spoke to Variety last month about backlash ahead of the film’s release, insisting that much of the criticism stems from her being a woman.
“I guess women know that this is just how it’s always been, unfortunately,” Alcock told the outlet, as The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/supergirl-star-says-shes-glad-to-trigger-christian-dads">reported</a>. “And it’s from a lot of people whose profiles have no photo, who are burner accounts. Or someone’s name and then ‘Dad of four, Christian,’ which is hilarious to me.”
“But I mean, whose opinion do you really care about? If you’re p***ing the right kind of people off, you’re doing OK,” she added.
The “Supergirl” star preemptively blamed potential criticism of the film on misogyny during a Vanity Fair interview published in March in a tactic described as “pre-release critical armor.”
“It definitely made me aware that simply existing as a woman in that space is something that people comment on,” Alcock said when asked about the “inevitable backlash” she’d face.
“We have become very comfortable having this weird ownership of women’s bodies. I can’t really stop them. I can only be myself,” Alcock added.
Alcock also described “Supergirl” as a more personal story centered on Kara Zor-El. “She’s not trying to save the world — she’s just trying to save her own,” Alcock told Vanity Fair. “This film is an excellent reminder that the world can be crumbling around you, but you can be the hero of your own story.”
Even if audiences were willing to look past that, there was another problem: the movie got terrible reviews, even from mainstream critics. It currently has a 55% critical rating and a 75% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Alcock throws around a medley of furrowed brows, sleepy glares and insolent grins – much like my own teen daughter – while hinting at a soulfulness that the movie directed by Craig Gillespie is barely equipped to tap,” a reviewer from The Globe and Mail <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film-and-tv/film/article-supergirl-movie-review-dc-comics-milly-alcock/">wrote</a>. 
“The action sequences are jerky and disjointed; Supergirl’s laser eyes constitute the only occasional, if inadequate, jolt of life,” another reviewer <a href="https://time.com/article/2026/06/25/supergirl-review/">observed</a>. 
“Despite an appealingly rough-edged title character played with scrappy aplomb by Milly Alcock, this second installment in what DC is positioning as an unfolding multicharacter franchise defaults to too many of the clichés of superhero cinema at its worst,” the Slate reviewer <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2026/06/supergirl-movie-2026-milly-alcock-superman-reviews.html">said</a>.
“Supergirl” is currently playing at theaters nationwide.

