Cinematic universes rely on audiences investing in minor characters – but as that interest wanes, it may be up to the big guns to keep the genre afloat.
It’s sometimes hard to believe that modern Superman movies existed for nearly four decades before the Man of Steel met Batman on the big screen.
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Since 2008, when Iron Man first clanged into life, we’ve become used to superhero cinema as one giant, interlocking machine: capes, gods, aliens and magic rocks all rattling around the same cosmic pinball table.
There have been dozens of these comic book films, often built around characters once little known to the average cinemagoer: Rocket Raccoon, Ant-Man, Blue Beetle.
Until recently, audiences lapped up each new arrival like an all-you-can-eat superhero buffet.
It felt as if there would always be another dusty helmet, glowing cube or giant talking tree waiting in the great comic book attic to be transformed into a billion-dollar proposition.
Nobody expected the well to run dry this soon.
Which brings us somewhat awkwardly to Supergirl’s disastrous box office.
The new DC Studios film, starring Milly Alcock as Kara Zor-El, opened to just $38m in North America and about $68m worldwide last weekend, grim figures for a film reportedly costing around $170m, before marketing spend.
This has been seen as a crisis for James Gunn’s new DCU, just two films in.
But the more interesting question may be whether Supergirl has exposed a problem that now stretches far beyond a single comic book studio.
