The Marvels Box Office Thread

[Venom 1988]

Weren't a lot of people complaining that the marketing made it look like it was aimed at families and didn't give off that 'hardcore' feel?

Sure there were some people yes but but the way I saw the marketing, it seemed like it was trying to stradle between family movie vs epic event without committing to either one.

 

[MadVillainy]

Marvel very much seemed to be marketing this more to the male audience, rather than targeting women and girls. They got spooked by the hate campaign (just look at how much Carol has been downplayed when she was meant to be part of the new Big 3) and focused on trying to "win back" a demographic that's ultimately just an obnoxiously vocal minority. Which is so dumb given what's actually in the movie and the fact that Barbie dominated so much this year.

???why do you think they got spooked by the hate campaign. That didn't hurt they last one. And The Marvels had noooowhere near the hate campaign of the first movie. So why do you think Disney thought the hate campaign was strong enough to not show Carol.

That doesn't make sense as a theory

 

[Kon]

Marvel very much seemed to be marketing this more to the male audience, rather than targeting women and girls. They got spooked by the hate campaign (just look at how much Carol has been downplayed when she was meant to be part of the new Big 3) and focused on trying to "win back" a demographic that's ultimately just an obnoxiously vocal minority. Which is so dumb given what's actually in the movie and the fact that Barbie dominated so much this year.

I don't feel the marketing was especially directed to male audience. I mean, the first trailer have Carol dancing with a prince. Also, we have cat videos for the promotion.

Maybe the last trailer tried to generate an "epic feeling". However, that's because they could already track the little interest and box office for this movie at that point.

Marvel won't heard an obnoxiously vocaly minority, but they would notice the lack of interest for a character or movie.


PS: Superhero genre mainly attract male audience, that's why it could difficult to attract a bigger female audience. The superhero movie with a bigger female audience is Aquaman, which was likely a happy accident.

 

[CaptainWagner]

???why do you think they got spooked by the hate campaign. That didn't hurt they last one. And The Marvels had noooowhere near the hate campaign of the first movie. So why do you think Disney thought the hate campaign was strong enough to not show Carol.

That doesn't make sense as a theory

Is it not obvious? Larson as Carol was introduced as one of the next big things for the MCU. Her movie made a billion dollars. And then suddenly she disappears. They've been downplaying her role for the past 4 years, to the point that she wasn't even the focal point of the sequel to her movie.

You act like the hate campaign stopped after the film in 2019. It reached its worst AFTER the release, and it never let up, and Disney/Marvel never offered public support for her. We know for a fact that the suits are conservative-leaners inclined to listen to reactionary hate campaigns. Just look at how much they still censor any attempts at queer content.

 

[Kon]

Is it not obvious? Larson as Carol was introduced as one of the next big things for the MCU. Her movie made a billion dollars. And then suddenly she disappears. They've been downplaying her role for the past 4 years, to the point that she wasn't even the focal point of the sequel to her movie.

You act like the hate campaign stopped after the film in 2019. It reached its worst AFTER the release, and it never let up, and Disney/Marvel never offered public support for her. We know for a fact that the suits are conservative-leaners inclined to listen to reactionary hate campaigns. Just look at how much they still censor any attempts at queer content.

I don't think Disney/Marvel offering support would help to reduce the hate. In any case, the hate just would continue or even increase (it happened when they offered support to Reva's actress in Obi Wan show).

Don't misunderstand me, it would be pretty good that Disney/Marvel shows more support to their actors in that kind of situation. I'm just saying the hate won't be reduced.

That said, I don't think Marvel relegated Captain Marvel due to the haters. It's more likely because they have too many characters to introduce.


Now, I really doubt the current box office to The Marvels is due to the hate campaign. As you say, the haters were just an obnoxiously vocal minority.

This lack of interest in The Marvels movie where Captain Marvel is one of the leads (returning after a 4 years absence) makes me think Captain Marvel was never a really popular character. And the box office of her first movie was so big due to Endgame and the first MCU female lead promotion.

