Summary
The Marvelsfinally made its theatrical debut after plentiful speculation about its dismal chances of success. Now, theCaptain Marvelsequel has unfortunately not surprised its detractors, crawling its way to a worrying new box office low for the MCU.
DespiteThe Marvelsbeing one of the most unique premises for an MCU sequel, the predictions for the film’s performance were pessimistic ahead of its release. Serving as a sequel toCaptain Marvel,the film stars Brie Larson’s titular hero returning to share the lead with a now-grown Monica Rambeau, played by Teyonah Parris, andMs. Marvel’s Iman Vellani, despite the young star initiallythinking she only had a short cameo inThe Marvels. While Samuel L. Jackson and other stars would join this triumvirate of talented actresses for the follow-up to the billion-dollar 2019 success, early reactions to trailers and the general chatter surroundingCaptain Marvel 2suggested it would perform poorly.
The most discouraging last-minute estimations came in afterThe Marvelsopened with MCU-low Thursday box office totals, and now those predictions have been made manifest.The Hollywood Reporternotes thatThe Marvels, which was produced and promoted on an alleged budget of around $274.8 million, only brought in about $47 million domestically, making it the worst domestic opening in the MCU after falling short of the $55.4 million debut of 2008’sThe Incredible Hulk,not adjusted for inflation. The Marvelsdebut also worryingly falls short of competitor DC’sThe Flash,whose $55million opening on a liberal $220 million budget estimate was widely considered the biggest failure in the genre until now.
This is a far cry fromCaptain Marvel,which did an unadjusted $153.4 million domestic opening on its way to the billion-dollar mark.The Marvelsdidn’t fare much better in the international market, bringing in $63.3 million from all other markets for a combined total of $110.3 million internationally, which most MCU openings have equaled or exceeded from domestic box office alone. While pessimisticprojections forThe Marvelsdropped even furtherjust before release, the film’s opening performance fell short of their estimates. While the film seems to have taken overThe Flash’s negative title, it does seem to be foretelling a similarly ruinous fate for the DCEU curtain callAquaman 2,another troubled sequel to a similarly successful billion-dollar film.
The bane ofThe Marvelscan be attributed to several factors dragging the entire MCU into the mire recently. However, regarding specific issues affecting the film, there’s a twofold answer: a lack of promotion and negative discussion surrounding the film. The first blow can be chalked up to the SAG-AFTRA strike and policies that stopped any of the film’s three protagonists from appealing to its intended audience, leading to a majority of moviegoers being the contingent of male fans that go to every MCU release, despite a female-led project with a female director at the helm that wanted more women in the theaters. The second and more damaging blow comes fromThe Marvelsdebuting with a low Rotten Tomatoes scoreand drawing negative word of mouth all across social media.
This disappointing outing has virtually assured thatThe Marvelswill be the last traditional Marvel movie. The studio has been feeling the heat lately, and a sweeping return to more conventional production methods has already started with the franchise’s Disney Plus shows, starting with the recently overhauled production ofDaredevil: Born Again.Anyone behind the scenes who doubted that the MCU’s big-budget films would follow suit has learned a pretty costly lesson over the weekend.
The Marvelsis currently showing in theaters nationwide.
The Marvels
Carol Danvers teams up with Monica Rambeau and Kamala Khan in The Marvels. As the three heroes find their powers entangled, they must work together to stop Dar-Benn from enacting her evil plan.
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