by One of the worst box office disasters in the history of the MCU, The Marvels was so bad that it was a historically appalling turning point for Marvel Studios.
Cause of The Marvel`s Record-Breaking Box Office Disaster
Since the triumph of Avengers: Endgame, Disney has placed a large wager on the MCU. Shang-Chi is the first Multiverse Saga film that reportedly had a budget under $200 million, estimated at $150 million.
After spending $274.8 million on the production, The Marvels, according to Forbes, was expected to be a big hit for The House of Mouse. Naturally, this was made possible by a $55 million grant from the United Kingdom to produce the picture there, resulting in an actual budget of just about $219.8 million.
After playing in theatres for a while, the film brought in a meager $206.06 million globally, of which $84.5 million came from domestic sales. As the first MCU film to see its final worldwide box office receipts fall short of its budget, Captain Marvel 2 is a dismal milestone.
For comparison, most of Marvel Studios’ other films have been able to double their budget at the box office at least, meaning that no other MCU film has even approached this degree of financial catastrophe.
The Marvels also became the fifth movie in the MCU to make less than double its claimed production budget; the other four were either released early in the franchise or had to deal with the COVID-19 epidemic.
Below are the worldwide box office receipts for each of the five films in this club:
Black Widow – $379.75 million gross
Eternals – $401.73 million
Captain America: The First Avenger – $370.57 million
The Incredible Hulk – $265.57 million
The Marvels – $206.06 million
Is The Marvels for Disney & Marvel as Bad as It Seems?
The truth of this theatrical catastrophe is significantly worse, even though at first glance it could appear as though The Marvels only lost about $13 million in theatres when comparing its $219.8 million price tag to the $206.06 million revenue.
The whole $219.8 million budget went towards production; if the expenditures were comparable to those of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, over $140 million would have been spent on marketing, according to Deadline.
In addition, movie theatres typically pocket around half of the box office revenue, so Disney likely only made little more than $100 million on the Captain Marvel sequel.
Based just on the numbers from its theatrical run, The Marvels looks to have cost Disney and Marvel Studios about $255 million.
Fortunately, home entertainment sales (both digital and physical) and streaming agreements, such as the money Disney pays itself to have its films available on Disney+, should recover a large portion of this money.
In 2022, Deadline examined the MCU films (the last year for which profit and loss numbers are currently available). Thor 4’s total for home entertainment and streaming was $340 million, while Doctor Strange 2’s total was $300 million.
Time will tell if Marvel`s home release will make up for a lackluster box office performance, but these numbers would suggest Marvel Studios might still make a little profit or break even on its $219.8 million investment.
What Caused The Marvels’ Severe Failure?
Many may jump to interpret Marvel`s demise as an immediate indication of superhero weariness, particularly in light of the DCEU’s challenging box office year.
If that were the case, though, how could Across the Spider-Verse and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 gross such huge sums of money throughout the summer?
The following are some of the main causes of Marvel`s difficulties:
Poor Reviews
Just before the film’s release, the Captain Marvel sequel received some unfavorable early reviews from critics. Even while it was still rated “Fresh,” the Rotten Tomatoes score of merely 62% was the third-lowest in MCU history.
When The Marvels finally came out, the movie didn’t do so well with viewers either, tying Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania and Eternals for the lowest CinemaScore in the MCU with a “B”.
Superhero fans now have a lot more options because Marvel and DC have so much superhero content available, so they don’t have to watch every new movie to satisfy their need as much as they used to. As a result, word-of-mouth marketing for films is now more crucial than ever at the box office.
MCU Issues & Superhero Exhaustion
With every new film and television program gaining viral popularity, the MCU could still be the largest franchise in the world. However, the phrase “superhero fatigue” has been bandied around more than ever in the past year as reviews get worse and box office results plummet.
The mystery surrounding Thanos and the Infinity Stones allowed the Infinity Saga to hold fans’ interest from start to finish. However, there’s no disputing that audiences’ motivation to see each movie has decreased due to a lower level of interest in the greater MCU plot over the Multiverse Saga.
The Impact of Streaming
Another issue to take into account is the post-pandemic drive for streaming since more and more people are eager to watch films at home.
Given that Marvel`s marketing didn’t indicate that it would be particularly remarkable, urgent, spoiler-filled, or important for the MCU to watch, a lot of people probably decided to wait for the at-home or impending Disney+ release rather than seeing it in theatres.
Disney+ Links
The Marvels, which brought together two Disney+ heroes and a theatrical hero, may have been the largest streaming and big-screen crossover to date.
Although the idea of this collaboration could appeal to ardent fans, those who haven’t watched WandaVision or Ms. Marvel might not be as excited about it, or they might even worry that they won’t be able to comprehend the film if they haven’t watched either series.
The sequel has some, however tiny, connections to the two Disney+ shows, so those who were worried about it were partially correct. However, Kamala Khan’s superpower bracelet plays a major role in the narrative.
The Captain Marvel Problem
Throughout her time in the MCU, Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel has also shown to be a very polarising figure, with many fans having disagreements with the character.
Being the first female-led MCU film and released two months before Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel undoubtedly profited from these factors, despite some criticizing her billion-dollar launch in 2019 as an unimportant signal.
The Marvels had a lot going against it, which may cast doubt on Captain Marvel 3, given the controversy surrounding the character and the fact that it was the follow-up to the rather controversial MCU film Captain Marvel.
The Marvels will be released on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD on February 13 and is now available for digital purchase.
What is the biggest flop of the MCU?
With only $47 million during opening weekend, “The Marvels” last month had the poorest opening weekend earnings of any MCU movie, trailing only “The Incredible Hulk,” which took in $55.4 million (about $71.8 million today).
What is the lowest-grossing MCU film of all time?
Additionally, “The Marvels” is the first Marvel movie to fall short of earning $100 million at the US box office. This indicates that the whole large screen run of the movie fell well short of 2019’s “Captain Marvel” ($153 million launch), which was its predecessor’s opening weekend.
Is The Marvels a disaster?
Even though the sequel continued some of the MCU’s unfinished storylines, the movie fell short of the high expectations placed on it. The Marvels’ box office performance was surprisingly poor, making the movie the MCU’s worst financial disaster to date.
Did Captain Marvel flop?
With $1.1 billion in global receipts, “Captain Marvel” proved to be a commercial success, indicating that the negative reviews did not negatively impact the film’s performance.
