Heroes not so super at box office

Someone needs to rescue the superheroes.

Hollywood's crimefighters and caped crusaders have fallen down on the job this summer, racking up less-than-muscular box-office grosses. The numbers look impressive -- there are lots of zeros -- but they hide a growing dissatisfaction among moviegoers, who may be losing interest in what once was a can't-miss genre.

One of the first omens came with "Thor," starring Chris Hemsworth as the hammer-heaving Norse god. Despite a decent opening weekend gross of $65 million, the film suffered from negative reviews and is now at $176 million. That sounds big enough until you compare it to the $318 million of "Iron Man," which belongs to the same Marvel comics story line; "Iron Man 2" ended with a split-second "Thor" teaser.

Then came "X-Men: First Class." Whether because it lacked the hunky Hugh Jackman (he has only a cameo) or because its story line felt overly familiar, it opened with $55 million, one of the lowest in the franchise's history. And despite excellent reviews, it had the lowest attendance of any "X-Men" film, according to BoxOfficeMojo, which did not release specific figures.

The latest flop is "Green Lantern," starring Ryan Reynolds, which opened to downright hostile reviews (a dismal 26 percent positive at RottenTomatoes.com) and a disappointing $53.2 million. That's worse than the new "X-Men" and even worse than, say, "Ghost Rider."

Next up are "Captain America: The First Avenger," about a Nazi-conquering supersolider, and "Cowboys & Aliens," about -- well, take a guess. At this rate, they'll need all the help they can get.