The Marvels continues to suffer a plummeting box office, as the film’s Thanksgiving Day haul is a measly $1.3 million.
The disappointing opening weekend saw The Marvels with the worst performance of a Marvel Studios film to date. And although the critical and audience score of The Marvels slightly improved, the second weekend box office numbers still had a terrible showing, with a drop of as low as 87.2% . But can the final MCU film for 2023 recover and show some box office legs?
Some analysts predicted The Marvels might see a significant bump with the third week of The Marvels theatrical run falling on Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, that did not materialize. Sites like Box Office Mojo estimate that The Marvels will be bringing in only $1.3 million domestic gross on November 23.
Disney's The Marvels grossed an estimated $1.30M on Thanksgiving Thursday (from 3,070 locations). Estimated total domestic gross stands at $70.45M.#TheMarvels #BoxOffice pic.twitter.com/PuMpMNTMFt
— BoxOfficeReport.com (@BORReport) November 24, 2023
Note that the exact numbers have yet to be tallied over the weekend. Regardless, this extremely low estimate for the box office performance of a big-budget MCU film on a Thanksgiving holiday solidifies the perception that it is a flop. Some Reddit users have even predicted that The Marvels will not break the $80 million domestic mark before its run is through.
For comparison, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves had a domestic gross of $93.27 million, but was considered a mild disappointment at the box office. Another example is The Flash, which pulled in $108.13 million for its domestic box office gross. If The Marvels fails to outperform these numbers, Marvel Studios and parent company Disney will never hear the end of it from critics and jaded fans.
But is this a clear sign that the fandom is suffering from the so-called “superhero fatigue”? Or is it simply an indicator that even the most hardcore MCU fans are frustrated with the quality and lack of care being given to the story and production?
In a recent interview, The Marvels director Nia DaCosta stated that she was pushing for more X-Men to appear. But Marvel Studios head and Chief Creative Officer Kevin Feige thumbed down on this decision, apparently to rein in DaCosta’s overenthusiasm. Thus, only the X-Men’s Beast (voiced by the returning Kelsey Grammer) was featured in the mid-credits scene.
"That was one of our fights."
"The Marvels" director Nia DaCosta says she pushed Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige to include more X-Men characters in her superhero teamup movie starring Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris and Iman Vellani. pic.twitter.com/Opnbj5PIeq
— AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) November 9, 2023
Could more X-Men have made a difference for The Marvels’ box office turnout? That is certainly a possibility. Interest in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness did receive a shot in the arm when Professor X (played by Patrick Stewart) was revealed to be returning as part of the Illuminati.
Still, the higher-ups at Marvel Studios (and Disney) have already taken steps to address the recent disappointments the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Next year will have Deadpool 3 as the only theatrical film, changing the release schedules of the other Phase 5 projects. The Disney Plus releases have also been delayed (such as Daredevil: Born Again), although Echo, What If…? Season 2, and Agatha: Darkhold Diaries are still on track for 2024.
What do you think of the Thanksgiving plummet of The Marvels’ at the box office? Do you agree that it is due to the “superhero fatigue” or is it a symptom of something else specifically affecting the MCU films? Can the Marvel Cinematic Universe return to the heights it reached prior to Avengers: Endgame?
