SAN DIEGO — There will be a big absence at Comic-Con International this year and, chances are, star power might face an Avengers-level crisis.
Marvel Studios, the convention’s biggest attention-grabber every year, has said it is not coming to San Diego. It leaves a big hole in the lineup, along with a few other studios that said they are staying away.
Another complication: The actors guild could go on strike soon, which would prevent stars from appearing on panels for upcoming blockbusters. Writers, who have been on strike since May, will be missing.
For the average San Diegan who doesn’t go to the convention, it might be hard to tell if anything is different. There will still be promotional wraps of buildings downtown, a bunch of free installations outside and more than 135,000 people jamming into restaurants, Airbnbs and hotels.
Carl Winston, founding director of the Payne School of Hospitality & Tourism Management at San Diego State University, said it’s important to remember Comic-Con takes place in July when the hospitality industry doesn’t necessarily need help attracting tourists.
He said it’s unlikely the tourism industry will notice any change, and it would be odd if attendees suddenly had a change of heart about the convention. Winston said the appeal of the event goes beyond Hollywood, which has embraced the convention as a place to promote movies and TV shows.
“The draw is almost tribal,” he said of attendees who rapidly buy up badges in hours.
Winston said there’s always the concern something could go wrong with Comic-Con, considering other cities would ingest Kryptonite for the chance to host the pop culture juggernaut. But he said he doesn’t see recent events as a reason to worry.
“It’s the granddaddy of (comic conventions). It’s almost in our DNA as San Diegans,” he said. “In my opinion, I can’t imagine it going anywhere. It took us several decades to build up that fantastic reputation, and I don’t think it’ll die because a super studio like Marvel says, ‘No thank you’ this year.”
Headlines in Hollywood publications haven’t been great. Variety referred to Marvel and others staying away as “Comic-Con Crisis” and U.K. film blog Flickering Myth called it “Comic-Con 2023 in shambles.” There are real concerns for the future of the convention: Space constraints, effects from two years of online-only events during the pandemic and other pop culture brands, like “Star Wars,” holding their own conventions. Yet people on the ground aren’t seeing a crisis.
Manchester Grand Hyatt General Manager Daniel Kuperschmid said he has yet to see any room cancellations because of changes in the studio lineup at Comic-Con. At 1,628 rooms, the Hyatt is San Diego County’s single biggest hotel.
“It would be a shock to me,” if Comic-Con somehow collapsed, he said. “There are loyal fans and Comic-Con as a brand is really impressive. At the moment, I’m not seeing cancellations.”
Comic book super-fan Taimur Dar, who writes for comics culture publication The Beat, said he can’t imagine fans not going because of studio cancellations. Dar figures he’s been to more than 100 conventions and says the event is about more than just seeing actors or big studio announcements.
“It’s almost like summer camp. It’s people you haven’t seen in a while coming together from across the country,” he said. “There’s that communal aspect of it that’s a huge draw.”
Outside of Marvel, these are other studios not attending:
- Disney-owned Lucasfilm, which hasn’t held a Comic-Con panel for a decade, said it isn’t going — although they often have a presence on the convention floor. Last year, they had a large display of costumes used in “Star Wars” TV shows.
- Sony Pictures, which has its own Spider-Man universe of movies, is skipping Comic-Con. It has a movie coming out in the fall called “Kraven the Hunter” about a Spider-Man villain.
- Universal Pictures will keep away but typically has a smaller role, if any, at the convention.
- Netflix is also skipping the event, despite having a new season of “The Witcher” coming out.
- HBO is skipping but it’s a tad confusing. Its streaming service, Max, intends on being there so it’s unclear what shows might be promoted. HBO built a castle last year in downtown San Diego to promote its new “Game of Thrones” show.
At this point, there’s a good chance Marvel’s age-old rival DC might take advantage of the absences to come out swinging. Although, Dar said the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned studio is undergoing a major overhaul — with director James Gunn taking over and hitting restart on its shared universe — so it might not have as much to talk about if they pack Hall H.
Disney-owned Marvel Studios is the most successful film franchise in history, which now includes 32 films and nine TV series. One of its films, 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame,” is the second-highest-grossing movie of all time, said Box Office Mojo, behind “Avatar.” It has four films in the top 10 biggest earners.
Yet, it’s finally started having a few misfires. Some of its Disney+ shows, such as “Ms. Marvel,” haven’t thrilled audiences and its recent string of films — “Eternals,” “Thor: Love and Thunder” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” — were not as financially successful as Marvel is typically expected to be. Although, it should be noted, other studios probably stay up at night dreaming about making as much money as those three films.
“There’s a lot of burnout with Marvel Studios if I’m being honest,” Dar said.
He also said the studios that aren’t going haven’t been a gigantic presence at the convention in recent years, so it’s not like a panic has set in with journalists gearing up to go.
There are many unknowns about why the studios pulled out, with most just confirming to Hollywood industry publications they wouldn’t be there. Comic-Con did not respond to a request for comment on this article, but said last week — with the threat of the actors union going on strike — that it was working hard to make the event “as fun, educational, and celebratory as in years past.”
With actors possibly not attending, it’s possible studios are just cutting their losses before they start spending big on Hall H presentations. Winston said studios spend millions of dollars on Comic-Con so they might just be making a risk-management decision with strikes affecting their presentations.
It isn’t the first time Marvel Studios has stayed away. Marvel skipped out on Comic-Con in 2018, only to come back and steal the show at the last two in-person conventions.
Convention watchers should have a better idea in the next week or so what this year’s Comic-Con will look like. The SAG-AFTRA contract was set to expire Saturday, but on Friday the 160,000-member union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which bargains on behalf of the studios, agreed to continue talks past the contract deadline to allow more time for the two sides to reach a deal. The current contract will be extended to July 12.
Starting Wednesday or Thursday, Comic-Con will begin releasing schedules of panels which should confirm which big brands will be there.
The convention opens with a preview night on July 19 and runs through July 23.
