"Iron Man” was a great film. Robert Downey Jr. gave us a new, strangely lovable superhero to devour popcorn to. Tony Stark was refreshing, the story was intriguing, the explosions were bigger and better and it reminded us just how awesome superhero movies can be.
But that was 2008.
Since then, Marvel Studios (now owned by Disney) has shoved more than 10 more closely related superhero flicks down our throats, and the crazy thing is it’s still working. Disney would never take on such an audacious business strategy if it didn’t expect wild returns and profit, but I am honestly shocked our culture is still excited and receptive to each and every new superhero film and character presented before us. But it all has to end eventually, right?
Applying elementary economics concepts to rather large and complex industries such as this may be frowned upon, but this particular concept has rung true in my personal experience.
Are Marvel Studios movies the exception to the law of diminishing marginal utility?
Utility is the enjoyment or satisfaction you get from something. Marginal utility is the enjoyment you get from “consuming” one more unit of something. Thus, as Investopedia defines, the law of diminishing marginal utility states “that as a person increases consumption of a product, while keeping consumption of other products constant, there is a decline in the marginal utility that a person derives from consuming each additional unit of that product.”
In other words, the more you consume something, the less enjoyment you get from having it again. This is how all-you-can-eat restaurants stay in business, people. It’s the same reason why that fourth slice of chocolate cake at Golden Corral doesn’t sit as well as the first three.
But can the same be applied to something like Marvel Studios movies?
I enjoyed the first “Iron Man” film, was satisfied with the first “Captain America,” but was completely worn out and tired of the series after sweating my way through “The Avengers” in 2012. Strangely, as I was reaching complete and utter exhaustion with superhero movies, the public majority was just starting to dive into the deep end, and, to my astonishment, I do not foresee any stopping in the near future.
We’ve reached the point where if a new Marvel flick doesn’t dominate opening weekend and/or acquire over $100 million in the box office, it’s a shocking failure (I’m looking at you, “Fantastic Four” remake). Never before has a string of undeniably similar films garnered such lofty expectations release after release.
Just wait until early May. Once again, another Marvel movie, “Captain America: Civil War,” will attract movie-goers, like swarms of bugs flocking toward an LED light. The plot will have oddly identical rises and falls, the explosions will be shown from slightly different angles, Tony Stark will say one or two new funny lines and Disney will walk home with $400 million when all is said and done. You can’t blame Disney; the company has found a cinematic and marketing formula that works, yielding massively successful results and little to no losses. But what does it mean for us consumers?
As a culture, each successive Michael Bay-caliber explosion will give us less and less satisfaction. We will laugh a little bit less at each witty Tony Stark comment and will come to terms with the fact that these plots are capable of going on forever. Our plots, however, are not, and it is this reason that we shall eventually move past superhero movies and on to the next “big thing” in entertainment, whatever that may be.
Andrew Hall is a UF finance sophomore. His column appears on Thursdays.
