Steven Spielberg Thinks Superhero Movies Will Go 'the Way of the Western'

Steven Spielberg has put in nearly 40 years in the director's chair and has delivered blockbuster films. If anybody knows how the movie industry works, it's him.

Playing Hollywood soothsayer during an interview with Associated Press, the Oscar-winning filmmaker - whose latest project is the Cold War spy film "Bridge of Spies" - predicted that the decline of superhero films is imminent as moviegoers' enthusiasm for the trope wanes.

"There will be a time when the superhero movie goes the way of the Western," Spielberg said, adding, "It doesn't mean there won't be another occasion where the Western comes back and the superhero movie someday returns."

Marvel's "Avengers" and Batman reboot "The Dark Knight," and its sequel "The Dark Knight Rises," rank among the top 10 highest-grossing box office films of all time. This summer's "Avengers" sequel, "Age of Ultron," came in the No. 2 spot in earnings for 2015 releases behind "Jurassic World."

He continues: "Of course, right now the superhero movie is alive and thriving. I'm only saying that these cycles have a finite time in popular culture. There will come a day when the mythological stories are supplanted by some other genre that possibly some young filmmaker is just thinking about discovering for all of us."