The Marvel that wasn’t

Disney’s latest Marvel film, The Marvels, is shaping up to be a super disappointment. It took in an estimated $47 million at the domestic box office this past weekend, marking the lowest MCU movie opening in Disney’s 14-year history of owning Marvel Studios.

What went wrong?... The Marvels is a sequel to Captain Marvel, which generated $153 million in opening-weekend domestic ticket sales in 2019. But, unlike its predecessor, The Marvels doesn’t appear on track to recoup its production and advertising budget, which stands at a combined ~$275 million.

In explaining The Marvels’ poor results, some analysts point to a range of problems in pre-production, including scripting oversights that reportedly led to four weeks of reshoots. Many also cite the recently-concluded actors strike as a major issue, since stars like Brie Larson weren’t able to promote the film.

• Others contend that Marvel has oversaturated the superhero genre by releasing more content than a narcissist who just discovered TikTok – 33 films and a dozen-plus TV shows since 2008, to be exact – and causing the general public to lose interest.

👀 Looking ahead… Disney has delayed the next phase of the MCU due to the recently concluded actors strike, with only Deadpool 3 scheduled to be released in 2024.