Marvel Studios faces yet another setback, as The Marvels has posted the worst opening weekend in United States box office history for the studio. The movie just earned $47 million from North American theaters amid mixed reception from critics.
Previous opening weekend estimates for the Brie Larson-led film were around $75 to $80 million and projections shrank to $60 million as the movie neared its premiere. Unfortunately, The Marvels failed to reach even the lowest of these estimates for its opening weekend.
The Marvels now has the worst opening weekend for an MCU movie of all time. Two other Marvel movies that failed to breach the $60 million mark were 2008’s The Incredible Hulk and 2015’s Ant-Man. The Incredible Hulk was one of the first movies in the cinematic universe and there wasn’t any consistent benchmark at the time. The first Ant-Man film wasn’t really expected to have historic numbers as it was more of a B-movie in the MCU at that time.
Unfortunately for The Marvels, it had a high watermark to hurdle, as Captain Marvel had a strong opening weekend in the US, grossing $153.4 million. The movie made $61.4 million on just its first day and went on to become the first female-led superhero movie to earn $1 billion at the global box office.
The Marvels also fell short at the international box office, grossing $63.3 million in its first week. Disney had hoped for the film generate $140 million worldwide from its release but ended the week with $110 million. The company will have an uphill battle from here to recoup the estimated $200 million production cost and $100 million in marketing expenses for the film.
The lack of turnout for The Marvels isn’t really surprising as the SAG-AFTRA strike prevented actors from promoting the movie. Larson only had the opportunity to promote the film on the day of its premiere. This is because the actors’ strike ended when she appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to talk about the film.
Marvel Studios has been struggling this year, especially after Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania floundered at the box office, which was followed by Secret Invasion, a series that generally failed to live up to its billing over on Disney+. It’s safe to say that the MCU is seemingly no longer the box office powerhouse that it once was.
Marvel did have some success this year at the box office though, with James Gunn’s final outing as director in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3. Loki Season 2 also fared well on Disney+ with record-breaking viewership numbers.
As The Marvels marks Marvel Studios’ last project for 2023, we now turn our attention to Deadpool 3, the only MCU movie currently scheduled for 2024. Deadpool has had a strong showing in the previous two movies grossing a total of over $1.56 billion. The addition of Hugh Jackman and the abundance of casting rumors should generate a lot of interest for the threequel.
