We shouldn't forget that when the MCU started there was no expectation that it would become the cultural milestone that it has, not to mention that audiences and fans could only hope that it would reach the places that it got to with Endgame.
Now expectations are completely different from what they were in 08, for fans and studios alike.
The fans know the heights that can be reached with this storytelling, and corporations have a history of expecting incessant exponential growth. Eventually if they're not giving the fans what they want to pay for they will cut their losses and try a different tack, but they love to bleed a cash cow dry.
Right. And it's also worth remembering that the Avengers -- Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, friggin'
HAWKEYE -- all
were "second tier" characters before their big movie hits. I mean, yeah, everyone knew who they were, but prior to that, the X-Men were the dominant title, and Spider-Man was the other one. Which is exactly why Avi Arad sold those rights to Fox and Sony, respectively, before Marvel was seriously making its own movies.
It was Marvel taking a
risk on "B-list" characters, AND directors who didn't have a huge portfolio of directorial work or at least not action-based directorial work that led them to profit.
Iron Man 1 was
risky. Hell, the entirety of Phase 1 was
risky. It could've wound up like, well, like the Snyderverse. Then over time, Marvel developed its "house style," but still was able to let directors do some of their own stuff (although, not all -- remember that Edgar Wright was originally directing Ant-Man, and he left because he wasn't quite vibing with the Marvel "house style").
But you're right that audiences are fundamentally in a different place now than they were in '08 and for Phase 1. They
expect the big, organized "phase" a la Phase 4. Currently, I think Phase 5 (we're still in 5, right?) feels a lot like, well, Phase 1. It's a collection of mostly disconnected stories introducing various characters without much of a larger context. In some cases, they're buttressed by supporting legacy characters (e.g., Hawkeye, She-Hulk), but for the most part, it's all just back to the beginning of the story.
But audiences have grown to expect that it's all rising action and climax all the time. We're a culture now that is conditioned to wait thru credits not because we care about the 4,700 CG animators on the f/x team appearing in 10-point font on the screen, but because we're waiting for that signpost scene of what's to come, how it all connects, something to give that ominous sense of big things a-brewin'. But it's worth remembering that at the end of Iron Man, the only thing we had was Sam Jackson saying "Let me tell you about the Avengers Initiative," while Cap's shield was stuck up on the wall. That was it. That's where we are currently, I think, but audiences just...don't accept it, or at least aren't excited by it. They've had 15 years of Marvel films and TV to wear down that sense of "OH MAN! SUPERHERO MOVIES ARE SO AWESOME, RIGHT?!?!?!" and now it's more like "Yeah, but why should I care?"
I think that's healthy, and it's understandable, and it may even ultimately produce better superhero movies (if the studios' backs can be broken by WGA/SAG-AFTRA, and whichever other unions follow suit), but for now, I think it's left audiences just feeling underwhelmed.
