Superhero Movies Are Killing The Movie Industry's Creativity

The excessive, seemingly-endless influx of expanded cinematic universes poses a major threat to the future of creative, smaller-budget movies that are deciding to not even bother attempting to compete with the box office giants, slowly killing off the true creativity in the world of film-making.

The rise of the 'geek culture' is to blame; a forced agenda is constantly being played through means of mass-advertising across the never-ending sea of social media. Social media "influences" play the facade of overly-enthusiastic man-children forever obsessed with any sight or mention of [insert superhero name here] once the paycheck clears. As a result, the movie industry has become plagued with casual moviegoers willing to watch the same narrative unfold every sequel.

Not following? Let's take a look at how each superhero movie is structured:

Quirky, perhaps not-so popular character has a tough life.
After a strange occurrence with either something science/space-related, they gain powers.
Character entertains self with powers.
Suddenly, evil person(s) of similar strength appears and begins to cause havoc.
Character learns they must defeat the evil person(s).
Ultimately does defeat the evil person(s) during a battle sequence which takes place roughly 70 minutes into the movie.

As for the sequels? Just add a few more good and bad people so it seems a little different, but generally has the same structure.

With the popularity in what seems to be a system that cannot fail, the box office now looks like this each year:

With the box office dominated by such largely-produced movies, attempting to compete can easily render a smaller-budgeted movie a complete flop in terms of revenue. It paralyses the lengths of creativity studios are willing to take. If it cannot profit, it cannot be made.