We live in a world where people are more involved with complaining about the likes and dislikes of others instead of focusing on their own interests. This situation is something that has been going on endlessly, but nowadays, with the outreach of social media, the judgment is bigger than ever and there is no topic left behind. The cinema world is not an exception, as fans online tend to grumble about a product before even seeing it for themselves and, if there is a film genre that suffers from this disease that is spreading swiftly, that is, for excellence, the one that involves superhero fiction. But where did this phenomenon come from?
Most of these ideals were born after the box office record that was Avengers: Endgame back in 2019, when some well-known film directors and critics decided to claim that those kinds of movies cannot be considered as cinema. Before said movie saw the light for the first time, the superhero fiction was another one in the long list of subgenres, discussed every once in a while or not even getting a lot of attention. However, after Marvel Studios produced a movie that wrapped up the ties they left one by one during the years prior to the “Endgame” event, this nice little subgenre became the center of the movie critics drama, creating a long discussion that goes on and on with every new superhero fiction that shows up in our screens.
A lot of professionals from the field picked up their microphones and started to type down their thoughts to share them with the world, but a speech that stood out above the rest was the one by Martin Scorsese, who claimed that “cinema is an art form that brings you the unexpected” and, as in superhero movies “nothing is at risk”, it cannot be considered cinema. For him, “cinema is about aesthetic, emotional and spiritual revelation” with characters that are mostly complex with “contradictory and paradoxical natures,” and, as superhero fiction and franchise films lack these characteristics, he says, they should not be considered as a part of the Seventh Art. Even though those words were said more than four years ago, this is a discussion that is still going on today, as every time that a superhero movie is about to hit the theater, critics get ready to destroy it and claim, once again, that their plot is not deep enough and does not appeal to the necessary amount of emotions that are needed to make it inside the Cinema VIP Room.
Nevertheless, the act of watching a movie, either at the theater or using a streaming service; alone, with friends, or with family; just for fun or to even be exposed to something new, will always have a principal objective, which is to entertain. One might expect to appreciate other purposes from this kind of art besides the entertainment, but the truth is that this concept will always be there when we sit down to watch a movie. The same happens when we go to an art gallery or a music concert. Yes, we intend to appreciate the art, learn from it, make our own conclusions and make it ours; but we are also there to be entertained, to hit our five senses with something outside from our routine and give our attention to it in order to be amused, delighted, pleased, or however we decide to call it.
This is why we could not help but wonder what the breaking point for an audiovisual product to be considered a part of cinema is, and in consequence, what does it need to be art. As we intend to figure out if some creations should be treated differently from others, we want to evaluate the accuracy of the previously quoted vision and find out if a superhero fiction project can or cannot be considered cinema, and the reasons why this claim should or should not be taken as true.
In this essay, then, we will go through a series of statistical research that will help us understand the appreciation of the general public, as well as the points of view of movie critics and cinema content creators, all of them from Argentina, the country I am from and one that can be used as a representation of Latin America. We will also be able to find out the preferred film genres and subgenres among our statistical population, and to do so we will present them with a questionnaire related to said topics, as well as the highest grossing films for each genre since the year 2000. In addition, doing this will help us to discover the reasons why our population watches movies as well as how often they do so. Finally, we will be able to successfully explain the impact of movies in our culture, and their importance for the construction of it regardless of the genre they belong to.
Studying the impact of superhero fiction on the population is important because it shows the interests of what the general public wants to see, and it helps the content creators to understand which way they should be facing. Following this idea, by digging deeper into the impact of this movie subgenre, we can gain insights into the cultural, social, and artistic significance of this dynamic field. In addition, we understand that superhero fiction movies have the power to shape public perception and influence the shared dreams and aspirations of society. This is why, by studying their impact, we can gain insights into how they shape our worldview and contribute to the cultural discourse.
Research description
Research about the conceptions of cinema was conducted using an electronic survey that was presented to the followers of our pop culture journalism social media outlet, MarvelFlix, in Instagram and Youtube, which together become a population of about 60,000 pop culture and entertainment fans from Argentina (See Appendix A). As it is not productive to survey every single one of them, we took a simple random sample of 121 pop culture and entertainment fans from Argentina. We analyzed the data collected to determine the most popular movie genres and subgenres, the reasons why they consume these audiovisual products, and their thoughts about superhero fiction and the purpose of cinema as a form of art.