 

[AndrewGilkison]

I remember when her movie got announced and it was a big deal (Kelly Sue Deconnick was writing her comics when she took up the Captain Marvel name) and she had a female comic book fan following and then her movie got delayed and delayed, and the movie ultimately didn't really have what made that character good in my opinion (because her personality got erased by the Kree). And the movie was so late in the game that none of the people working on Avengers Endgame really wanted to feature the character in a big role outside of the opening. I think Marvel ultimately screwed up the character's introduction into the MCU.

 

[psylockolussus]

Apart from the bad title, I thought the trailers were fine and are good representation of the film. Dar-Benn though should have been given a character poster, because I saved those posters in my drive.

 

[psylockolussus]

The numbers are grim reading. I wonder when the next MCU film will come that does good numbers.

Deadpool should be fine even if it doesn't outgross D1 and D2. Its not going to be the 2nd/3rd lowest grossing MCU film (at least in North America). I'm also not interested in a Deadpool 4 movie, so there aren't a lot of stakes (imo) for its success, for future Deadpool movie, whereas Captain Marvel is now going to be a 2 and done like Wonder Woman, OG Fantastic 4 and Ghost Rider.

The 2025 slate isn't strong. It won't matter if they are good, if people aren't interested to watch the characters. Fantastic 4 is the only the classic Marvel IP imo out of the 4 and this is going to be 4th F4 film to be released in the cinemas and we know F4, at its peak, wasn't as popular as the X-Men, Spider-Man, Batman and Superman. Even if people already forgot about Fan4stic. Its still not a strong ip to be headlining a movie. If it is coming out after Spider-Man or Avengers or Deadpool, the chances of its boX office success would be a lot stronger. And its maybe coming out 2 months after Sam Wilson...

Captain America Brave New World is really going suffer from the lead. Even though we have seen Sam Wilson in the previous movies, he was merely a supporting character that wasn't cool or interesting enough. The goodwill from Deadpool and opening the summer season should be in its advantages, however if its a bad movie, its not going to help F4 (an ip that should getting imo a trilogy in the mcu). I wish Brave New World was never made in the first place.

Thunderbolts, like I've said back in 2022, it is my least anticipated mcu film and the least interesting mcu film. If The Marvels flopped, this would need to be really good but being good didn't help Birds of Prey and The Suicide Squad 2021... so Marvel Studios should cancel this, or pause it and return to it years later, with much stronger line up.

And then there's Blade. Like F4, I want this to succeed but for different reasons. I haven't liked any of the Blade movies from the past and the Blade movies haven't grossed more than $100 million in North America. I always look at boX office numbers and this is the only Marvel ip that had 3 movies released in the cinemas, without having any films to gross more than $100 million at the boX office. So when this was announced, I thought the possibility of better boX office success and a Blade movie that I would enjoy would finally come to fruition. But I'm not sure anymore. A Blade movie shouldn't take this long, and now I'm thinking Marvel Studios probably just don't know what to do with this and the end result wouldn't be good. Like with Thunderbolts, after the floppage of The Marvels, I don't know how this would gather more public interest? The lead actor isn't a big draw and Blade isn't an a-lister superhero. I think I'd prefer to see this in the backburner instead of finally releasing it in two years, with bad results.

 

[Mr. Peanut]

Wonder Woman is an iconic female character, so it isn't weird she will drawn a lot of female audience. The romance in the movie was pretty popular between women too.

That makes me wonder...why doesn't Marvel put any romance in their female led movies? Pretty much all the male led movies have romantic interests, but they've avoided it with the female led movies they've had so far. Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Wakanda Forever, The Marvels...no romance, even though romance is even more popular with women than with men.

If they marketed this movie more as a movie for kids or the whole family, it would probably would have done better.

