The Marvels Is Heading For A Complete Disaster | Can They Recover?

The Marvels Movie had a rough opening week, and things are only getting worse. After four delays and multiple reshoots, Brie Larson and her band of superhero friends have finally made it to the big screen. The Marvels opened this weekend and is currently sitting on the lowest box office MCU debut ever. While the bar for Marvel movies up until the end of the third phase has always been relatively high, they are far removed from their glory days. Depending on who you ask, there are different reasons for this. Some blame superhero fatigue. Others blame out-of-date writing and CGI patterns. There are also fans who blame political and social messaging.

As a person who used to love Marvel and now barely watches anything, I feel that I can give some personal perspective. While everyone will have a different reason, personally, I just lost interest. Over ten years, they built it to a specific conclusion. Then that story ended, and the original cast left, and my interest left with it. While I still tune in for the occasional Spider-Man or Guardians movie, I am just not that interested in the current direction. It does not mean that I think the new stories are bad; it just means that my journey with Marvel has ended.

However, there is still a fanbase who is interested in watching these movies. The term superhero fatigue is used a lot. Despite this, movies like Spider-Man Far From Home and Guardians of the Galaxy 2 have proven that people will still watch if the story is good. With the right hero at the right time, the audience is still there. Everything depends on Disney and who they choose to promote.

The Marvels Movie Box Office Disaster

Before we continue, we need to look at the numbers. The Marvels was released on 10 November 2023. In its opening weekend, the movie made $47 million. This is considered the lowest MCU opening ever. The production cost of the movie is $220 million. This does not include marketing and advertising, which will at least double the production budget. While it is too early to call this movie a complete disaster, as my heading suggests, things do not look good. As with most things, people are making comparisons. As stated, while Marvel is past its peak, they do still have occasional box-office successes.

The first obvious comparison is to Captain Marvel. The first installment of the Brie Larson Saga. For obvious reasons, we need to understand why this won’t be a fair measuring bar. Captain Marvel launched in the heat of superhero fever. After the massive success of Avengers: Infinity War and right before the conclusion that was Avengers end game, we got Captain Marvel. The movie was advertised in such a way that people felt they had to go and watch it. You will never find a more perfect window of opportunity to release a movie. This is the reason why Captain Marvel made 1,131 billion dollars.

Then you have the two most recent box office successes. Spider-Man: Far From Home, starring Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire, made 1,132 billion dollars. This is an impressive number for the trio of actors. It is also a number that the trio of Brie Larson. Iman Vellani and Teyonah Parris likely won’t come close to touch. However, as time goes on, the movie could still make back at least some of its money in the international box office.

Why People Dislike The Marvels

People dislike The Marvels, and it is hard to point to only one reason why. The most obvious reason is Brie Larson. Some within the Superhero community simply do not like her. They feel that she made statements against the community that are not appropriate. While I can sit here all day and list the many controversies surrounding Brie Larson, there are also other reasons to consider. As much as people do not like Larson, people also do not like Disney anymore. By extension, this means people do not like Marvel. Defenders argue that there are a bunch of trolls who simply do not like changes.

These what they call toxic fans are upset that Marvel is making changes and casting more diverse superheroes. As stated, though, movies like Guardians of the Galaxy prove that there is still an appetite for movies. Comments like We do not care what White men think, however, are bound to anger a few fans. When you consistently push your fan base, it is only a matter of time before they start to push back. There is also a recent trend of lead actors doing interviews and saying discouraging things about the fan base that buys the tickets.

Actors are, of course, people, and they have the right to express themselves. However, viewers are also people and have the right to push back. Brie Larson, over the years, has made it her mission to speak out against what she calls toxic fans. While many admire her for this, there are also people who deeply dislike her for this very reason. This bad reputation does lead to poor ticket sales.

Can Marvel Still Turn Things Around?

It feels like The Marvels was always doomed to fail. People have been expressing their displeasure over the MCU for years now. It was only going to be a matter of time before they started to vote with their money. The truth is, if it was not going to be The Marvels failing, it was likely going to be the next release. The question now becomes, can Marvel Studios still turn things around? This is a complicated question to ask. In order to answer it, we need to understand where the decline is coming from. Some people are like me and stop watching because they simply feel that the story has reached its natural end.

Other people still love Marvel but are not fans of the current direction and casting choices. Then you also have a group of people who are simply tired of superheroes. Getting any of these groups of people back will be hard. However, it is important to understand that this fan base is huge. Even if you lose the people, you still have hundreds of millions watching. Just like any good series has to come to an end, so does any movie franchise. The MCU has been one long movie series, and it is only natural for fans to move on.

That does not mean that fans won’t come back for a few good films that grab their attention. It also only takes a few massive hits to reignite the flame and excitement. I was in my middle teens when the MCU started. And grew up with these films. There is a new generation of fans right now who will be growing up with the next set of phases.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, Disney is dependent on forever growth. This means if each phase cannot out-earn the previous one, they will regard it as a failure. I do not see a realistic chance for The Marvels to come back and make a profit. The best they can hope for now is to break even. All we, as fans, hope for is that they learn lessons from this release and do better moving forward. Right now, the audience score for this film is still relatively high. There are also just a thousand reviews currently on rotten tomatoes. This is an extremely low engagement rate for a Marvel Movie.

Only time will truly tell where this movie will rank when it is all set and done.

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