In order to do this, we asked how often they go to the theater to see a movie versus how often they watch one in the comfort of their house, why do they watch movies, which are their favorite genre and subgenre, what do they think the definition of cinema is, if they are into superhero fiction and, lastly, if they are aware of Scorsese’s point of view and if they agree with it. This resulted in an electronic survey with seven questions that helped us identify the likes and dislikes of the participants, and four Yes or No questions that helped us to understand the agreement or disagreement with Martin Scorsese’s perceptions about Superhero Fiction.
The survey was administered electronically using Google Forms and was completed anonymously. It was open for anyone that wanted to participate and did not have any conditions.
Description of the sample
The pop culture fanatics involved in the survey are followers of our social media outlet called MarvelFlix, both on Youtube and Instagram. MarvelFlix is an Argentinian freelance outlet that creates and shares content about pop culture products. It started as a Marvel Comics only source, hence the name, but starting in 2020, other projects that belong to the world’s popular culture were added to the theme. The total number of followers in both Youtube and Instagram accounts are 59,238 pop culture fanatics.
Data collection
An electronic survey was used to gather opinions about cinema and superhero fiction in Argentina. The followers were given one week to participate and complete the survey on their own time. The link to the survey was published on Marvelflix’s Instagram and Youtube accounts on Monday morning of the selected week, and the survey closed the following Sunday at midnight. The survey was conducted online using Google Forms and was expected to take no more than 10 minutes to complete. The survey results were completely anonymous, reducing the possibility of response bias.
Boundaries and limitations
As the followers of MarvelFlix are not required to take the survey, there is a possibility that only the pop culture fans with strong opinions against or in favor of Superhero Fiction being considered cinema will respond. In most voluntary surveys, participants with a neutral attitude towards the topic would not respond, this is why a possible threat to the survey’s validity is the voluntary response bias.
Following the same idea, it could be possible to encounter sampling bias, as the participants belong to a group of fanatics of pop culture that started with Superhero Comics, therefore they might be inclined to reject the idea that Superhero Fiction should not be considered cinema. However, the participants have their own conceptions about cinema regardless of their appeal for Superhero Comics, which means that their responses should not be too far from reality.
Data analysis
To determine the pop culture fans perception of Superhero Fiction being considered cinema, one sample T-Tests were run for each Yes or No survey question, as the first seven questions were used to situate the participants and researchers in context for the actual study.
For the first one, the null hypothesis was that the percentage that considers that every movie is art is not zero but is insignificant, so we use the 0.1 value, and the alternative was that the percentage that considers that every movie is art is different from 0.1. To gather this information, we used the formula: Ho:ρ=0.1, Ha: ρ≠0.1.
By analyzing the individual t-scores, the researcher was able to determine if the pop culture fans agreed or disagreed with the question. The pop culture fans volunteered to take the survey, and therefore were not randomly selected. However, a total of one hundred and twenty one pop culture fans responded to the survey, so it is a large enough sample size to assume an approximately normal distribution, and therefore meet the conditions for the test of this question and the following three. The results are displayed in Figure 1:
As it can be seen in the pie chart, 79.3% of the participants think that every single movie should be considered art while 20.7% disagree with the idea. In other words, we have 96 successes out of 121 observations, and when we run a sample proportion summary hypothesis test, the results align with what was obtained in the survey. The sample proportion obtained is 0.79, the test statistic is 25.42, the standard error is 0.03 and the P- value is 0.0001. As 0.79 is larger than 0.1, and the P- value is smaller than a 0.05 level of significance, we are able to reject this first null hypothesis, and we are 95% confident that the interval from 0.72 to 0.87 contains the proportion that thinks that every movie should be considered art.
The second question’s null hypothesis was that the percentage that likes watching superhero movies is not zero but not significant, so we again use the 0.1 value, while the alternative was that the percentage that likes watching superhero movies is larger than said 0.1 value. In order to analyze this, we used the formula Ho:ρ=0.1, Ha: ρ>0.1.
The results are displayed in Figure 2:
The results from the second question are pretty similar to the first one, as 81% of the participants like to watch superhero movies, while the other 19% do not. In other words, we have 98 successes out of 121 observations, and when we run a sample proportion summary hypothesis test, the results align with what was obtained in the survey. The sample proportion obtained is 0.81, the test statistic is 26.03, the standard error is 0.03 and the P- value is 0.0001. As 0.81 is larger than 0.1, and the P- value is smaller than a 0.05 level of significance, we are able to reject this null hypothesis, and we are 95% confident that the interval from 0.74 to 0.88 contains the proportion that likes to watch superhero movies.
