On November 10th, the highly-anticipated superhero feature, The Marvels, debuted in theaters… and totally flopped at the box office.
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This movie acted as a sequel to Captain Marvel (2019), and grossed $47 million in North America — officially breaking the record for the worst-performing movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So… What went wrong?
According to the Wall Street Journal, the flop was supposedly expected, despite fans’ anticipation for the film. During the fourth quarter earnings call for 2023, Disney CEO Bob Iger acknowledged a problem: Disney believes to be hindering the success of films: the company is rolling out too much content — focusing on the quantity rather than quality of the films produced.
©Disney
Tony Chambers, Disney’s head of theatrical distribution said, “[Opening weekend performance was] definitely not what we expected and not what we’ve hoped for.” He also shared that the creatives at Marvel were working hard to achieve an appropriate balance between the movies the brand releases in theaters as well as the episodes released on streaming platforms.
©Marvel
That said, film producers believe that perhaps the movie flopped because of the fatigue that fans might be experiencing due to SO MANY different films, episodes, and research needed to understand a single film. So, when a new movie rolled around, maybe folks were like, “What’s the point?”
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Speaking from a movie-goer perspective, it can be frustrating to not be able to simply relax and enjoy a film. It’s true that the Marvel Universe is so complex that homework and research must be done to fully understand a single movie or episode. Further, it’s likely that this issue is preventing Marvel from winning over new fans, as the amount of work needed to get into the cinematic universe is just too daunting.
©Marvel
Iger shared at the final earnings call of 2023 that a huge goal for 2024 is to bring creativity back to the studios. Many Disney movie fans have felt similarly to the film producers for a long time, wanting creative new takes to be presented in films rather than a rehashing and expansion of what already exists. Maybe we will see NEW things soon, along with Elemental, which eventually stole the hearts of Disney fans, and Disney’s upcoming movie Wish.
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My husband and I saw the movie opening weekend. I liked the characters and the cat, but some of the scenes were, well stupid. I won’t spoil it if you have not seen it. It also felt a little rushed.
They still don’t get it. Or maybe they do and just continue to dig in their heels.
It seems that Disney has stopped talking to consumers. We all called this with both Star Wars and Marvel, yet they kept pushing out content. More isn’t always better. Marvel has become way too complicated even for those who watch all of it. It’s sad when you have to read and do homework to understand what you just watched.
Marvel burnout! For sure! Just watching the preview caused me to completely lose interest in seeing it. There’s no good story line. Perfectly said in the piece. More quantity than quality. The recent movies just feel rushed. I’m pretty much done with Marvel. It’s like what more can they do to keep moviegoers interest? Nothing, really they’ve done everything humanly possible with what they’ve already done.
I loved the movie but I’m biased. Captain Marvel is my favorite superhero and Iman Vellami (Ms Marvel) is freaking adorable. You definitely had to have seen a lot of Marvel to follow along. Not just the movies but the streaming series as well. I’m so sad it didn’t do well.
What is wrong with these people? They keep making excuses for the failure of these movies, but any idiot can go see the movies and tell them what is wrong with them! The Marvels was terrible. The first half of the movie was so confusing. The plot was terrible and it’s like they chose someone to write the script for this that had no idea who the characters were. And who was MS Marvel? She was obnoxious.
People want a good understandable story – to be entertained. They don’t want stories that lead nowhere and that are filled with wokeness. Captain Marvel was a terrific character and deserved a second story, the other two characters were a waste of screen time and added nothing to the plot.
If I had to choose a favorite character in this movie, it would be Goose, but even that got weird.
Come on Disney, go back to stories like the ones before End Game (even End Game was woke).
That’s not it.
The Marvels are good and funny. I also think the issue with the Marcels is there was no promotion. You could tell Disney was not behind it. I was in the parks a month ago and there was no merchandise or promotional there at all.
I do agree that it is exhausting to do research to watch a film but I think that’s just a matter of quickly explaining what is going on for new comers which I think The Marvels did. I usually get lost in films but didn’t in this one finally. Sure, if you know the other movies, it gives it a deeper connection but I don’t think you had to know the others to watch and enjoy it though.
After Endgame the Marvel movies just got too confusing. I’ve seen every Marvel movie through Endgame multiple times. I tried to watch a couple of the movies after that and they just weren’t good. Make better movies and focus on Entertainment vs an agenda.