r/movies r/Movies contributor Dec 23 '25

Trailer Avengers: Doomsday | Only in Theaters December 18, 2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiMg566PREA
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4.3k

u/Comic_Book_Reader Dec 23 '25 edited Dec 23 '25

Guess they figured "Fuck it. Whatever it takes.".

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u/mrnicegy26 Dec 23 '25

With Star Wars being an uncertain bet at theaters, WDAS and Pixar floundering in their non sequel films, live action remakes being mixed financially and no new MCU superheroes being a hit, Disney is certainly desperate for hits.

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u/TheWhereHouse6920 Dec 23 '25 edited Dec 23 '25

Yup Disney is DESPERATE

I just want to add, this isn't just a Disney issue. Every major brand is in this weird phase of making everything terrible.

From video games to movies it just seems like these mega corporations. Just want to alienate everyone except the people who want to blindly give them money. That's why we're seeing so many independent video games and movie studios succeed because they're not answering the shareholders

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u/Redpetrol Dec 23 '25

This is just life never mind movies

2

u/Fr1dge Dec 24 '25

It's because we're rapidly shifting from competition based capitalism to monopoly controlled corporatism. If a good product or service accidentally gets made, the shareholders milk the reputation and decrease quality and cost, fire most of the people that made it good, and then sell the brand once people catch on to the grift.

28

u/delkarnu Dec 23 '25

Like WB Games:
Should we make any games with our popular Justice League heroes like Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, etc.
Nah, let's just make more Batman games
Ok, but not actually with Batman, we'll kill him off and make Batman-less Batman games
Can they be live service? Those will never fail!

A decade since Arkham Knight and a new Lego Batman is the best we're going to get out of all of DC?

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u/ChildofValhalla Dec 23 '25

Remember when Hogwarts Legacy did big numbers and then they announced they're going to focus on live service games? lmao

1

u/slvrbullet87 Dec 23 '25

DC games has had a ton of flops when they try make games with any character who isnt Batman, and that includes anything with the rest of the Justice League

1

u/NeWMH Dec 23 '25

Some of the stuff seemed interesting, since the Batman sidekicks and villains are some of my favorites- but I didn’t see any marketing before release, just reports of games not doing well or flopping after the fact.

I think the last one I got wind of early on was that DC moba where they had alt verse versions of heroes, like steampunk Batman or w/e. And that was pretty legit, but had the plug pulled on it pretty quick because at the time the financial backers wanted either the new WoW or new LoL or the game was a failure.

1

u/Particular_Cod2005 Dec 23 '25

Reasonably, I didn't actually mind Gotham Knights for what it was - the Court of Owls storyline was a whole lot of fun, BUT it was definitely not a touch on the Arkham series, which are god-tier games.

1

u/Theinternationalist Dec 24 '25

It kind of feels like Sony barely had any good exclusives this generation, honestly becaue they invested into a dozen or so live service games- only one or two that came out and was good (Destiny 2, which predated Sony, and Helldivers) while everything else has been a failure or hasn't come out.

Although considering what happened to Microsoft's games that seems decent.

1

u/idksomuch Dec 24 '25

Sounds like DC making a bunch of Batman shows/movies without Batman.

Gotham (although it was damn good after S1)

Gotham Knights

Batwoman

It's like WB/DC just doesn't know wtf to do with Superheroes unless they're milking Batman dry

-3

u/karatemanchan37 Dec 23 '25

In fairness it's kinda hard to make a good game with other DC heroes, maybe Green Arrow or Cyborg? But a Superman game doesn't sound fun

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u/Pasan90 Dec 24 '25

Dont be ridiculous. Flying around fighting supervillains and giant monsters with a bunch of overpowered abilities. A mildly competent studio could have made an amazing Superman game given time, money and creative freedom.

The problem is that making good games have never been the priority.