The third question wanted to know if the participants were aware of the “superhero movies are not cinema” dilemma. Therefore, the null hypothesis was that the percentage of participants that was aware of it is not zero but not significant, so we keep using the 0.1 value; while the alternative was that the percentage that was aware is different from this value. Therefore, we use the following formula Ho:ρ=0.1, Ha: ρ≠0.1. The results are displayed in Figure 3:
For this question, the results show that 55.4% of the participants were aware of the superhero movies dilemma before taking this survey, while the other 44.6% was not. The answers were almost tied, which gives a pretty interesting result for this kind of survey. In other words, we have 67 successes out of 121 observations, and when we run a sample proportion summary hypothesis test, the results align with what was obtained in the survey. The sample proportion obtained is 0.55, the test statistic is 16.64, the standard error is 0.03 and the P- value is 0.0001. As 0.55 is larger than 0.1, and the P- value is smaller than a 0.05 level of significance, we are able to reject this null hypothesis, and we are 95% confident that the interval from 0.47 to 0.64 contains the proportion that knew about the superhero movies dilemma before taking this survey.
Last but not least, once the participants were aware of the situation, we asked them if they agreed with Martin Scorsese’s words or not, as we want to know if the majority of our pop culture followers believes that Superhero Fiction should not be considered cinema, therefore, should not be considered art. This being said, the null hypothesis was that the percentage that considers that Superhero Fiction is not cinema is 0.5 (to see if a big group agrees with Martin Scorsese’s vision), and the alternative was that the percentage that considers that Superhero Fiction is not cinema is different from 0.5. To do this, we used the formula Ho:ρ=0.5, Ha: ρ≠0.5. The results are displayed in Figure 4:
For this question, the results show that 6.6% of the participants agree with Martin Scorsese and think that superhero movies should not be considered cinema, while the other 93.4% disagree with him and see superhero movies as cinema, therefore, as a form of art. This is the only question that had such a big difference between one option and the other. In other words, we have only 8 successes out of 121 observations, and when we run a sample proportion summary hypothesis test, the results align with what was obtained in the survey. The sample proportion obtained is 0.06, the test statistic is -9.55, the standard error is 0.05 and the P- value is 0.0001. As 0.06 is not larger than 0.5, and the P- value is not larger than a 0.05 level of significance, we are able to reject this null hypothesis. We understand that not even a proportion of 0.1 agrees with Scorsese’s words, whereas a proportion of 0.93 of the participants believes that superhero movies are cinema, therefore should be considered art. Following this idea, we are 95% confident that the interval from 0.89 to 0.98 contains the proportion that understands that every audiovisual creation is part of the Seventh Art, and, in consequence, every superhero movie is cinema.
The information that we were able to collect with the other seven questions, in addition, helped us even more to support our claim. Nowadays, despite the fact that when we watch an audiovisual product our intentions might be to appreciate the art, learn from it, make our own conclusions and make it ours, we are also seeking (consciously or not) to be entertained, to hit our five senses with something outside from our routine and give our attention to it in order to be amused, delighted, pleased, or however we decide to call it. This can be supported with the results displayed in Figure 5:
As we can see, the main reason why people choose to watch a movie is to be entertained. The pie chart also shows that, if we were to combine all the other reasons together, they still would not be enough to compare to the entertainment reason, which takes 63.6% of the participants, this is, in other words, 77 successes out of 121 observations.
Assuming that when it comes to watching movies the majority of our participants chooses to be entertained over any other reason, we are 95% confident that the interval from 0.55 to 0.72 contains the proportion that prefers to be entertained when they decide to watch a movie, whether it is at the theater or using a streaming service on their own terms.
Finally, when we asked our participants to pick a movie out of a given list of thirteen Box Office Records that included two superhero movies - Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Batman: The Dark Knight (2008) - and two author films that align with Martin Scorsese’s ideals - Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) – mixed with other nine popular movies from different genres, their choices helped us to support our claim as well, as it can be seen in Figure 6:
As Figure 6 shows, more than twenty years after hitting the movie theaters for the first time Harry Potter (2001) still holds the first place with 36.4% of the votes, which is 44 successes out of 121 observations. However, Avengers: Endgame (2019) comes second with 26.4%, which is 32 successes out of 121 observations and Batman: The Dark Knight (2008) adds 5 more successes to the superhero list, whereas Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019) only got 3 votes, making it a 2.5% and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) added 7 more successes, this is 5.8%, to the author’s films group.
