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A couple years ago Steven Spielberg shared his thoughts on Hollywood's impending doom, saying, "There’s eventually going to be a big meltdown. There’s going to be an implosion where three or four or maybe even a half-dozen of these mega-budgeted movies go crashing into the ground and that’s going to change the paradigm again."
Spielberg still believes that is going to be the case, and in a recent interview with The Associated Press, the director says that all these awesome superhero movies will go the "way of the Western." That means they will basically fade away like the western genre did. When asked about his initial comments, the director said:
"I still feel that way. We were around when the Western died and there will be a time when the superhero movie goes the way of the Western. It doesn't mean there won't be another occasion where the Western comes back and the superhero movie someday returns."
Westerns still have yet to make a comeback. Quentin Tarantino is one of the few directors trying to keep them alive. Westerns just aren't as marketable as they used to be, which is kinda sad because I freakin' love the old westerns and I wish there were more of them being made.
I really hope that superhero movies don't share the same fate. I'm really enjoying them, as are millions of other people. But it's really not that hard to believe that one day they won't be as popular as they are now. One day there might be a whole generation fans like myself who feel the same way about superhero films as I do about westerns, and it will take a great director like Quentin Tarantino to help resurrect the dead superhero genre.
Hollywood has gone through phases like this all throughout history in regards to these kinds of genres. It's a cycle that movies seem to naturally go through based on the appetites of the audience who pay to watch them. Spielberg goes on to say:
"I'm only saying that these cycles have a finite time in popular culture. There will come a day when the mythological stories are supplanted by some other genre that possibly some young filmmaker is just thinking about discovering for all of us."
Right now the audience for superhero films is strong and booming, so it's not going to go away anytime soon. But who knows what it will be like 15 to 20 years from now. Let's just enjoy it while it lasts!