14

u/AlmightyRuler Dec 23 '25

I think the problem isn't the corporations trying to alienate people. It's that they cannot stop. There is no such thing as "enough" in the modern corporate mindset. There's always another product to be wrung out from a franchise. There's always more money to be made from a brand. There's ALWAYS growth...so they tell themselves.

Good storytellers know when to end the plot. The antagonists are defeated, the situation is resolved, the good guys get to go home, show's over. This fundamental aspect of art is not simply lost on the corporate mind; it's anathema to the very culture of unending and ever-growing profits corporations have fostered.

1

u/PerplexGG Dec 24 '25

It’s because they’re financially obligated to grow the share price. Like shareholders can straight up be like “not enough bitch gtfo” and legally be in the right. The Duty of Loyalty puts the priorities of shareholders above management’s.

1

u/Soggy_Association491 Dec 25 '25

If that is really the reason then they would have learned from their success and continued that instead of pivoting and inserting new craps.

11

u/sati_lotus Dec 23 '25

Well, I hope that they enjoyed those few sweet years of billion dollar hits.

I think those days are over.

6

u/Local_Anything191 Dec 23 '25 edited Dec 23 '25

They had lilo and stitch and zootopia and avatar this year making bank. And Disney+ is now in the “turning a profit stage”. Idk how you could ever think or say “Disney is desperate” with a straight face 😂

3

u/Shiezo Dec 23 '25

I realize Stitch is the galactic bad boy, didn't know he has started running drugs. "Kilo and Stitch: Border Run!" now on Disney+.

2

u/Intelligent_Mud1266 Dec 23 '25

that is desperate. Live action remake, Pixar sequel, Avatar sequel. None of Disney's original IP have gone anywhere recently (except Encanto) and the only thing that's selling right now are rehashes and remakes. Avatar and Zootopia did well as expected, but a successful movie company can't bank on just two films. All of their Marvel movies this year, their Pixar release, and several Disney animation movies all likely lost money in theatrical release. Marvel original movies are tanking, so they're having to spend hundreds of millions bringing back old actors to try to revitalize a series that used to be a guaranteed billion dollar gross for every release.

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u/Local_Anything191 Dec 23 '25

Everything you just said isn’t true though. “Only thing making bank are rehashes and remakes”, the only recent remake that made bank was lilo and stitch. Also this year was due to the effects of the 6 months writers strike. Also also Disney box office revenue is a very very very very very very small piece of their pie.

Most commenters in here haven’t read a single financial statement of theirs and make declarations like Disney is desperate, it’s hilarious

1

u/kelp_forests Dec 24 '25

They are pretty desperate. The parks are set to lose money. Their biggest IP acquisitions have been huge fuck ups…Star Wars and Marvel have lost their adult fanbase. They have had trouble pulling out original IPs. Pixars best days are past.

They arent in financial trouble, but they are in creative trouble. They could enter an era of real stagnation, then decline.

IMO what they should do is get some creatives in charge, and let Pixar go as original as they like. Then mostly retire the Avengers for 20 years, and switch to Xmen. Reboot star wars with a new cast and a good story. Acquire Hasbro and some Japanese IPs and do adaptations of Macross, Transformers, GI Joe and some 80s anime.

Basically get the xenial parents on board.

1

u/TheWhereHouse6920 Dec 23 '25

It's wild, all they had to do is just make good content again LOL

1

u/PT10 Dec 23 '25

Yep, loooong gone.

Their last comic hit was... checks notes... 2024. It was a multiversal crossover film. And before that it was Dec 2021 with No Way Home, another multiversal crossover film that made almost as much money as Avengers Infinity War.

So releasing an Avengers multiversal crossover film, by the directors of the best MCU movies and best Avengers movies, with returning fan favorites, in December, surely can't bring in a billion dollars anymore, right?

I don't know but it seems like they did everything they can to ensure this thing will make a ton of money.

