Hopes thatThe Marvelscould manage to turn around its disastrous opening weekend and second weekend collapse were never really that high. Now, as the MCU’s last family-friendly theatrical release until 2025 ends its run, bosses at Marvel Studios will be licking their wounds. The latest film in theMarvel Cinematic Universesuffered the humiliation of taking just $197 million worldwide, with only a few million expected to be added to that in the coming week. As perVariety, the studio said in a note to the press:
“With ‘The Marvels’ box office now winding down, we will stop weekend reporting of international/global grosses on this title.”
The previous holder of the record was 2008’sThe Incredible Hulk, which ended its theatrical run at just over $260 million. However, while the Edward Norton-led movie had a budget of $150 million,The Marvelshas a much higher $220 million, making the total takings at the box office even more painful for Marvel Studios and Disney. Somewhat ironically,The Marvelsdid not fare badly with audiences, and managed to gain an 82% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes compared to 69% achieved byThe Incredible Hulk.
After a complicated start to the year with the release ofAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumaniaand the subsequent accusations against Jonathan Major, Marvel Studios seemed to find some peace thanks to James Gunn and his last adventure with the company before dedicating himself completely to building a new DCU.Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3was a smash hit, in addition to receiving praise from fans and critics, something which the Paul Rudd-led Ant-Man threequel sorely lacked.
However, between the delays caused by strikes by writers and actors, and later the criticism ofSecret Invasion, the situation once again became unfavorable for the franchise. Thesecond season ofLokirenewed fans' hopesfor the MCU’s recovery, but then, in another rollercoaster of ups and downs, the release ofThe Marvelsproved how even the once untouchable franchise is just as fallible as any other. And the situation did not get any better.
The Marvels
According toThe Hollywood Reporter,The Marvelssuffered a drop of 77.8% during its second weekend, becoming the worst performance of a Marvel Studios film in its second weekend in theaters. But that’s not all, the outlet reveals that this would also make it the biggest drop for a superhero movie in all of Hollywood’s history, surpassing even struggling DC offering such asBlack AdamandThe Flash.
In this second weekend,The Marvelshad to compete withThe Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which took first place at the box office as expected on its debut. However, the collapse of The Marvels, coming on the back of a very disappointing opening, was something that many had not expected to happen.
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Superhero Fatigue, MCU Setbacks, or Just a Mix of Various Circumstances?
The Marvelsis being crowned the Marvel Studios movie with the largest drop in its second weekend, and surprisingly, the previous record was held by another MCU film that premiered this year.Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumaniahad a 69.9% drop during its second weekend, after failing to quite live up to the hype of its inclusion of Kang the Conqueror.
But the MCU isn’t the only one that faced problems at the box office this year. DC had it even worse.Shazam! Fury of the Gods,The FlashandBlue Beetleall flopped, barely able to recover their budget and producing huge losses for Warner Bros. Discovery. While many producers, screenwriters or directors like James Gunn believe that there isno such thing as superhero fatigue, there is no doubt that the genre needs to offer new types of stories and surprise audiences again.
Naturally, there are other circumstances that have conspired to heighten the issues faced by Marvel Studios and others in recent years. The Covid pandemic shutdowns led to a huge increase in the popularity of streaming platforms, and this has seen cinemas struggle to consistently bring audiences back through their doors. Hollywood strikes have added months of delays to already pushed back movies and TV shows, and for the kind of interconnected storytelling on Marvel’s books, long gaps between projects can be almost as damaging as too many arriving simultaneously. Whatever the reason behind the current misfortunes of the world’s largest franchise, something has to be done to entice people back into theaters again by the timeDeadpool 3arrives in summer 2024.
