The Marvels Failed Because Women Did Not See It, Only Men Did
Now going into its second weekend in theaters, the MCU’s latest production, The Marvels, is facing a difficult road ahead if it hopes to simply break even with its production cost. While people around the world have been speculating why the film was a box office bomb during its opening weekend, a poll that we here at Giant Freakin Robot conducted on X illuminates one major possibility. Despite being a female-led film, those responding to the poll reveal that – for the most part – their theaters brought in a predominantly male crowd.
Women Aren’t Going To See The Marvels
As our table breaks down, the female turnout for The Marvels was atrocious, with folks saying that – on average – they spotted less than 50 percent of women in the seats at their cinema. 5.3% of those responding to the poll say that they believe there was 50 percent or more of a female audience while 6.6 percent say 80 percent or more. Despite some theaters boasting that 80 percent or more turned out, they couldn’t even dream to offset the 25.7 percent of folks who saw less than 50 percent of women during their screening.
The Marvels Is Led By A Female Cast Of Superheroes
The lack of women supporting Marvel’s latest feature is a huge bummer considering that the film boasted a leading trio of female characters. Aside from titles like Captain America and Black Widow, which served as standalone stories for the titular heroes, The Marvels was the studio’s first foray into an all-female ensemble. An incredibly important piece of history within the MCU, the fact that the film is sinking at the box office points to rough times ahead for similar productions.
Brie Larson Returns As Carol Danvers
In The Marvels, Brie Larson reprises her role as Captain Marvel aka Carol Danvers, and goes on an unwanted and unexpected adventure with Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau and Iman Vellani’s Ms. Marvel. When the trio discover that their powers are interlinked, finding themselves swapping locations each time they use their abilities, they embark on a mission to discover why. Other fan-favorite characters including Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury also appear in the feature alongside a supporting cast that includes Zawe Ashton, Park Seo-Joon, and Randall Park.
The Movie Is Already A Box Office Flop
The box office blunder of The Marvels is really the first big hit the studio has taken, aside from the low show of fans for 2021’s Eternals. Typically, rival studio, DC, is the one constantly finding themselves in trouble as, within the last year alone, they’ve had flop after flop. With the MCU trying to land on its feet, it has much more than just The Marvels to worry about during its next phases.
The studio has already pushed back a handful of titles from their original premieres with recent announcements made that will see movement on Blade, Deadpool 3, and Captain America: Brave New World. Meanwhile, there are the issues caused by actor Jonathan Majors, who was set to play the universe’s next big bad – Kang the Conqueror. Facing a slurry of assault allegations, Majors’ future with Marvel is completely up in the air, despite his appearance in the second season of Loki.
Can The Marvels Still Land A Comeback?
The good news for The Marvels is that there’s plenty of time for it to make a full comeback. As we saw with Disney and Pixar’s animated summer flick, Elemental, just because a film has a rough start, that doesn’t mean it will stay that way. Hopefully, over the next few weeks, more folks – including women – will purchase tickets for the final MCU film of the year.
