The Marvels Box Office Failure Signals New Direction For MCU?
With the MCU announcing a massive delay schedule for its upcoming films, many would have thought that audiences would turn out to catch the latest installment, The Marvels, on the big screen during its opening weekend. Unfortunately, Deadline and just about every other news outlet out there have been sadly reporting bombing numbers for the female-led superhero flick. Raking in a disappointing $47 million at the domestic box office with only a $63.3 million gain overseas, the opening only managed to make a $110.3 million dent in its $200 million production budget.
Ratings Are Low
Now that the cat (or in this case, the Flerken) is out of the bag, it’s going to be hard for The Marvels to pull in those audiences who were already on the fence about catching the film in theaters. The title has now found itself as one of the few movies from the MCU to hit a “B” rating among the critics of CinemaScore, keeping company with this year’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and the star-studded Eternals. It also shows a huge decline in financial earnings following that of 2019’s Captain Marvel.
The Sequel Can’t Live Up To Captain Marvel
The film that kicked off what it meant to be a female superhero in the male-dominated MCU, Captain Marvel saw Brie Larson’s titular character receive her own standalone film. The title managed to collect $1.13 billion globally during its theatrical run, a number that will be hard for The Marvels to reach following such a rocky beginning. However, it should be noted that Captain Marvel had a big boost of help from Avengers: Infinity War, which teased the film in the post-credit scene and wisely planted it between Infinity War and Endgame.
The Hollywood Strikes Didn’t Help Any
There are many reasons why The Marvels didn’t have a solid chance at a shining weekend box office opening. For one, the SAG-AFTRA strike was resolved just in time for the stars of the film to be unable to make their promotional tour, thus leaving it all on the shoulders of the creative team. While this included director Nia DaCosta, the filmmaker even previously made comments about how people wanted to hear the hype straight from the mouths of the three stars – Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, and Iman Vellani.
The Avengers Are Nowhere To Be Found
Beyond that, while Captain Marvel got some help from an Avengers film, The Marvels was essentially floating out in space all on its own. While Disney+ shows like Secret Invasion and Ms. Marvel helped to form some of the stories that would be told in The Marvels, there was no aid from other films this year. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was the final installment in James Gunn’s trilogy and Quantumania gave us more of Kang the Conqueror but previews didn’t solidify what audiences could expect from the big bad of The Marvels.
Is The MCU About To Make Some Major Changes?
Last week, news came that Captain America: Brave New World would be facing a release date pushback along with multiple reshoots, and that other MCU titles including Blade, Deadpool 3, and Thunderbolts would also not celebrate their original opening days. With the allegations against Jonathan Majors now going to court, and The Marvels opening weekend flop on their minds, it’s possible that the MCU may go down a completely different road for what’s to come from the franchise. Of course, only time will tell.