And to be honest, that's really how they should be treating their output as a whole. They should have some movies that are geared towards older audiences as well as some that gear towards younger audiences. If/when they ever decide to do a Power Pack movie/show that needs to be first and foremost for younger audiences. Most people don't but every single Marvel book on the stands, because of different tastes. They should be doing the same with the movies, but I guess the problem is the whole "everything is connected" aspect, where some viewers feel they are going to miss out on something if they skip a movie.

"Everything is connected" is what made the MCU huge in the first place though, the fact that it was all one big connected narrative that regularly featured big crossovers. Before Avengers, the MCU wasn't that big. Now we're seeing it go back to the way it was before.

I don't think the superhero genre is popular enough among multiple demographics to really start dividing it up like you're suggesting. Comics and cartoons can do that because portraying superheroes in a comic or cartoon doesn't cost that much money, but in a live action movie you need a huge budget, which means you need a huge audience. Which is why the MCU came up with a formula to cast a wide net and gather in the broadest possible audience...at least during the Infinity Saga. Now things feel less connected so the audience is fragmenting again.

 

[Comicbookguy339]

Friday below Morbius yet again.

 

[Scarlet Spider]

I've never seen a sequel crash and burn like this. Not on this level. This is going to end up being the biggest superhero flop of all time.

 

[Iceman]

Friday below Morbius yet again.

It’s going to struggle domestically to get much further than what I would probably have expected from its opening weekend.

 

[Comicbookguy339]

This could potentially become the biggest second weekend drop for a superhero movie ever. Bigger than Steel (1997).

 

[Mysteryman]

That makes me wonder...why doesn't Marvel put any romance in their female led movies? Pretty much all the male led movies have romantic interests, but they've avoided it with the female led movies they've had so far. Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Wakanda Forever, The Marvels...no romance, even though romance is even more popular with women than with men.



"Everything is connected" is what made the MCU huge in the first place though, the fact that it was all one big connected narrative that regularly featured big crossovers. Before Avengers, the MCU wasn't that big. Now we're seeing it go back to the way it was before.

I don't think the superhero genre is popular enough among multiple demographics to really start dividing it up like you're suggesting. Comics and cartoons can do that because portraying superheroes in a comic or cartoon doesn't cost that much money, but in a live action movie you need a huge budget, which means you need a huge audience. Which is why the MCU came up with a formula to cast a wide net and gather in the broadest possible audience...at least during the Infinity Saga. Now things feel less connected so the audience is fragmenting again.

If it wasn't for that post credit scene, Iron Man would have felt like a standalone film.

 

[legendkillin]

This could potentially become the biggest second weekend drop for a superhero movie ever. Bigger than Steel (1997).

View attachment 73165

I wouldn't even count My Hero on the list haha anime movies stay in some theaters 2 weeks only and 3 at tops. Flash and Ant-Man 3 are the only ones I have seen in the top 10 but yeah The Marvels will be on that. Hunger Games coming out takes #1, then Disney beating themselves up with Wish the following week. Marvels may only be in theaters 3-4 weeks and could get the quick Disney + treatment.

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

Man, outside of Guardians 3 (and I guess sleeper hit Elemental), Disney has had a very devastating box office run this year

 

[Mysteryman]

I don't think Disney/Marvel offering support would help to reduce the hate. In any case, the hate just would continue or even increase (it happened when they offered support to Reva's actress in Obi Wan show).

Don't misunderstand me, it would be pretty good that Disney/Marvel shows more support to their actors in that kind of situation. I'm just saying the hate won't be reduced.

That said, I don't think Marvel relegated Captain Marvel due to the haters. It's more likely because they have too many characters to introduce.


Now, I really doubt the current box office to The Marvels is due to the hate campaign. As you say, the haters were just an obnoxiously vocal minority.

This lack of interest in The Marvels movie where Captain Marvel is one of the leads (returning after a 4 years absence) makes me think Captain Marvel was never a really popular character. And the box office of her first movie was so big due to Endgame and the first MCU female lead promotion.

