Everyone loves Marvel and the superhero Movies, but how long do movie genre trends last? These days we don’t see many popular coming-of-age movies that involve a group of teenagers and their daily struggles. However, "The Breakfast Club," "Sixteen Candles," and "Ferris Bueller’s Day Off" (and more like them), came out and were extremely popular in the mid-1980’s. The golden age of slasher films started with "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" in 1974 and lasted through the mid-1980’s. So, how long will it take for superhero movies to lose their steam?

More than 10 years in the making

Marvel has had an impressive run so far. Even before the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Marvel movies were being made and were still incredibly popular for what they were. If you look back at the history of Marvel films, the first one ("Captain America") was created in 1944, according to Screencrush, and the craze for the films didn’t begin until the turn of the century.

The original "X-Men" and "Spider-Man" trilogies were among some of the Marvel movies created before the MCU. Back then, not everyone liked Superhero movies so you could say that they had moderate success. However, the MCU came along and did something no one has ever seen before: they created a worldwide phenomenon.

The superhero hype

The MCU took the embers of the previous Marvel movies and turned them into a roaring fire. The first Marvel movies were created by several different studios and lacked much harmonious vision. In 2008, Marvel Studios came along and made superheroes a mainstream movie experience, as noted by Vox.

Not only were the films well-made, they were also building up to other movies ("The Avengers") for a massive crossover experience.

The audience for these movies weren’t only people who read Marvel comics, they were also people who enjoyed action movies.

The sub-genre of action movies that involved the hardened cop, FBI agent, spy, etc. (the "Die Hard" franchise for example), that had plenty of explosions and special effects were now going out of style.

They already had their own craze in the 1990’s.

Not only that, but Marvel Studios movies were family-friendly, so in between Pixar and Disney films parents could take their children to a PG-13 movie that could satisfy everyone. Soon enough, every new Marvel movie became a must-see for the whole family, The Washington Post noted.

When is the craze going to end?

With the new release of "Avengers: Infinity War," Marvel Studios is starting to prepare for phase four of the MCU, according to Digital Spy. Everything they’ve built up over the last 10 years has been leading to the rise and fall of Thanos (the greatest villain so far in the MCU).

The way many people see it (including myself), the next "Avengers" movie to come out in 2019 should conclude most of the MCU storyline involving the Avengers.

This isn’t to say that there are no more superhero stories to tell, it’s just that it’s been a very thrilling 10 years of interconnected Marvel movies and now, coming near the end of the main story arc, it’s become a bit tiring.

I’m personally excited to see the next "Avengers" film in 2019, but all the other Marvel movies that come before that time and after, don’t really hold a great appeal to me (anymore that is). The hype for these type of movies has lasted more than a decade and the craze for this type of sub-genre has to come to an end sometime.

Sure, there can be new MCU movies every now and then, but just like slasher films, teen films, and others, there needs to be an end to the golden age.

Ever since the MCU started, it seems like each year has more and more Marvel films. According to Den of Geek, next year six different Marvel films will be released, and I don’t know about you, but I need a little break.
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