Multiverse of Sadness: how the movie industry became just another content factory for the attention economy

Ever since my Dad showed me Jurassic Park when I was kid I’ve been hooked on high concept big budget blockbusters. The best blockbusters invoke a sense of awe in their world and the ideas they’re exploring. They keep you engaged by pairing action and spectacle with a vast range of human emotions. There’s nothing like going to a blockbuster on a summer night and losing yourself in the experience. At face value, many of these movies appear to be pure entertainment but often they go much deeper than that. Theoretical scenarios like bringing dinosaurs back from extinction are used to explore complex themes like humans’ need to play god and the downsides of technological progress. One of the more popular concepts that filmmakers love to play with is the multiverse. Storytellers have long used this concept to explore ideas centered on identity, unrealized potential, and our place in the cosmos. Inventing different universes and realities expands on who the characters are and the film's message. When done right these types of movies can be truly profound. The somewhat heady ideas in them can lead us to understand ourselves and others better. Many can also find huge success at the box office. Nowadays, my movie taste has expanded, but I still have a soft spot for those movies that started it all. More than ever though, I’ve felt deflated after leaving the theater. Blockbusters are no longer the awe-inspiring spectacles they once were. Instead, every movie is just a derivative of past successes. Halfway through the 2020s, it seems impossible for a movie like the original Jurassic Park to find its way to the big screen.

How we got here begins and ends with one studio. Marvel. They dominated the movie industry for more than a decade off the strength of the interconnected universe they created. Superheroes from old Marvel Comics were used to explore a wide variety of topics like geopolitics, relationships, and one’s sense of duty. Each movie added depth to the universe with a compelling plot and real stakes that fostered character growth. Not only did the characters’ stories move forward but all of their stories wrapped around each other to tell an overarching narrative. More and more people tuned in to each new chapter because they were bought into the world, characters, and narrative that Marvel was building. I was never a superfan, but I enjoyed the movies because they were quintessential blockbusters with excellent writing and direction. All of these factors made the Marvel Cinematic Universe a true cultural phenomenon. The last movie in the original storyline, “Avengers Endgame”, became one of the largest successes in film history bringing in almost 3 billion dollars. After that story ended, the constraints of capitalism set in. Our economic system champions infinite growth, and “Endgame” set the bar too high. Disney, who owns Marvel, had to keep making profits at the same rate or face the wrath of shareholders. Instead of starting a new story which would take time and investment, they decided to lean heavily on nostalgia. Nostalgia by way of the multiverse. “Spiderman: Far From Home” revolved around old versions of Spiderman from other movies being pulled through the multiverse to unite with the current Spiderman. Disney knew that no matter how good or bad the movie was, it’d go viral if they could get Tobey Macguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland to share the screen. The multiverse was converted from an interesting storytelling device into a prop for the attention economy. Of course, it worked, so Marvel and the rest of Hollywood hedged their entire business strategy on gimmicks like this. 

Now the film industry is filled with cinematic universes. Every major studio is digging through the different film & TV properties they own to see what they can milk for content. You know we’ve gone too far when they’re trying to make a Suits universe. New ideas are getting rarer as studios put all of their money into these extended universes, as evidenced by the fact that more than half of the movies slated for release in 2025 are based on existing characters and IP (Intellectual Property). How strong or inventive a story is doesn’t matter as long as the studios can prey on the nostalgia for our favorite characters. The blockbusters I used to love are gone, even if the characters are still around. Now it’s all the same story just rebranded for whatever franchise needs rebooting. Not all of it has been bad, some franchise entries like “The Batman” and “Across the Spiderverse” are incredible art. These movies tell original stories with new characters that emotionally resonate with audiences rather than cherry-picking reminders of the past. The first three movies in the new Planet of the Apes series are some of my favorite movies of the last decade, but even then, the most recent one felt like another bland IP clone. We forget that these franchises exist in the first place because people fell in love with the depth of the characters and the stories they were in. There were fresh takes on the human condition and the world, (or worlds in the case of the multiverse), we live in. Just like the first time I saw Jurassic Park, we all felt something the first time we saw these movies, that’s why we wanted more. Now it’s just more for more’s sake, long after we stopped asking.

Marvel’s most recent release, “Deadpool & Wolverine” is the epitome of more for more’s sake. It’s why I wrote this piece. After leaving the theater this summer I couldn’t shake this feeling of disappointment around what I had just watched. The whole point of the movie is right in the title. It was made explicitly to bring back Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, again using the multiverse to do so. It has the budget, direction, and polish of any other tentpole action film, yet, it doesn’t quite feel like a real movie. Almost every line is meta-commentary on the state of the Marvel Universe and its characters. Ryan Reynolds feels more like a TikTokker who’s in way too deep on Marvel than he does the protagonist of the movie. Deadpool as a character is supposed to break the fourth wall, but that’s not the problem. Self-aware and degrading quips work when there’s a cohesive story, but this movie doesn’t have that. Any jokes about Marvel’s desperate attempts at relevance fall flat when this movie is literally just that. There is no real plot, just characters playing their greatest hits. Instead of using superheroes or the multiverse to get interesting ideas across, here the mission was to cram as many recognizable characters as possible into two and a half hours. Any compelling messages about redemption and life aspirations are overshadowed by Chris Evans or Wesley Snipes coming out of superhero retirement. It felt like the world’s most expensive fan fiction rather than the biggest action movie of the summer. 

We see this flattening of culture in so many areas. Art is now defined by the least common denominator that gets people in seats. It’s entertaining in the sense that it can make you feel good, but like with everything in the attention economy that feeling is fleeting. When we reduce stories to content we lose their power to learn more about ourselves and the world. We stop going deep, and just keep scrolling. One of the reasons I love movies is that you can disconnect from everything vying for your attention. Unlike an algorithm spitting something out something on your for you page, going to the theater is an intentional choice. You pick what you want to watch and then have no choice but to be immersed in the world and ideas on the screen. Sometimes it’s good, other times it’s terrible, but it’s still an experience that exists outside of our feeds and notifications. Endless IP reboots threaten that escape, which is why watching “Deadpool & Wolverine” was so jarring for me. Not only was it another piece of IP attempting to revive the Marvel Universe, but it also felt like just another piece of online content trying to get my attention. It was basically a 2+ hour YouTube sketch optimized to keep people watching. I’m fearful that just like other parts of our culture, that’s what the future of movies looks like. At least this movie still had a real writer and director behind it, what happens when that’s no longer the case? How far are we from studios making apps that generate AI movies based on whichever characters keep you watching the longest?

As bleak as it all looks, I don’t want to end on that note. For now, all is not lost. We still have original movies being made and I saw plenty of great ones this summer. Studios like A24 are doing their best with their versions of summer blockbusters like “Civil War”. While not nearly as successful as Deadpool, “Civil War” still found modest success at the box office. More than that, it was one of the most visceral movies I’ve ever seen. Like I said before, the best movies make us feel something and see the world differently. “Civil War” accomplished that, but even IP can do it. “Barbie” used a 70-year-old brand to tackle feminism, toxic masculinity, and identity. Despite being more superhero IP, “The Penguin” hits a lot of the right notes from classic HBO crime shows like “The Sopranos” or “The Wire”. I wish it wasn’t a comic book character, but it still feels intentional and artistic. Hijacking nostalgia isn’t the only way to get people to watch things. If you build a real story with depth, people will show up. It might take more time, but in the end, you’ll find success. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug but eventually, it wears off. We’re not trapped in the world of endless sequels and regurgitated IP. It’s up to us to create stories that inspire people like the creators of all these franchises. We can build a new universe if we try.