'The Marvels' Has Worst Ever Marvel Movie Debut
by EG
For a decade and a half, superhero movies from Marvel were guaranteed box-office blockbusters, but those days are undeniably over. Following a string of superhero movies, from both Marvel and DC, that have failed to make huge splashes in theaters, Marvel's latest release met with a historic lack of enthusiasm upon its release this weekend. The Marvels took in less than $50 million at the domestic box office, making the movie (which had a $200 million production budget) the biggest bomb in Marvel history. Read on for details.
The Marvels box office debut is anything but marvelous.
From Marvel Studios and Disney, the superhero tentpole opened to an estimated $47 million at the domestic box office to rank as the worst start in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It also came in behind expectations overseas, where it launched with $63.3 million from 51 material markets for a global start of $110.3 million against a hefty $200 million production budget.
The Marvels marks a new low for Kevin Feige‘s Marvel Studio and adds fuel to the theory that superhero fatigue is a real thing as fanboys grow weary of a glut of titles and are hence far less forgiving. Marvel has been unrivaled in its success for years, with its movies collecting more than $30 billion in grosses at the worldwide box office.
Until now, rival DC was the superhero studio that endured the biggest ups and downs, with a good number of its films opening to $50 million or less (in comparison, many MCU releases started with $100 million or more domestically). This summer, DC’s The Flash debuted to a dismal $55 million domestically on its way to topping out at a paltry $270.6 million globally.
Word of mouth is killing The Marvels, which is only the third MCU title to receive a B CinemaScore from audiences after Eternals and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania. The vast majority of MCU releases have earned some variation of an A. Its Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score of 62 percent is likewise on the lower end. Males made up the majority of ticket buyers, or 61 percent, while 45 percent of the grosses came from Imax and other premium large-format screens.
The 33rd installment in the MCU is a sequel to the 2019 Brie Larson starrer Captain Marvel, which opened to $153.4 million in North America on its way to earning a massive $1.13 billion worldwide, not adjusted for inflation. That movie had a clear advantage in that it was teased in the post-credit scene of 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, while its titular star was a player in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame (it was released between the two Marvel mega-blockbusters).
Before now, 2008’s The Incredible Hulk held the record for the lowest domestic opening of any MCU title at $55.4 million, not adjusted for inflation (Marvel, which wasn’t owned by Disney at the time, partnered with Universal for Hulk). The next lowest MCU opening belonged to Marvel/Disney’s Ant-Man, which started with $57.2 million domestically in 2015.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.