Oniisanbomber's Blog

Why Marvel Movies Are Popular — and It's Not What You Think

26th of April, 2025

Image credit: "Marvel Multiverse Wallpaper", retrieved from here.

Today I want to talk about why I think Marvel movies are popular.

But the reasons are different from what others may think.

Franchise IP, spectacular visuals, Robert Downey Jr, Avengers team-up movies—these are all reasons why Marvel is popular, but I think there is a more fundamental reason for it.

It goes back to this quote that was at the center of the last blog post.

“Happiness is to do the same thing every year.”

Just bear with me, please. I promise it will make sense by the end.

In the past, we had religion and other festivals to give our year structure. Obon, Easter, Christmas, summer festivals, spring festivals and so on. It is these kinds of annual traditions that keep a society glued together. Every year, the same thing, at around the same time, from cradle to grave. This kind of reliable repetitiveness gives us reassurance. It wards off loneliness. It creates belonging and social cohesion.

The four seasons also provide this kind of predictability that forms the foundation of our traditions and ultimately keeps us connected to each other in a community (e.g. flower viewing parties in spring)

But as we become more globalized, move to the city for work and many cities become homogenized (the same chain stores, brands, etc.), these annual traditions fall by the wayside. We are no longer connected by common traditions. The changes in seasons become more of an inconvenience rather than something that creates wonder.

I think Marvel movies (and other big entertainment franchises) fill this void.

Common annual traditions give something to bond over. This allows people to have a natural topic of conversation. In the city, we are all disconnected, living our own lives and it is difficult to make new friends because our lives are disconnected.

Big homogenous event films like Marvel movies replace that. Since everyone watches them, there is something for everyone to talk about.

Another example: Game of Thrones.

For a while in the 2010s, Game of Thrones became the type of event television that almost everyone watched and discussed. These society-wide common topics of discussion are what replaced these annual festivals where everyone in the community gets together.

And if you didn’t watch Marvel or Game of Thrones, there was social pressure to do so because otherwise you’d feel left out.

Perhaps that is also why Marvel movies all kind of feel the same.

Just like the annual Christmas market is always the same, Marvel movies provide a comfortable, predictable viewing experience. There are no surprises at the Christmas market, just like there aren’t going to be major surprises in a Marvel movie.

The sameness every year provides comfort.

That is also why the best-selling video game franchises tend to be IPs like Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed. They provide a predictable experience every year. The lack of change is the major feature.

But—and this is a big but.

Marvel movies, Call of Duty, etc., lack the depth that century-long traditions have. They are intellectual property designed to make profit masquerading as annual tradition. They do not have the same cultural foundation that ‘real’ traditions have. And that is why they feel hollow. Maybe not at first, but eventually, when the hype is over.

Marvel Phase 4 and 5 and whatever phase they are on right now were utter failures. Exhausted intellectual property trying to keep the annual tradition going after a decade of glorious profit, but lacking the cultural foundation to do so.

I hope something will replace Marvel and Game of Thrones. Otherwise, there is nothing keeping us glued together.

—Oniisanbomber