“Feeling the excitement in the theater, hearing the applause or gasps from the audience, is always a reminder of what these films and characters mean to the fans,” Feige continued. “Being there on opening night for ‘Avengers: Endgame,’ hearing the crowd, is something I’ll never forget. Also, the feedback we got after ‘Black Panther’ came out. I never thought in my wildest dreams that it would have the kind of impact that it did.”
There’s a reason why Marvel movies have sparked such heated debates among film fans, a reason people are interested in what legends like Martin Scorsese think about these films. If a movie can cause the kind of applause and thunderous reactions in theaters that something like “Avengers: Endgame” did, or “Black Panther,” it’s understandable to want validation, confirmation that you’re not just getting excited about a silly superhero movie, but a cultural moment. The biggest thing Marvel Studios has done is think about the collective moviegoing experience first, creating (sometimes painfully obvious) specific moments to trigger applause. Given the monumental success of “Avengers: Endgame” and its box office recordthe approach pays off.
This also explains a little bit why the MCU feels so different from “Endgame”: The moviegoing experience has changed since the pandemic. Whether it’s the thought that you can just wait to see the latest Marvel movie on Disney+, or that the big shift during lockdown has simply made us change the way we experience cinema. It’s a shame, but hopefully Feige and Marvel Studios can recapture that spark before the next big “Avengers” movie.
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