Are Marvel Movies “Cinema”? Is Hollywood Making Too Many Sequels?
By Andrew Mangan and Mark White
Martin Scorsese doesn’t think Marvel movies are “cinema.” Stop us if you’ve heard this one before. The discourse around Scorsese’s statements blew up so much that the famous director took to the New York Times op-ed page to defend himself, something usually only reserved for human-bedbug hybrids or people who enjoy household chores. Of course, Scorsese’s op-ed only stoked the discussion. At this point, it’s safe to say that when Martin Scorsese speaks, people listen. And argue. And tweet. And write strongly worded, poorly edited think pieces. And then argue some more. There were takes and takes of takes, including from Joss Whedon, a writer and director of multiple Marvel movies, who defended the films.
And so Data for Progress steps into the fire, long after it has cooled. (We have a few bigger issues on our mind.) While we don’t wish to argue the merits of Scorsese’s argument, we did want to see what people thought of it, regardless of how loudly some thought it.
We were also curious about Americans’ thoughts on the number of sequels coming out of Hollywood, which we’ll look at in the second part of this blog post.
Part 1: It’s Marvel, but Is It Cinema?
First, we asked respondents:
Some, including director Martin Scorsese, have said that the Marvel superhero franchise is not cinema because its movies do not include human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to other human beings. Others, such as director Joss Whedon, say that the superhero movies include heart, soul and the depths of human emotion, despite involving superheroes. Do you [agree or disagree] that the Marvel superhero franchise is cinema?
Respondents were asked to indicate whether they strongly agreed, somewhat agreed, somewhat disagreed, strongly disagreed, or weren’t sure. The order of “agree” to “disagree” flipped at random, to ensure that results were not biased by their order.
Overall, 49 percent of respondents think that Marvel movies are cinema, with 27 percent believing this strongly, and only 15 percent of respondents think that Marvel movies aren’t cinema, with 8 percent believing it strongly. Notably, about one-third of respondents (37 percent) don’t know or aren’t sure of their opinion on the matter.
When we break out these numbers by age, we find that the younger someone is, the more likely they are to think Marvel movies are cinema. We find this to be the primary predictor, after controlling for other variables[1]. Interestingly, this is a point that Scorsese acknowledges in his op-ed, writing, “I know that if I were younger, if I’d come of age at a later time, I might have been excited by these pictures and maybe even wanted to make one myself.”
At the same time, we find that older age doesn’t correlate with the belief that Marvel movies aren’t cinema. Instead, the older someone is, the more “not sure” they are about their opinion. It could be that older people have less interaction with Marvel movies, and thus haven’t considered the movies and their opinions about them as much.
Part 2: Americans say “let it go” to Hollywood’s stream of sequels and reboots
Seventeen of the top twenty-five highest-grossing films of the 2010s were sequels, two were CGI remakes, and many others were adaptations of books or spin-offs of other films. In fact, only one film in this top twenty-five was not dependent on an existing intellectual property (IP): Frozen[2]. And when you look at the top fifty highest-grossing films of the decade, only four are original IPs: Frozen, Zootopia, Bohemian Rhapsody[3], and The Secret Life of Pets. Compare this to the previous decade, the 2000s, when there were nine[4] in the top fifty. In the 1990s, there were twenty-three[5] original IPs were in the top fifty[6].
With all that, it’s no surprise that you see many articles written about Hollywood’s burgeoning aversion to risk, i.e. original IPs. So we asked respondents the following question, and they were allowed to select only one response:
Are there too many sequels and reboots, as opposed to original movies, coming out of Hollywood these days?
I think there are too many sequels and reboots these days
I think the amount of sequels and reboots these days is about right
I wish there were more sequels and reboots to franchises I've enjoyed in the past
Not sure
A majority (59 percent) of respondents think there are “too many” sequels and reboots these days, compared to 15 percent who think the amount is “about right” and only 5 percent who think there are “not enough” sequels or reboots. Compared to the “Marvel movies” question, respondents had more of an opinion on this question, with only 21 percent answering “not sure.”