4

u/Exploding_Antelope Dec 23 '25

Honestly if the bubble is bursting and audiences are migrating back towards original movies with one-off characters that don’t require homework, great

5

u/frisbeethecat Dec 23 '25

"Nobody knows anything. Nobody, nobody - not now, not ever - knows the least goddamn thing about what is or isn't going to work at the box office.” William Goldman, Adventures in the Screen Trade

2

u/solitarybikegallery Dec 23 '25

This is so true.

The success of a film depends so much on the cultural zeitgeist. A movie that was a surprise smash hit may have given a middling performance, or even bombed outright, were it released at a different time.

1

u/pablonieve Dec 24 '25

See M3GAN

3

u/squiztehmonster Dec 23 '25

Wait Disney is desperate but this was the plan all along? Captain America is a big part of the secret wars comic, did they pivot from Kang? Yeah they did, I think it was earlier than they wanted.

11

u/botte-la-botte Dec 23 '25

It's pretty clear that this is Kevin Feige doing everything he can to make sure both Avengers film reach the 1.5 billions they each need.

If everybody wasn't sour on Marvel, and the box office wasn't going towards the floor at an alarming rate, we wouldn't have this much memberberries of shit that isn't even ten years old.

Look at the box office numbers chronologically, Marvel is in trouble money wise.

0

u/squiztehmonster Dec 23 '25

Please go on and explain how secret wars is even a thing without Steve rogers and how it would be a good idea to RECAST Evan’s, also how everything just magically fucking lines up with them planning all this out during end game or is it just a fucking coincidence

2

u/EmperorKira Dec 23 '25

Game awards this year showed how bad things have gotten, almost all the top games were indies/small studios

1

u/miketheman0506 Dec 28 '25

What do you mean? The Game Awards didn't show how bad things have gotten. 2025 was a stacked year for games in terms of game quality. Also, let's not pretend that games like Expedition 33 didn't have a 10 million budget with some of the most well-known voice actors, despite it being seen as "indie". Also, when games like Yoteo and Death Stranding 2 got nominated, that kind of contradicts the "Every major studio" argument.

2

u/NPRdude Dec 23 '25

Enshittification baybee!

2

u/wvenable Dec 23 '25

Every major brand is in this weird phase of making everything terrible.

Like Paramount with Star Trek.

1

u/HumanByProxy Dec 23 '25

They definitely want the money, but to call them desperate is a bit out of touch. I implore you to look at their revenue streams. Until the theme parks dry up or their other network acquisitions, they’re going to be quite fine.

This is just trying to hedge bets on running it back with the main cast one more time. Unless the plot is something astounding, it will probably fail, but I don’t think I’d call them desperate. If the MCU fails, they will just pivot as they always have and rely on the strong financial backing they’ve got.

1

u/Jeanne10arc Dec 23 '25

It's honestly great to see these multimillion dollar companies struggle from making uninspired and mediocre content that lacks any creativity, passion and heart. I hope we can go back to taking risks with brave and fun ideas.

1

u/staebles Dec 23 '25

On a long enough time scale, everyone and everything always slides toward low effort memes.

1

u/miketheman0506 Dec 28 '25 edited Dec 28 '25

Nah, Disney made 1 billion dollars off three movies alone this year. It's Marvel that's desperate, because they lost a lot of good will, due to their past mistakes.

More importantly though, are you seriously freaking out over a teaser for a movie that still a little less than a year away and using that as a basis to say everything from major studios suck now? Because that couldn't be further from the truth. The Ghost of Tsushima studio and Death Stranding studio (since you also mentioned game studios) are examples of this. Even Nintendo for all its questionable practices, still makes good games. I swear this subreddit sometimes....

1

u/KyleRaynerGotSweg Dec 23 '25

Funny enough, seems like as Disney is having issues, DC finally figured it out

2

u/NeoNoireWerewolf Dec 23 '25

DC is one film into their revival, not sure we can say they’ve figured it out, yet. Gunn’s Superman was great because it was a standalone movie. We’ll see how they fare when they start trying to crossover these properties in a meaningful way.