There are only 11 months left in the current decade, which means it’s time to start reflecting on the genre of film that will define this era.
For the 80s it was the Brat Pack with films like The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. In the 90s, cheesy but almost edgy romantic comedies like 10 Things I Hate About You and You’ve Got Mail pervaded through the early 2000s. Then the 2000s took viewers to fantastical worlds with high-quality visuals in franchises like Lord Of The Rings and Harry Potter.
For the 2010s, many subgenres rose to the forefront. Biopics, feature films following the life of one person or a particular event, seemed to surge for the sake of learning history — or a version of it — in two hours. Then there’s the rise of reboots and live-action films; Ghostbusters and Disney’s Beauty and the Beast come to mind. Sure, those genres left an imprint on cinema in this decade, but that’s not what people will remember 30 years from now. What they will remember is the domination of superhero films.
Of course superhero films were not limited to the 2010s. Batman has been played by a slew of people since the 40s, and Superman came out in 1978. We can’t forget Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man which began in 2002 and ended in 2007, a year before the current Marvel Cinematic Universe started with Iron Man in 2008.
Since Iron Man, Marvel has created the most complex movie franchise of the century and likely ever. All three of the MCU’s 2018 movies — Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War and Ant-Man and the Wasp — held positions in the top 10 highest grossing films. Black Panther and Infinity War were No. 1 and No. 2.
MCU has three more movies coming out this year. It will finish up phase three with Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame, and phase four will begin with Spider-Man: Far From Home. There is no doubt the MCU will be what people remember from 2010 cinema, and though it’s far superior, it’s not the only distributor that released box office hits.
Since 2010, 24 superhero films have been in the top 10 highest-grossing films. Not all of them were Marvel movies. Christopher Nolan released the conclusion to his Dark Knight trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, in 2012. DC also launched its own Justice League franchise, which haven’t been successful in terms of critical acclaim. Though Suicide Squad is regarded as one of the worst films of the decade, it still made more than $300 million.
DC’s one true star was Wonder Woman, which was the first time anyone really saw a woman superhero. The film grossed more than $400 million, becoming the third biggest box office hit of 2017 behind Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Beauty and the Beast.
No other genre of film dominated the 2010s in the way superhero movies did, but it’s more than just making the most money. With Black Panther becoming the first superhero film to be nominated for Best Picture, it just goes to show that superhero films are about more than just beating the bad guy. The superhero movies showed they are home to the most genuine and human stories in cinema. The characters are complex, the storylines are developed and almost every person has a hero to look up to.
Georgia Davis is a senior studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. What is your favorite superhero movie? Tell Georgia by tweeting her at @georgiadee35.
