Summary
- Marvel and DC compete heavily in the superhero film genre, with recent box office flops for both.
- Joker: Folie à Deux and Madame Web are both Razzie Award nominees, highlighting major disappointments.
- Despite recent failures, both Marvel and DC franchises are bouncing back with successful projects.
Marvel and DC have been strong multimedia rivals for decades, and both franchises have found themselves competing once more for a prize that neither company is going to be particularly proud to receive.
The superhero comic book film genre has become the mainstay of Hollywood projects, with Marvel and DC’s hegemonic control of mainstream comics leading to a proportional market share in the realm of adaptations. Since the Marvel Cinematic Universe really got going after the release of Iron Man, the two franchises have dedicated a ton of their energy to outdoing one another. More recently, these projects have seen a noticeable drop in interest from fans and (as a result) less success at the box office. One of the most notable of these was the 2024 Joker sequel, a follow-up to the billion-dollar success of Todd Phillip’s 2019 film. With the landscape as it was, fans and critics alike knew it would fall short, and Joker: Folie à Deux looked ready to bomb as badly as The Flash did the year prior early on in the box office predictions.
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Despite the warning signs, there was always a chance that Joker: Folie à Deux would rally and surprise fans and critics with its box office performance, much in the same way the first film confounded everyone despite major controversy. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the film would indeed flop monumentally, and while Joker: Folie à Deux had a shot at becoming an Oscar-nominated film despite that box office failure, a more fitting honor is close at hand for the film. As seen on the official website for The Razzie Awards, Joker: Folie à Deux is on the list for the 45th Razzie Nominations a stunning 7 times (despite the official summary claiming it has 6), having one more nomination than the next four highest, all of which are tied for second place with 6. In addition to Borderlands, Megalopolis, and Reagan, the notably derided Marvel flop Madame Web also holds six nominations for this iteration of the satirical awards show.
Madame Web was arguably an even bigger disappointment than Joker: Folie à Deux as the latter did benefit from being a sequel to a box-office hit, a favor that Madame Web is unlikely to bestow on another project. However, the Razzies aren’t determined by popularity, so there’s an even chance of winning for both films. With only nine categories total on the list, the DC Elseworlds film and Sony Marvel project are competing for four of the least desirable honors available. These include the categories for Worst Picture, Screenplay, Director, and Actress (to be decided between leading ladies Lady Gaga and Dakota Johnson). While neither project is a part of the mainline MCU or DCU, there’s little the franchises can do to distance themselves from these flops. The potential awards are a ton of negative attention that neither company will greatly appreciate at this juncture and is salt in the wound for Sony, which recently threw in the towel after the R-rated Kraven the Hunter failed to garner real success.
Fortunately, things are in a better place for both franchises, as Sony has given up on trying to make Spider-Man films without Spider-Man, and DC’s newer Elseworlds project, The Penguin, was a massive success. On the mainline side of things, Deadpool & Wolverine carried the year for Marvel Studios, and the early Superman test screening have earned peak MCU-level comparisons. While it's a bit too early to say, fans can hold out some hope that both franchises will shake off the stink and get back to the consistency that fans saw in the 2010s.
The Joker films are available to stream on Max, while Madame Web is available to stream on Netflix.
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Source: The Razzie Awards