Disney Stopping Bad Reviews For The Marvels?
Thanks more to offscreen shenanigans than anything else, the Captain Marvel movie ended up generating plenty of controversy and was subsequently review-bombed on popular sites such as Rotten Tomatoes. Now, the following post on X (formerly known as Twitter) has confirmed that Disney effectively has a review embargo in place for The Marvels, the follow-up Captain Marvel adventure that will team this cosmic character with popular teen superhero Ms. Marvel. While it’s possible that the House of Mouse is trying to sidestep another round of review-bombing, there is also a serious chance the movie is a mess and they wish to hide that fact as long as possible.
The First The Marvels Reviews Won’t Roll In Until 3 Days Before The Release
As you can tell from these dates, it will be entirely possible for fans to read various critics’ reviews ahead of The Marvels coming out, but it’s a very narrow window: the reviews drop on November 8, and the film officially releases on Friday, November 10.
However, diehard Marvel fans are likelier to preorder their tickets ahead of time to watch the film as early as Thursday, November 9 in most locations. Put it together and it really does look like Disney wants to get as many pre-order tickets for The Marvels as possible before negative reviews fully kill the already-tepid momentum of this film.
Box Office Projections Are Exceptionally Low
We say the momentum is tepid because right now, the box office projections for The Marvels are looking quite grim. According to Deadline, the sequel is expected to gross somewhere between $75 to $80 million dollars in its opening weekend. In comparison, that’s about half of what Captain Marvel brought in during its first weekend, and if The Marvels starts this slow, it is unlikely to earn over a billion dollars at the box office the way its predecessor did.
Superhero Fatigue May Be To Blame
There are a variety of reasons why the projections for The Marvels are so low, including the fact that the ongoing actor’s strike means that big-name stars like Brie Larson and Samuel L. Jackson can’t promote the upcoming film. That means that major events such as New York City Comic Con that could have hyped fans up were left underutilized by Disney. Additionally, the subpar quality of films like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania may have left many hardcore Marvel fans to determine they’ll stream it later (maybe) rather than venture to their local theater.
Those Who Skipped The Disney+ Shows May Feel Left Out
On top of that, audiences may be wary of The Marvels because it’s part of the latest Marvel trend requiring viewers to be well-steeped in Marvel miasma. After all, the film has Carol Danvers linking up with Monica Rambeau (last seen in WandaVision) and Kamala Khan (last seen in Ms. Marvel).
It feels a bit like assigning homework for Disney to ask Marvel fans to watch two completely different shows just to understand their latest film, and more and more fans are deciding to skip school (or the movies, in this case) altogether.
Does Brie Larson’s The Marvels Stand A Chance?
There is always a chance the actor’s strike will be resolved before the November 10 release date of the Marvels, allowing actors to promote the film and generally goose those box office projections upwards. There is even a chance the movie will become a sleeper hit and actually gain more fans over time thanks to strong word-of-mouth.
Right now, though, Disney is doing its best to cover critics’ mouths altogether with this review embargo of The Marvels, and that’s rarely the sign of a good movie.