If we sum both superhero movies, we get a total of 37 successes out of 121 observations, while if we sum both author movies, we get a total of 10 successes out of 121 observations. Although the pie chart alone proves that superhero movies are chosen more often than author movies, we realized one last sample T-Test to support our claim. The null hypothesis was that there is no difference between the percentage that chooses superhero movies and the percentage that chooses author movies, and the alternative was that there is a significant difference between the percentage that chooses superhero movies and the percentage that chooses author movies.
To gather this information, we decided to label superhero movies as our Sample 1 (ρ1) and author movies as our Sample 2 (ρ2), with Sample 1 having 37 successes out of 121 observations and Sample 2 having 10 successes out of 121 observations. To run the hypothesis test we used the formula: Ho:ρ1-ρ2=0, Ha: ρ1-ρ2≠0.
The sample difference obtained is 0.22, the test statistic is 4.39, the standard error is 0.05 and the P- value is 0.0001. As 0.22 is different from 0 and the P- value is not larger than a 0.05 level of significance, we are able to reject this null hypothesis. A difference between the preference of superhero or author movies exists, and we are 95% confident that the interval from 0.13 to 0.32 contains the proportion that prefers to watch a superhero movie over an author movie.
Conclusions:
While analyzing the data from the pop culture fans survey and the different tests applied to it, we were able to answer our research questions but also raised some more uncertainties. The majority of the participants agreed that Superhero Fiction is a valid cinema subgenre and therefore should be considered cinema, even if it does not align with the points of view from some of the most well-known directors. Martin Scorsese claimed that “cinema is an art form that brings you the unexpected” and, as in superhero movies “nothing is at risk,” and this is why it cannot be considered cinema. In addition, he explains that “cinema is about aesthetic, emotional and spiritual revelation” with characters that are mostly complex with “contradictory and paradoxical natures,” and, as superhero fiction and franchise films lack these characteristics, he affirms, they should not be considered as a part of the Seventh Art.
Nevertheless, if we were to pick the latest Superhero Fiction movie to the date, which is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023), Scorsese’s view is easily rejected as fast as the movie starts, because everything the characters know is at risk, there is aesthetic, emotional, and spiritual revelation, and the characters completely go through a complex contradiction and paradoxical natures.
Even if this was not the case, when a person chooses to watch a movie they mostly do it to be entertained, as we were able to prove in the inferences made. For these reasons, and some more that could be explored on further studies, we are able to affirm that Superhero Fiction movies are cinema, and as they are a part of the Seventh Art, they are, indeed, art itself. A superhero movie might not have the color palette that Wes Anderson can provide, or the perfectionism that Stanley Kubrick puts on his movies, nor the different techniques that Martin Scorsese himself could bring to the film set.
However, a superhero movie like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023) or the controversial Avengers: Endgame (2019) can bring the unexpected to their spectators, it can imply their deepest emotions and make them go from laugh to cry with a snap, identify with the ethical and moral dilemmas of a talking racoon, and look at everyday concepts such as friendship and sacrifice from an unusual point of view. In said movies – and in every Superhero Fiction project– everything is at risk, even if we as spectators know that what we are watching is not part of our reality, we understand that the ordinary world in that movie is in danger. Finally, a Superhero Fiction film is capable of portraying aesthetic, emotional and spiritual revelation, not in the way that the conventional Seventh Art is portrayed but portrayed at last.
This study, then, clearly shows that a Superhero Fiction project can and should be considered cinema. The survey results showed that every work of audiovisual art is cinema, whether it is a superhero movie or the last film by Wes Anderson. The perception of the audience is very important when we evaluate what can and cannot be cinema because, after all, they are the ones that will sit down and watch the audiovisual project and say, when convenient, “man, this is cinema.”
References
“All-Time Top Box-Office Films by Decade and Year.” Filmsite, www.filmsite.org/boxoffice2.html. Accessed 17 May 2023.
Ho, Jasu. “Martin Scorsese: I Said Marvel Movies Aren’t Cinema. Let Me Explain.” The New York Times, 5 Nov. 2019, https://bit.ly/41FHY9V. Accessed 24 Apr. 2023.
Joseph, Sarah. “What Makes a Movie Successful: Using Analytics to Study Box Office Hits.” May 2019, https://bit.ly/3NfNQT7. Accessed 24 Apr. 2023.