Supergirl

‘Supergirl’ Stumbles After Controversial Press Tour

DC Studios

Superheroes

Superhero films are no longer Hollywood’s coin of the realm. Video game-based films are a safer bet — think the “Super Mario” franchise, “A Minecraft Movie,” and the “Sonic the Hedgehog” saga.
Even “Superman,” the most consequential hero in the comic book canon, didn’t deliver the box office bounty as expected last year.
Yet a certain wall-crawler defies this pop culture trend.
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” set to open July 31, just reached the best <a href="https://deadline.com/2026/06/spider-man-brand-new-day-presales-record-1236959396/">first-day presales</a> figures since 2021, according to Deadline. The film’s latest trailer, released June 17, teased fellow superheroes (like the Hulk) and pointed to yet another summer blockbuster.
Spidey crushed the competition with 2021’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which earned nearly $2 billion worldwide. The fourth installment in the series may not make that much money, but it’ll prove we still have a soft spot for Lycra-clad heroes.
Why does Spider-Man endure?
We’ll start with Stan Lee. The Marvel Comics maestro cracked the superhero code in his early days, understanding that flawed, relatable heroes matter more than invincible ones.
Spider-Man’s alter ego, Peter Parker, was a picked-upon teen who pined for the girl of his dreams, Mary Jane, and struggled to make ends meet. His boss barked at him at The Daily Bugle, his schoolmates bullied him, and the world took away his parents at an early age.
A radioactive spider bite changed everything, at least on paper. He was still the sweet, insecure kid deep down. That’s true in both the comics and on the big screen.
Tobey Maguire’s “Spider-Man” (2002) found the web-slinger struggling to woo his beloved Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst), even though he could have spilled his secret and potentially won her over in a super way.
His innate decency wouldn’t allow it. And he knew it also might put her life in jeopardy.
Credit Hollywood’s casting gurus for finding the right Spideys at the right time. Maguire nailed the character’s naive approach and Everyman status. Andrew Garfield, his immediate successor, conveyed a similar sense of unease while slowly growing into his skills over two “Amazing Spider-Man” movies.
Tom Holland effortlessly took the baton, and his aw-shucks shtick from “Captain America: Civil War” gave the film endless highlights. His Spidey even read his frenemies their Miranda rights during that film’s epic battle royale.
Would any other hero approach a fight in that fashion? In a way, Spidey is one of us — uncomfortable with being a hero.
If anything, Spider-Man getting the girl in the recent films could prove problematic. We love him a wee bit more when he’s pining for the girl of his dreams, not swinging from rooftop to rooftop with her by his side.
That’s why the big moment at the end of “No Way Home,” where Doctor Strange causes Zendaya’s MJ to forget all about her beau, sets “Brand New Day” up in a satisfying manner.
It also helps that the “Spider-Man” film series never went woke. Sony technically holds the keys to the webbed character’s cinematic kingdom, but it pairs with Disney’s MCU to bring him to screens.
While Disney movies like “Eternals” and “The Marvels” pushed a progressive agenda, the “Spider-Man” saga focused on the fun. That meant no awkward gender swaps or forced same-sex subplots. Zendaya’s MJ isn’t technically the classic character from the comics and big-screen adaptations. Her nickname was a tip of the cap to the source material.
Her MJ shared a few woke asides in 2017’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” her first feature as the character. That’s where it started and ended, and she sounded like too many Gen Z types anyway. No lectures, no clunky messages beyond the hero’s signature wisdom, shared by Uncle Ben: “With great power comes great responsibility.”
Even the animated “Spider-Verse” movies have avoided woke flourishes and maintained their cinematic excellence. The visuals from the first two installments — and a third has been delayed until 2027 — set a very high bar at a time when CGI animation is routinely stunning.
Embracing the Miles Morales arc of the Spidey universe expanded the film’s appeal to a broader audience without detracting from the character’s core traits. So did the recent “Spider-Noir” Prime Video series, giving the web crawler a neo-noir edge.
Credit also goes to the minds behind the recent “Spider-Man” live-action films.
The saga’s newest iteration has felt organic in a way that has eluded both “Star Wars” and the once-mighty MCU. We’re watching Peter Parker grow up, establish his personal boundaries, and realize his full potential.
The aforementioned franchises felt as if they were being assembled on the fly, with no overarching plan. The saga also found a way to shake up the formula without losing audiences.
Consider the loss of Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) in “No Way Home.” Her death allowed Peter Parker to grieve a loved one in powerful ways. Yes, this saga is full of humor and heart, but it’s also achingly human.
Holland recently nominated Owen Cooper, 16, of “Adolescence” fame, to take over as the next Spider-Man. That change is inevitable, given the character’s enduring popularity and Spider-Man’s creative DNA. Peter Parker should be a youthful figure. It’s part of his appeal and distinctive persona.
At 30, Holland is getting a little long in the tooth to be playing a college student — even if he looks young enough to pull it all off.
Either way, Spider-Man isn’t the mightiest Avenger, let alone the toughest superhero. He’s still able to put fannies in seats better than any other costumed crusader.
Long may he swing.
***
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic, and editor of <a href="http://www.hollywoodintoto.com/">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News&#8217; Big Hollywood. He&#8217;s also the host of <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hollywood-in-toto-podcast-w-christian-toto/id1186449155">The Hollywood in Toto Podcast</a>. Follow him at <a href="https://twitter.com/HollywoodInToto?lang=en">@HollywoodInToto</a>.

Celebrity Sightings In Glasgow – August 3, 2025

Why Spider-Man Is The Last Superhero Standing

Marvel

Peter Parker

Spiderman

“Masters of the Universe” is on target to be a gigantic flop despite a massive production budget and huge marketing effort, and now the film’s producer Steve Tisch is under scrutiny again for his reported ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Tisch, who is also co-owner of the New York Giants, denied that he was ever close with Epstein despite frequent email exchanges, including conversations about a 20-year-old Ukrainian woman Epstein was allegedly trying to convince to date the NFL owner. Tisch <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/inside-nfl-owner-steve-tischs-brief-association-with-epstein-0f3f407a">said</a> that he only had a “brief association” with the convicted sexual predator.
“As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with,” he said.
Interestingly, the filmmakers didn’t hide the association with Tisch as producers. They did appear to downplay Leto’s involvement despite him being one of the film’s stars. This comes at a time when the NFL is being <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7012707/2026/02/01/steve-tisch-giants-epstein-files-nfl-owners/">criticized</a> for remaining quiet on Tisch’s ties to Epstein while Hollywood isn’t coming under the same kind of scrutiny. 
Blame is already being placed on one of the movie’s stars, Jared Leto, due to sexual assault allegations. <a href="https://gizmodo.com/masters-of-the-universe-knows-its-got-a-skeletor-problem-2000762641">Rumor has it</a> he was banned from promoting the movie at all, which has movie fans questioning why he was selected to play the main villain, Skeletor, in the first place.
“Scary Movie” took top spot at the box office over the weekend while “Masters of the Universe” slid into second with a lackluster $29.3 million opening weekend in North America and just $25 million overseas. It’s nowhere near close to recouping the amount spent to make and promote the film.
“This is a soft opening for an action adventure with franchise and series potential,” industry expert David A. Gross <a href="https://variety.com/2026/film/box-office/box-office-scary-movie-franchise-best-opening-masters-of-the-universe-flops-1236765638/">told</a> Variety of the box office results. “[R]ight now, the only fantasy heroes doing strong business are the biggest and most established superheroes, like Spider-Man, Deadpool, Wolverine, and Superman.”
Horror movies continued to dominate, including “Scary Movie” and runaway hits “Obsession” and “Backrooms,” which were both produced on small budgets. Both films have been showcased as examples of how moviegoers are hungry for original stories and not franchise films.
“Masters of the Universe” is an adaptation of the popular He-Man franchise featuring the hero Prince Adam (Nicholas Galitzine), alter ego He-Man, attempting to defeat the evil Skeletor (Leto) on the planet Eternia.

