The Marvels was supposed to be the MCU’s cherry on the top of 2023, and hopes were high that it would conclude the studio’s year with a bang. Sadly, all it did was crawl to the finishing line with a whimper, registering a box office record that Disney will want to forget.
Making its premiere on November 7, The Marvels had not done much to inspire audience confidence. The first trailer drew overwhelming hostility from fans who bombarded it with dislikes on YouTube – though the motivation of this hate campaign is suspect.
This sentiment seemed to have endured as the Disney film only managed to rake in $84.5 million domestically and $205.8 million worldwide at the end of its box office run. To put this into perspective, The Marvels now stands as Disney’s lowest-grossing Marvel film of all time.
Comparisons have been made with DCEU’s Birds of Prey, which ended its theatrical run with a $205.4 million global tally. However, this is like comparing apples to oranges, since one had nearly triple the production budget of the other. Birds of Prey only needed $100 million to produce, whereas The Marvels required over $275 million to make its way to the big screen.
To further show how different these two films are, Birds of Prey was rated R, which meant its audience appeal was already limited from the start. The Marvels was PG-13, so it probably can’t use the rating as an excuse.
If that still doesn’t convince you, here’s another fact for you: Birds of Prey made its debut right around the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. Audience hesitation had begun creeping up, and in some regions of Asia, theaters were already being shut down.
The simple fact is that The Marvels was a film that no one wanted. Director Nia DaCosta thought the growing superhero fatigue would not have any effect on The Marvels, teasing a “wacky and silly” film like nothing we’d ever seen. In the end, all we got was the same regurgitated tepid formula we’ve seen in the MCU’s previous 32 films. The only redeeming quality of this film was that it was shorter.
When Captain Marvel was first announced to be joining the MCU, fan excitement was palpable, as many knew how powerful of an addition this character was to the Avengers. Theories and speculation about how important this would be for the continuity flew rampant.
Ultimately Captain Marvel was an obnoxiously generic film, but it still managed to pull in over $1.1 billion worldwide from a $175 million production budget. No amount of marketing, however, was going to make audiences return to theaters for the sequel.
Every time a MCU film flops, I keep thinking that this is the wake-up call Marvel Studios (and Disney at large) needs. Now, I no longer hold that view – I am very content with watching the billion-dollar company flush its money down the drain. Sometimes things have to get worse before they can get better.