First Female Lead Promotion.
That translated into, MANY Mothers & Daughters,Coming Back.
For The Marvels?
NOPE!

 

[samsnee]

So what is causing this to fail so hard at the box office? I really don't get it. I was surprised Cap Marvel did a billion especially compared to Wonder Woman. But to go from a billion dollar movie to this is crazy. Even taking out the IW/EG bump.

-You can't say it's anti women sentiments because that didn't stop Barbie or Cap Marvel 1 (time might tell but doesn't seem to be affecting Hunger Games either). And honestly with a box office like this it seems that women didn't even show up for this

-MCU fatigue? That didn't seem to affect Guardians 3 that came out not long after Quantumania which at the time was seen as an MCU low point

-People claim it's the writer's strike but that didn't especially hurt Five Nights at Freddy's opening weekend. Basically the cast doing a press junket or not, if there was interest people would've shown up

-Poor promotion? Even without the press junket they advertised this pretty well in terms of billboard, trailers in front of big movies, etc. At least from what I saw.

I'm really curious what caused this and can't think of an answer

There is MCU fatigue. Antman 3 and Thor 4 were both poorly received. The shows aren’t really generating excitement.

Guardians did well because people really liked the first two and it was marketed as the last movie with this cast. It helps it was enjoyable for most.

The first movie definitely got a bump from being between two Avengers movies. People felt they had to watch it to know what was going to happen in Endgame.

 

[Mr. Peanut]

If it wasn't for that post credit scene, Iron Man would have felt like a standalone film.

And Iron Man isn't what made the MCU huge, it just laid the groundwork. The Avengers took Marvel movies to a whole different level.

 

[legendkillin]

There is MCU fatigue. Antman 3 and Thor 4 were both poorly received. The shows aren’t really generating excitement.

Guardians did well because people really liked the first two and it was marketed as the last movie with this cast. It helps it was enjoyable for most.

The first movie definitely got a bump from being between two Avengers movies. People felt they had to watch it to know what was going to happen in Endgame.

I agree mostly, but I don't know if it is fatigue. None of the movies are must see, they could release Spider-Man No Way Home tomorrow and it would still generate what it did. People wanted to see Toby, Garfield, and old villains make a return.

Ant-Man 3 and TL&T didn't have any standout moments for me to recall. Thor 4 really wasn't necessary and feels made just to fulfill a quota.

 

[legendkillin]

And Iron Man isn't what made the MCU huge, it just laid the groundwork. The Avengers took Marvel movies to a whole different level.

Once the Thanos connection was shown and see everything work. The phase 1 movies all are great standalone level movies. The connections and universe made it must see and huge, it is not impossible to go back to the standalone to set up the big events. They just haven't done that at all, the Shang Chi credit scene has not materialized into anything, Kang was introduced on Disney + but nothing in movies until Ant-Man who shouldn't be dealing with big name villains. The Ant-Man movies should have kept the local theme. MoM had no Kang when it probably should have had something.

 

[OrbOfConfusion]

Well, The Marvels certainly broke some records. Just not good ones! I guess the question is how fast this movie ends up on Disney+.

Crazy to think that this is doing poorer than 2021's Black Widow, which not only still had the pandemic to deal with, but a simultaneous release on Disney+, similar to Five Nights at Freddy's dropping on Peacock on the same time it went to theaters.

 

[kguillou]

Once the Thanos connection was shown and see everything work. The phase 1 movies all are great standalone level movies. The connections and universe made it must see and huge, it is not impossible to go back to the standalone to set up the big events. They just haven't done that at all, the Shang Chi credit scene has not materialized into anything, Kang was introduced on Disney + but nothing in movies until Ant-Man who shouldn't be dealing with big name villains. The Ant-Man movies should have kept the local theme. MoM had no Kang when it probably should have had something.

And whats even more mind boggling is all these stories we’ve had dealing with alternate realities and multiverses (Loki seasons 1 and 2, Wandavision, NWH and MoM) have NOTHING to do with each other!