Steve Tisch

Box Office Bust Puts Spotlight On Film Producer’s Epstein Connections

He-Man's $29M Bust Puts Spotlight On Steve Tisch's Epstein Connections

jeffrey epstein

Movie fans are going completely wild over two low-budget horror films, “Obsession” and “Backrooms,” which took an unusual path to surpass the latest “Star Wars” release at the box office over the weekend.
The new A24 release “Backrooms” brought in a record-breaking $81 million from 3,442 North American theaters during its opening weekend, as Variety <a href="https://variety.com/2026/film/box-office/backrooms-box-office-record-opening-weekend-obsession-jumps-star-wars-crumbles-1236763355/">reported</a>. “Obsession,” which premiered May 15, is still going strong in its third weekend and collected $26.4 million from 2,781 screens. Overall, the film made more than $100 million on what was effectively a shoestring budget.
“The Mandalorian and Grogu,” meanwhile, dropped 70% during its second weekend in theaters. So far, it has earned just over $246 million worldwide and finished third place last weekend behind both “Obsession” and “Backrooms.”
This is notable not only because of the massive brand recognition and budget behind “Star Wars,” but also because both horror films were created by young filmmakers who built audiences on YouTube. Some industry experts predict this will mark a shift towards more indie, creator-driven projects in the future.
Kane Parsons, now 20, directed “Backrooms.” It was inspired by a 2019 4chan post that became an active subculture and, eventually, a series of popular YouTube videos. Per <a href="https://www.wsj.com/business/media/gen-z-filmmakers-box-office-d05813d9?st=cvvaPZ&amp;reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink">The Wall Street Journal</a>, about 86% of ticket buyers were under 35.
“Obsession” has a similar backstory. It was written, directed, and edited by 26-year-old film school dropout Curry Baker, who also boasts a huge social presence. It cost $750,000 to make and has earned more than $104 million while drawing an audience that’s almost 75% between 18 and 35.
<iframe style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; max-width: 100%; width: 100%; border: 0; height: auto;" title="DW Player" src="https://public.dailywire.com/preroll-player/embed.html?playback-id=NJImACtyd8qr901jiXzUj00P9jus01iozN02&amp;ad-tag-url=https%3A%2F%2Fpubads.g.doubleclick.net%2Fgampad%2Fads%3Fiu%3D%2F61914415%2Fdw.video.article%26description_url%3Ddailywire.com%26url%3D%26tfcd%3D0%26npa%3D0%26sz%3D640x480%26min_ad_duration%3D5000%26max_ad_duration%3D60000%26gdfp_req%3D1%26unviewed_position_start%3D1%26vpos%3Dpreroll%26output%3Dvast%26plcmt%3D1%26env%3Dvp%26vpa%3Dclick%26vpmute%3D0%26impl%3Ds%26correlator%3D%5Bcachebuster%5D" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
&nbsp;
“We’re really seeing the tide shift from these more conventional Hollywood narratives to something that feels more organic,” Kori Adelson, lead executive for “Backrooms” financial backing company Chernin Entertainment, said of the change.
Another industry insider had a similar take.
“Whether or not this is ushering in a new era or a paradigm shift for the business remains to be seen, but this YouTube creator-to-big screen pathway should be viewed as complementary,” Comscore’s head of marketplace trends, Paul Dergarabedian, told Variety of the surprising box office numbers. “It’s a production pipeline that has not existed until now.”
Social media users also chimed in, saying it’s all proof that making original content for a younger demographic is the key to success. 
“From ‘Paranormal Activity’ to ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession,’ horror keeps proving that unconventional creators can become Hollywood’s next big filmmakers. Earlier it was indie outsiders, now it’s YouTubers &amp; internet creators bringing fresh storytelling and massive box office returns,” one commenter <a href="https://x.com/vishalchatkara/status/2061120874548523082">observed</a>. 
“When you make movies that young people&#8211;the demographic who most often frequent the movies&#8211;actually want to see, they show up to see it! What a phenomenon,” another X user <a href="https://x.com/JohnFriscia/status/2061162649275003217">agreed</a>.
“Omg who would have thought people wanna see movies that are original and creative without any identity politics vs the soulless cash grab slop from IPs,” a third person <a href="https://x.com/BigB__9332/status/2061288819983339594">wrote</a>. “&#8230;These companies have milked dry all the goodwill the fans once had for something like Star Wars.”

Inde Navarrette

Two Indie Horror Flicks Take Unconventional Path To Topple ‘Star Wars’ At The Box Office

Horror Movies

star wars

Menu