Steven Spielberg Thinks Superhero Movies Will Go The Way Of The Westerns

Stephen Spielberg is out promoting his latest film, Bridge of Spies. While speaking to the Associated Press, Spielberg offered his take on the current big budget movie boom, specifically the lifespan of the superhero craze.

AP: You caused a stir two years ago when you predicted Hollywood was headed toward an “implosion” because of the over-abundance of mega-budget movies. Do you still feel that way?

Spielberg: I do. I still feel that way. We were around when the Western died and there will be a time when the superhero movie goes the way of the Western. It doesn’t mean there won’t be another occasion where the Western comes back and the superhero movie someday returns. Of course, right now the superhero movie is alive and thriving. I’m only saying that these cycles have a finite time in popular culture. There will come a day when the mythological stories are supplanted by some other genre that possibly some young filmmaker is just thinking about discovering for all of us.

The superhero to western genre analogy is a popular one among film bloggers, critics, and professionals, so Spielberg’s insight isn’t particularly original. Superheroes did manage to outlast westerns in the arena of comics, but making a comic is a significantly different experience from making or marketing a film.

Spielberg is enjoying his mega-budget success at the moment. The Jurassic Park director was an executive producer on Jurassic World, which stomped all of its competition at the summer box office. Meanwhile, if the rumors are to be believed, he’s leveraging that success to move his DreamWorks Studios from Disney to Universal.

Bridge of Spies opens Oct. 16.