Last month I saw a post/ad that said:
Robert Downey Jr. and Timothée Chalamet reveal they have branded the same-day release of ‘AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY’ and ‘DUNE 3’ as: “DUNESDAY”
You know, I’m pretty sure nobody cares about Marvel or RDJ anymore.
At least, not outside social media echo chambers whining about Snyder cuts.
That ship sailed long ago.
Disney accountant lies with budgets always come out eventually, like with Deadpool and Wolverine. That movie’s REAL budget was way higher than originally reported, and so it barely made the billion+ gross movie profitable, if it was profitable at all, by their own math and standards.
Fan service nostalgia only goes so far.
And it all reminds me of Dan Kennedy’s:
“This won’t always be here.”
Those 5 words reign supreme in all facets of life.
When you have a good thing going, don’t let it go easily or out of temporary frustration. Fight harder, serve your people harder, do what you got to do to not get bored, or take it for granted, or give up a good thing just because you get bored of it or tired of it.
Many creators & publishers have learned this the hard way.
Chris Claremont, for example, made the Uncanny X-Men title the highest selling comicbook in the world but then after 17 years he up and quit when he thought he was being disrespected. It was a temporary thing, and even he admitted he’d have done things differently in hindsight.
But then Marvel brought him back to the X-Men a few years later and guess what?
Nobody cared anymore.
He let momentum stop and the fans moved on and there was no going back.
The continuity he spent 17-years building was already contaminated by other writers & greedy (metrics-driven, not fan-driven, I will add) editors and investors to the point where, in his own words at the time: “I look at the X-Men and I think, ‘this is my entire working life, and it’s taken them 18 months to gut it like a fish…'” – as well as kill off a tremendous amount of the cast and context he’d carefully crafted.
The fans had all moved on.
Same thing is happening to the movies.
Marvel Studios did a couple great ‘phases’ then started catering to stupid shyt nobody except bored social activists on social media care about. And so they can bring back the Russo bros as directors, Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Tobey Maguire, Hugh Jackman, the X2 cast, etc and it will no doubt draw people.
But I doubt it’ll be the box office profit they expect.
We will see soon enough though, won’t we?
I was discussing this with Stefania a while back in the car while driving her to the dentist. Specifically, about Email Players and why after 15 years I refuse to get complacent or ‘bored’ with it. If anything, I work harder on it than ever before.
It is my “X-Men.”
I don’t “need” it financially these days.
But I built it, grew it, bled for it for a long time.
The newsletter still gets tons of testimonials, especially this month’s February 2026 issue I spent months on.
And it also still continues to change lives & businesses each month.
And while the growing number of merchant account & shipping (for my international customers especially) frustrations are growing each month, I do not take it lightly or for granted. If anything, I look at those things not as irritations so much like I used to, but opportunities, they are a blessing and a gift – to SPURN it would be stupid.
I highly suggest you take the same attitude with your business.
‘Ol Earl Nightingale wasn’t just whistlin’ dixie when he said:
“Familiarity breeds contempt”
There is a line in the movie City Slickers where Billy Crystal’s midlife crisis character (a radio ad salesman) is asked if he wants to quit his job that was clearly not giving him any fulfillment or excitement before his adventures driving a herd of cattle in the movie.
His answer:
“No, I’m just going to do it better. I’m going to do everything better.”
OK, end of sermon.
Last month I saw something else far more interesting than Marvel.
Specifically, in the PS of one of the great Bob Bly’s daily emails, where he said:
“Many marketers have used the polarization principle with great success. IMHO, the modern master of polarization marketing is the brilliant Ben Settle.”
If you want to learn how I go about that with email marketing & copywriting, see the paid Email Players newsletter here:
Ben Settle
