It’s official: If it’s not made by Marvel, comic movies these days are merely going through the motions. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is set to lose its crown as #1 film, effective this past weekend, only its second week after release. And to a comedy no less! (But when it comes to Seth Rogen, anything is possible—remember This Is The End?)

Part of this predicament might have to do with the visibility factor of the sequel’s core team of talent. While Mark Webb accomplished the unthinkable, making a not-terrible reboot of the Spider-Man property a mere 5 years after the conclusion of the prior franchise, this has been his only claim to fame other than the fairly remarkable debut of (500) Days of Summer. Similarly, lead actor Andrew Garfield is arguably damn irresistible in these films, but other than Spidey, Andrew’s grandest achievement was his Golden Globe-nominated supporting turn in the quiet masterpiece The Social Network. Again: these guys are amazing and fierce talents, but when we’re talking numbers, the fact that Social Network and Summer both happened about 5 years ago comes into play. We are very excited to see what Garfield does next, but ultimately, it is Emma Stone who carries Amazing 2, since she is by far the most visible star in the cast. While this surely serves as a boon to attract more female moviegoers to accompany their boyfriends, the boyfriends themselves might have trouble finding a reason to see this sequel, other than the fact that it’s Spider-Man.

And that’s just it: the Spider-Man filmmakers need to realize that the comic book/’event’ factor alone is no longer enough to dominate at the box office, especially for a sequel. Just look at Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a Marvel-made sequel that will certainly outperform Spider-Man’s second installment. The Webbed One’s competitors, Cap included, are outsmarting him thanks to the brilliant marketing strategy their studios have put in place. The Marvel movies made outside of the Spider-Man universe, i.e., the ones not made at Sony but at Marvel Entertainment, a strong-arm of Disney, have the luxury of tying in with one another in crossovers like The Avengers. This makes the films more than the films themselves; a part of something much bigger. And while many are quite over seeing Samuel L. Jackson muck it up as Nick Fury, many more love every single minute of it.

Add to all this the lost and weary Jamie Foxx and Paul Giamatti, the weak-link villains as descried in our film review, and what do you get? A Spider that gets stepped on by the Neighbors.

—DH