So much for “Higher, Further, Faster.” The Marvels scored the lowest Marvel Cinematic Universe opening ever with $47 million. This is even lower than the debut of The Incredible Hulk‘s 2008 bow of $55.4M, and that’s not even adjusted for inflation.
Before getting into the possible reasons why, let’s see how the film was actually received by those who saw it. Via Rotten Tomatoes, The Marvels has a critical Tomatometer score of 62%, which is still fresh but not great. That’s just under Thor: Love and Thunder which scored 63% and is considered one of Marvel’s biggest disappointments. Both scored lower than The Incredible Hulk which holds a 67%. But at least it’s better than The Eternals‘ rotten 47%.
The Marvels‘ audience score is better at 84%. Exiting audiences gave it a B via CinemaScore, equal to that of duds like Eternals and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, but worse than Thor: Love and Thunder and Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, which both got B+’s, but were also considered disappointments. PostTrak audiences gave it a so-so 3½ stars and 73% positive.
Why did The Marvels perform so poorly? It’s hard to say. The easiest answer is that the SAG-AFTRA strike prevented Disney and Marvel from deploying the cast to promote the film, even though upon the strike’s end, Brie Larson made one last-ditch appearance on The Tonight Show.
But there are other factors. Let’s not sugar-coat this. There is a segment of the population that has it out for Disney and relishes in the failure of any female-fronted film. And this one stars three women with two of them being women of color. That’s in addition to the fact that The Marvels is directed by a woman of color, Nia DaCosta.
However, with everything negatively said, The Marvels does boast the best opening ever for a film directed by a Black female director, so there’s some upside.
But then there is the dreaded “superhero fatigue.” Many have brushed this aside, but maybe it’s time to take this seriously. It would appear that even Disney itself has acknowledged this is a real thing. They have flooded the market with too many movies and TV shows and the audience for these has been stretched too thin.
This is evident in that Disney has since removed every Marvel movie from its 2024 schedule with the exception of Deadpool 3. Captain America: Brave New World was pushed back to 2025. The studio also created the banner “Marvel Spotlight” for the release of Echo a Disney+ show that was already complete, but that Disney doesn’t seem to have any faith in as it will be dumped all at once early next year.
The studio scrapped its series Daredevil: Born Again and is bringing in new writers and directors to retool it. But perhaps most tellingly, it has been reported that the studio is seeking new writers for its tentpoles Avengers: Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are various other Marvel projects in different stages of development and production that have also been delayed. It seems that Disney has realized that the general public doesn’t want nonstop Marvel content. (Hell, The Marvels came out on the same night that the season finale of Loki was released on Disney+!)
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- The Marvels (Disney) – 3-day $47M/ Wk 1
- Five Nights at Freddy’s (Universal) – 3-day $9M/ Total $127.2M/ Wk 3
- Taylor Swift: Eras Tour (AMC) – 3-day $5.9M/ Total $172.5M/ Wk 5
- Priscilla (A24) – 3-day $4.8M/ Total $12.7M/ Wk 3
- Killers of the Flower Moon (Apple/Paramount) – 3-day $4.65M/ Total $59.9M/ Wk 4
While it’s been a relatively slow few weeks, with Thanksgiving approaching, it looks like the studios have decided to just dump everything all at once… just like they did this summer.
Perhaps the most likely to succeed is The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, although another female-centric film after the underperformance of The Marvels may not be arriving at the best timing. Even so, it seems that even after all this time, The Hunger Games franchise still has a dedicated fanbase.
Also, appropriately arriving is Thanksgiving, an Eli Roth-helmed slasher film. There always seems to be a market for holiday-themed horror.
And on the opposite end of the spectrum, comes Trolls Band Together, the latest in this kid-friendly animated brand that features new music by *NSYNC.
There is also Taika Wititi’s latest, Next Goal Wins, although I have not heard great things about this one.
Did you see The Marvels? Did you think it was as bad as people have made it sound? What do you plan on checking out this weekend?
