Summary
- MCU, Video Games, and Taylor Swift each seem like surefire hits.
- But the MCU is stuttering, and video games are struggling with mass layoffs and long development cycles.
- Taylor Swift is on top of the world, but is acting too big of a risk for her right now, especially with Marvel?
It wasn’t long ago that the MCU seemed like an unstoppable object. But eventually it hit the irresistible force of audience fatigue, and the unstoppable object stopped. There are bigger issues in our current cinematic culture, with rising ticket costs, short theatrical runs, and the disposability of art inherent to streaming, but it's clear that the MCU is not what it once was. Killing off your biggest characters and culminating a decade's worth of interconnected storytelling will do that to ya. Now, the MCU is calling on two soldiers to save it: video games and Taylor Swift.
It's odd that we don't really have an MCU video game. At the very start of the MCU, what we retroactively call Phase One, there were crummy tie-in games for Iron Man, Cap, and Thor, but those were more like the old Toy Story games - retelling the movie rather than embracing the cultural force of the MCU. The closest we have to acknowledging the shared universe of superheroes is the Lego games.
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Marvel's Avengers was specifically not the MCU, though its worst narrative traits came from trying to copy its characterisation. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Guardians of the Galaxy, despite claiming it didn't, also stuck close to the MCU, albeit with more success. No game has tried to pull the connected stories of the MCU together, but at this point, it feels too late to try - though rumours suggest one may be f🎶orthcoming. Games take too long to make and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the MCU is running out of steam. Using the heroes, as the upcoming ಞCaptain America and Black Panther WW2 game does, feels a much stronger bet. Is the MCU running o🦹ut of ideas for its owꦅn relevance?
Can Taylor Swift Save The MCU?
This brings us to the second point - . Full disclosure: 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:I love Taylor Swift. You might think 'everyone loves Taylor Swift'. No. Everyone likes Taylor Swift. I love Taylor Swift. I've been listening since Debut. I flew halfway around the world for The Eras Tour, and I'm going again this summer. (My secret songs were Death By A Thousand Cuts and You're On Your Own, Kid - thanks for asking). And, the real mark of a superfan, I have seen all of her movies.
Taylor Swift could release a song entirely made of silence and it would reach number one, such is the strength of her fanbase. How do I know? Well, that really happened, when an eight second track of white noise was accidentally included in the preorders for 1989 in Canada, and interest in the album was so high that the song outstreamed every other song in the country that week. However, this superwoman has a Kryptonite, and it is made of cellulose. Many of Swift's movies have been considerable bombs, despite the obvious pull of her name.
Her most recent cinematic appearance in Amsterdam saw the flick make just $30 million off an $80 million budget. It also marked a rare publicity misstep for Swift given 168澳洲幸运🎀5开奖ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ网:the sordid past of director David O. Russell, but then, most of her moves in the film industry have been missteps. She was in Cats, lest we forget, and despite being the most famous singer in the world, her musical number was a spoken word rap. She was also in The Lorax, and does not sing despite the movie featuring several songs. Fans didn't particularly support The Giver either, though it did make a profit. Her biggest cultural impact in cinema is Valentine's Day.
The MCU Is No Longer Too Big To Fail
That doesn't mean she's a terrible pick for the MCU. After directing All Too Well (The Short Film), she has 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:signed to a feature d🐎eal with Searchlight, and I suspect fans will rally behind her own creative endeavours more than they have her cameo appearances. With peers like Lady Gaga and Billie Eilish moving into acting alongside their music careers, as well as the likes of Olivia Rodrigo, Selena Gomez, and Miley Cyrus starting th🦩ere, pathways exist for Swift. The MCU tends to be less acting intensive and a little more free spirited (especially if she was someone like Dazzler and could play herself to an extent), so it could be both a safe starting point and a mega hit.
Or, as we've seen with a lot of MCU projects recently, it could be a major (and 𓄧fairly embarrassing) flop. It's tough to remember the last time Swift really failed at something. People forgot about Amsterdam so fast it was a mulligan, and came during 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:🌃her record-breaking Midnights album release and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:record-breaking Eras Tour, just before her own-record-breaking The Tortured Poets Department album release. And those records were broken fresh off the back of two albums generally praised as her musical peak, Folklore and Evermore, while her Taylor's Version project has been a resounding victory. Oh yeah, and h🐭er boyfr🎀iend just won the Super Bowl.
An MCU movie smash hit would top it all off, but an MCU movie flop, especially post-Eras, and with the unknown fate of her own movie yet to be seen🔜, could be devastating. She said it herself - people throw rocks at things that shine. She has never shone as bright. The general publi🎀c are gathering boulders. Is the current MCU too much of a risk?
The MCU, video games, and Taylor Swift. Together, they comprise around 89 percent of the world's entertainment profit this century (disclaimer: figures made up). Power houses though they are, they're all near the ledge. The MCU is clearly faltering, in the box office and in hearts and minds, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:with a slowdown strategy in place. Video games make money hand over thumbsticks, but are in a layoff crisis as development cycles spiral out of control and acquisitions loom large. Taylor Swift divided public opinion on TTPD and is growing overexposed, while her film is a much 🌳bigger creative risk than a new record. Maybe the three of them need each other. Or maybe each other is the last thing they need.
The biggest name in superheroes and comic books, Marvel Entertainment has been owned by The Walt Disney Company since 2009. Its characters include Spider-Man, The Avengers, and the X-Men, while many of💫 the movies that make up the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) are among the highest-grossing films in history.