Even Marvel has superhero fatigue. Its ‘Thunderbolts*’ marketing appeals to a new audience: cinephiles.

Marvel Studios has a new strategy for combating superhero fatigue: appeal to cinephiles.

Although Marvel is still the highest-grossing movie franchise of all time, it has struggled to maintain its popularity over the past four years.

A trend of diminishing box office returns and fans and critics complaining that Marvel projects are declining in quality has resulted in the narrative that audiences are tired of superhero movies.

While the billion-dollar-grossing 2024 movie “Deadpool & Wolverine” indicated fans were still willing to turn up for Marvel event movies, this year’s “Captain America: Brave New World” grossed $414 million — mediocre compared to the studio’s other releases.

By marketing its latest blockbuster, “Thunderbolts*,” in a way that emulates the industry darling A24 and other huge franchises like “Mission Impossible,” Marvel Studios seems to be aware it needs to take a new direction if it is to survive.

It’s too early to tell if the gamble paid off at the box office — “Thunderbolts*” grossed less domestically and internationally in its opening weekend than “Brave New World,” which came out in February. But “Thunderbolts*” earned an 88% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, the highest for a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie since 2021’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home. Fans are saying that Marvel is “so back.”

Referencing A24 in a ‘Thunderbolts*’ trailer signals to fans it’s a good movie

When Marvel first announced “Thunderbolts*” — a film about a ragtag group of antiheroes who form an unlikely alliance — in 2022, it marketed it like past movies. The only difference was an unexplained asterisk at the end of the title when production began in 2024.

But after “Brave New World” received disappointing reviews and meager box office results, Marvel took a gamble with “Thunderbolts*.”

Florence Pugh, who reprises her role as Yelena Belova in the film, described “Thunderbolts*” as a “quite badass indie, A24-feeling assassin movie with Marvel superheroes” in a March interview with Empire, referring to the studio that has earned a reputation as the “cool kid” on the block.

Marvel jumped on this and the next day dropped an A24-esque trailer for “Thunderbolts*” titled “Absolute Cinema,” which showcased the cast and crew, including Pugh, who have been part of projects produced or distributed by the indie studio.

The trailer title could also have been a nod to a popular meme of the director Martin Scorsese with his hands raised up and accompanied by the phrase “absolute cinema.” Scorsese famously called Marvel movies “not cinema” in a 2019 interview, while other legendary directors such as Quentin Tarantino have also criticized the quality of Marvel and superhero films.

“Thunderbolts*” director Jake Schreier recently told The Hollywood Reporter that the A24 trailer idea was a joke between himself and an assistant, but the Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige liked it and asked the marketing department to make it.

To Paul Hardart, a professor at New York University Stern School of Business, the trailer signals to fans: “this isn’t your father’s Marvel, this is a Marvel film for today. They’re saying this is a high-quality film from a cinema standpoint.”

Then in April, Marvel released a featurette that gave a behind-the-scenes look at how Pugh executed jumping from the world’s second-tallest building, the 2,227 feet-high Merdeka 118 tower in Malaysia. This gestured to Marvel relying less on CGI and harking back to stunt-heavy blockbusters like “Mission: Impossible.”

A representative for Marvel Studios did not immediately respond to a comment request from BI.

Finola Kerrigan, a professor of marketing and deputy dean of the University of Birmingham’s business school, UK, told BI she believes the A24-style trailer that highlights the cast and crew’s quality work is part of an attempt to attract new audiences to the MCU, while trying to lure back dissatisfied fans.

“We can’t be cynical about the film audience, so you have to keep delighting them and challenging them,” Kerrigan said.

Marvel did then revert to its traditional style of marketing, but is still using quirky tactics now “Thunderbolts*” is out, by rebranding it as “The New Avengers,” which is the group’s name at the end of the movie, on social media and select posters.

Marvel is using quirky marketing for ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ and ‘Avengers: Doomsday’

After Marvel’s previous failed attempts at appealing to film fans with 2022’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and 2021’s “Eternals,” both directed by auteurs but seen as disappointments, “Thunderbolts*” may mark a watershed moment.

Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore, told BI that after “Captain America” saw a 68% drop in ticket sales between its opening weekends after a “lukewarm critical and audience reaction,” the second weekend of “Thunderbolts*” will more clearly indicate whether it has been a success.

But Marvel is already adopting its new strategy for “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” out on July 25, and “Avengers: Doomsday,” billed for May 2026.

For the latter, Marvel has generated buzz by announcing part of the cast during a five-and-a-half hour livestream.

Meanwhile, since February, the “Fantastic Four” X account has shared the same clip of Pedro Pascal’s character, Reed Richards, at 7 p.m. on Sundays, when his family has dinner — then seemingly forgetting to on April 14.

#TheNewAvengers pic.twitter.com/ifA1jebPVE

— Marvel Studios* (@MarvelStudios) May 5, 2025

At 7:44 p.m. that day, the X account released a new clip of Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) telling Reed and Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) that they’re late for dinner, teasing a new trailer for the movie.

pic.twitter.com/sVUMCUFdm0

— Fantastic Four (@FantasticFour) April 13, 2025

Hardart said Marvel should adopt the “fun” and “creative” elements of these marketing strategies for “Avengers: Doomsday,” the next “Avengers” film.

But clever marketing can only do so much. Ticket prices aren’t cheap, and fans want to know that they’re watching movies that are worth their time, money, and attention.

“I think at the end of the day, they recognize there’s no proxy for quality,” Hardart said, referring to Marvel Studios. “So if the next ‘Avengers’ movie is really good, people are going to want to see it.”

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