Losing some punch? As summer opens, Hollywood action movies’ box office share lowest since 2010

LOS ANGELES – With Hollywood’s summer movie season kicking off on May 1, theatre owners are counting on the high-heeled women of The Devil Wears Prada 2 instead of cape-wearing superheroes to draw audiences to the cineplex.

For the past two decades, the first weekend in May featured a superhero movie or other high-octane adventure on the big screen.

Walt Disney had planned to release Avengers: Doomsday in the slot in 2026. But the studio said it needed more time to complete the Marvel film, and swopped in The Devil Wears Prada 2, a comedy starring Oscar winners Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway that is now showing in cinemas.

The move is expected to pay off with a strong opening, box-office analysts said. It also coincides with a decline in box-office power for action flicks, according to an analysis of North American box-office receipts by TD Cowen analyst Doug Creutz.

In 2025, he said, Superman, F1 and other action-adventure movies accounted for 35 per cent of ticket sales from the top 100 films. That tied for the lowest share since 2010 and marked the third year in a row in the mid-30 per cent range.

Disney’s Marvel superhero movies and Universal’s Fast & Furious racing films, among others, attracted large audiences to theatres in the 2010s. As recently as 2022, action movies brought in 56 per cent of domestic box-office dollars, lifted by Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick.

The number of action films sent to theatres has remained steady at about 25 annually for more than a decade.

Part, but not all, of the sales decline may be related to lower quality, Mr Creutz said. But even films with positive reviews from critics pulled in fewer box-office dollars than in years past.

“It appears audiences are no longer eager to see even good superhero films today as they were pre-pandemic,” he said in a research note.

Family films, by contrast, are on the rise, as are horror flicks. Recent hits have included Lilo & Stitch (2025), Zootopia 2 (2025) and The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023).

Theatre owners said genre popularity is cyclical. The key to success is a wide range of movies throughout the year.

“We need more dramas and comedies,” said Mr Greg Marcus, president and chief executive of The Marcus Corporation, the operator of the fourth-largest theatre chain in the US. “They say nobody goes to dramas or comedies anymore. It’s because they aren’t actually making anything (in those genres) to go to.”

Action movies still pull in crowds. Box-office analysts are bullish on 2026’s summer releases, including Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Star Wars film The Mandalorian And Grogu, as well as the delayed Avengers: Doomsday, scheduled for December.

The last Avengers movie, 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, generated US$2.8 billion in global ticket sales to become the second-highest-grossing movie of all time.

The Devil Wears Prada 2 could make a case for more genre diversity at theatres, said Mr Shawn Robbins, director of movie analytics for ticket seller Fandango and the founder-owner of Box Office Theory.

He expects the film will bring in at least US$70 million (S$89 million) in domestic ticket sales this weekend, providing a strong start to the summer season that runs through Labour Day and typically accounts for 40 per cent of the year’s box-office dollars. Other analysts’ projections range as high as US$100 million.

“There are a lot of people hoping it’s the new normal,” Mr Robbins said, noting a desire for more films outside the action genre. “It doesn’t have to be just one genre that launches moviegoing into a very lucrative season.” REUTERS