Meryl Streep has never been one to mince words, and at a recent event promoting The Devil Wears Prada 2, she aimed her famously sharp tongue at the biggest target in Hollywood: Marvel.
"We tend to Marvel-ize the movies now," Streep said, "and it's so boring."
Ouch. But also: is she wrong?
Look, I get it. Marvel has made some genuinely great films. Guardians of the Galaxy has real heart. Black Panther was culturally significant. Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark is iconic casting. But Streep isn't talking about individual films - she's talking about what happens when one studio's formula becomes the entire industry's playbook.
The "Marvel-ization" she's critiquing isn't just about superhero movies. It's about the homogenization of blockbuster storytelling: the three-act structure broken into identical beats, the mandatory quips undercutting emotional moments, the third-act CGI sky beam, the post-credits scenes that promise the next thing instead of letting the current thing breathe.
It's about how every studio now wants a "cinematic universe" instead of, you know, good movies. Warner Bros. tried it with DC and face-planted. Universal tried it with the Dark Universe and gave up after The Mummy flopped. Sony is still trying with Spider-Man villains, and it's genuinely painful to watch.
The numbers support Streep's critique. In 2000, eight of the top ten domestic box office grossers were original films or standalone sequels. In 2024, nine of the top ten were franchise films, most with interconnected universes. Mid-budget films - the kind Streep has built her career on - have been almost entirely exiled to streaming.