This anti-sequel/reboot, or pro-originality, majority presents an interesting question: If Americans are tired of sequels and reboots, then why are they paying to see so many? Is it that Hollywood is just producing more sequels/reboots, or is it that Americans don’t like the idea of so many sequels/reboots but also enjoy going to them? We’d love to see further investigation here[7].
This question also brought out a few notable differences in who answered what. The strongest predictor was if the respondent had no children, had children under the age of eighteen, or had adult children. Those with children younger than eighteen were most likely to say that the number of sequels was “about right” (23 percent), which was more than those without children (12 percent) or with adult children (14 percent). It could be that respondents with young kids are just happy that there’s always a new Marvel movie or Star Wars to take their kids to.
Again, answers here correlated with age. The oldest and youngest of our respondents were the least likely to think that there are too many sequels/reboots coming out of Hollywood. For those born in 1940, our model suggests 48 percent think that there are too many sequels. This increases to about 70 percent for those born between 1960 and 1980. The percent of “too many sequels/reboots” answers starts to fall after this, down to 62 percent for those born in 1990 and 50 percent for those born in 2000.
All of this leads us to wonder: What will the future of popular film be? Will Americans, who claim there are too many sequels and reboots, revolt against them at the box office? Or will Hollywood continue to produce more and more sequels, reboots, and remakes than they currently do, to no pushback from the American public? And what will a Martin Scorsese born after 9/11 think is “cinema”?
Andrew Mangan is a Senior Editor for Data for Progress.
Mark White is a Senior Advisor for Data for Progress.
[1] Other variables include: gender, education, race, Trump approval rating, political party identification, child and marital status, sexual orientation, urban or rural residence, family income, employment status, and interest in the news.
[2] Which is “very loosely” based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Snow Queen.” But to be generous to this decade, we’re including it as an original IP.
[3] Again, to be generous to this decade, we’re counting this as an original IP, though it’s based on real people—a fact that, in other decades, disqualified a film from being listed as an original IP (e.g., Pocahontas in the 1990s).
[4] 1. Avatar; 2. Finding Nemo; 3. 2012; 4. Up; 5. Kung Fu Panda; 6. The Incredibles; 7. Hancock; 8. Ratatouille; 9. Madagascar
[5] 1. Titanic; 2. Independence Day; 3. The Sixth Sense; 4. Armageddon; 5. Ghost; 6. Twister; 7. Saving Private Ryan; 8. Home Alone; 9. The Matrix; 10. Pretty Woman; 11. The Mummy; 12. The Bodyguard; 13. True Lies; 14. Toy Story; 15. There’s Something About Mary; 16. Notting Hill; 17. A Bug’s Life; 18. American Beauty; 19. Basic Instinct; 20. Speed; 21. Deep Impact; 22. The Rock; 23. Seven
[6] The number of original IPs is mushier in the 1990s than in other decades, since some films deviate so heavily from their source material that they don’t cite the story’s basis in the credits (e.g., Aladdin and Tarzan), some films are sourced to a person’s life and not to, say, a book (e.g., Pocahontas), and other films are uncredited quasi-plagiarisms (e.g., The Lion King). To be the most generous to the other decades, none of these types of movie was counted as an original IP for the 1990s.
[7] The best, most recent article we found on this was published in March 2016.
[8] We looked at the same variables as we did in the “Marvel movies” question.
On behalf of Data for Progress, YouGov Blue conducted two surveys of US registered voters, using YouGov's online panel. Both surveys included US registered voters and were weighted to be representative of the population by age, race/ethnicity, sex, education, US Census region, and 2016 US presidential vote choice. The survey including the “Marvel movies” question was fielded from November 9 through November 11, 2019, and surveyed 1,216 registered voters. The mean of the weights is 1, and they range from 0.04 to 6.0. The survey including the “too many sequels” question was fielded from August 29 through September 1, 2019, and surveyed 1,127 registered voters. The mean of the weights is 1, and they range from 0.15 to 6.04.