Remember how we all kept speculating how the events of Wandavision and/or Loki had to logically lead into NWH? Because Wanda and Loki messing with reality obviously is going to have repercussions right? Nothing. And then NWH had nothing to do with the events of MoM. theres no narrative thread between any of these things.

 

[Mr. Peanut]

Once the Thanos connection was shown and see everything work. The phase 1 movies all are great standalone level movies. The connections and universe made it must see and huge, it is not impossible to go back to the standalone to set up the big events. They just haven't done that at all, the Shang Chi credit scene has not materialized into anything, Kang was introduced on Disney + but nothing in movies until Ant-Man who shouldn't be dealing with big name villains. The Ant-Man movies should have kept the local theme. MoM had no Kang when it probably should have had something.

Yeah as I mentioned in another thread, the post-credits teases for Phase 4 and 5 are just all over the place. In the first three phases the scenes teased movies that were coming up next, or at least very soon, and thus it was clear how they tied into the story and when and where we would see them paid off. But nowadays....

Spoiler: Spoilers for every Phase 4 and 5 post-credits scene

BW: Yelena is sent to go kill Hawkeye. Followed up on in a Disney+ show. Only Multiverse Saga tease to be paid off so far, though it's not paid-off in a movie, so movie-only viewers are just gonna see Yelena pop up again later in Thunderbolts with this tease already being resolved, and probably not even mentioned.

Shang Chi: One post-credits scene sets up a mysterious alien signal from space and the other sets up the return of the Ten Rings organization. Neither have been followed up on and we don't know when or where they will be.

Eternals: One scene sets up Eris the brother of Thanos...no idea where that's going or why it needed to be teased. Another sets up Blade, which is still years away (four years after Eternals) and many films after Eternals. Only teased because a character from Eternals will also be in Blade (although I've heard that Black Knight might not even be in Blade, so who knows). The ending of the movie also has a cliffhanger with the Eternals being taken into space by Arishem, with a promise that he'll return to Earth for judgment...no idea how or when or where that'll be resolved.

No Way Home: Eddie Brock from the Venomverse gets drunk and leaves behind a bit of symbiote. No idea what the heck they plan to do with this or why they decided to introduce Venom to the MCU through a gag scene.

Multiverse of Madness: A mysterious character recruits Dr. Strange to go to the Dark Dimension and stop an incursion (and at the same time an eye suddenly appears on Strange's forehead). Presumably this will be followed up with Secret Wars in 2027, but that's only apparent if you know about the comics Secret Wars storyline and how an incursion creates Battleworld.

Love and Thunder: Zeus sends Hercules to go kill Thor. No idea when or where this will be followed up on.

Wakanda Forever: T'Challa's son is revealed to also be named T'Challa, implying that he'll probably be the next Black Panther at some point. Probably won't be followed up on until after Shuri's actor quits.

Quantumania: The Council of Kangs is revealed and they want to stop the Avengers from messing with the multiverse. Obviously setting up Kang Dynasty in 2026. Probably pretty confusing if you haven't seen Loki and have no comics knowledge, though.

GotG3: One post-credits scene establishes the new GotG team on a space adventure. Another establishes Star-Lord back on Earth. Unclear when or where these will be followed up on.

The Marvels: Monica ends up trapped in an alternate dimension where she meets Beast, played by his Fox actor. I assume this is a tease for Deadpool 3? If so that would be a positive change of pace since it would be the first MCU movie since Phase 3 to tease something that promptly gets followed up on in another movie (though I wouldn't be surprised if Monica and Beast end up not being referenced in Deadpool 3 at all). There's also a tease where Kamala and Kate set up a new Young Avengers team, however there's no Young Avengers movie currently planned and Kamala's actor said that fans should petition to get one made...

 

[Iceman]

The whole MCU machine is in trouble at the moment, CBMs as a whole really. Nothing can fall this hard from an already very low opening and it not be a sign of something deeper.