Current Events > The Marvels opens with $47 million. Lowest MCU opening ever.

(+) Yeah! (+)

So I actually saw the movie. It's mid as hell, but enjoyable flick. Consider me surprised, I thought it was going to suck. There's a lot of things that need changing in this movie for it to be above average, but I wish there was more scenes of chemistry with the 3 main leads. The scenes where they were practicing how to use the body switch thing was adorable, I wanted more of that.

HornyLevel posted...

Exactly, it's not that bad of a movie, which means superhero fatigue and a weak Phase 4 and 5 are very relevant here.

I'd add in the actors strike since the chemistry between the 3 leads is important to sell. J

I wonder if this wouldve done better if they just advertised it as a Captain Marvel 2

The MCU was over when Tony snapped his fingers and said it's morbin time.

Woah... Even the Black Widow movie didn't bomb this hard despite being deeper into a COVID restricted era. Granted Black Widow is a far more iconic, known and loved character than these three. I haven't seen it and don't plan on it as I haven't seen any superhero movie since Spiderman. No interest in em anymore really.

lolife67 posted...

I'd add in the actors strike since the chemistry between the 3 leads is important to sell. J

It wouldn't have changed much. FNAF, which had bad reviews, over-performed and made almost double this in it's opening weekend ($80 million) just 2 weeks earlier. And it was simultaneously released on Peacock. I streamed it the day it came out.

If Dune 2 had not been delayed, The Marvels would have done even worse.

HornyLevel posted...

It wouldn't have changed much. FNAF, which had bad reviews, over-performed and made almost double this in it's opening weekend ($80 million) just 2 weeks earlier. And it was simultaneously released on Peacock. I streamed it the day it came out.

If Dune 2 had not been delayed, The Marvels would have done even worse.

FNAF isn't the same film as the Marvels. Just because one thing happened doesn't make it true for everything.

lolife67 posted...

FNAF isn't the same film as the Marvels. Just because one thing happened doesn't make it true for everything.

The Marvels was a sequel to a billion dollar movie. Nothing was going to save this. The interviews wouldn't have changed shit and the boxoffice followers even roughly calculated it would have added maybe $2-$4 million to the original $65-$80 million prediction.

FNAF was a critically panned movie that was released online and in theaters and still did almost double on a $30 million budget. It's at $250 now.

That's what we have to go on. There's no other tangible proof "chemistry" would have changed anything.

lolife67 posted...

FNAF isn't the same film as the Marvels. Just because one thing happened doesn't make it true for everything.

Does one piece topping the charts for weeks while assucker and loki were nowhere near top 10 also coincidence in your book? I'd imagine star wars and marvel are bigger brands than one piece

65% of the audience was men, so it's failure is because of sexist men? Jesus Fucking Christ people are stupid.

Gremlynn posted...

it's kinda funny to me how everybody here who says they saw the movie seems to have found it enjoyable, while everybody in this topic talking about it being bad are only referencing the trailers, super hero fatigue, their thoughts on Phase 4 and 5 as a whole, a lack of interest in the characters themselves, lack of marketing, under performing ticket sales, and negative reviews.

Seems like the trailers are a big reason why it's not doing so good. I also thought most the trailers made the move seem bad, but I found myself enjoying the movie quite a bit.

HornyLevel posted...

The Marvels was a sequel to a billion dollar movie. Nothing was going to save this. The interviews wouldn't have changed shit and the boxoffice followers even roughly calculated it would have added maybe $2-$4 million to the original $65-$80 million prediction.

FNAF was a critically panned movie that was released online and in theaters and still did almost double on a $30 million budget. It's at $250 now.

That's what we have to go on. There's no other tangible proof "chemistry" would have changed anything.

I disagree.

lolife67 posted...

I disagree.

Except there's nothing to substantiate what you're saying.

firedoom666 posted...

Seems like the trailers are a big reason why it's not doing so good. I also thought most the trailers made the move seem bad, but I found myself enjoying the movie quite a bit.

Honestly, while I get that the point of a trailer is to sell the movie and it should do a good job of that, people that claim to have an interest or knowledge of mainstream cinema in general then also claiming that the trailer was a core element in their decision of whether or not to see the movie are just wild to me.

Like, at that point you know that trailers obfuscate things. they string together disconnected bits of dialogue into what seems like one phrase, or sequence scenes together in a way that suggests inaccurate plot details, they use alternate versions of scenes not featured in the film, etc. You also know by and large what in general to expect from a Marvel movie, with or without a trailer, so the degree to which this sort of obfuscation in the trailer can mislead you only points to specific elements of writing and tone, not the type of movie you are going to see. Obfuscation via the trailer is not going to lead you into believing this is a completely different type of film than it is, such as when what appears to be a comedy turns out to be a drama that happens to feature comedic actors (looking at you Funny People), or when what appears to be a horror movie turns out to be a noir romance film that happens to feature a horror movie monster AND THEN NEVER SHOWS US THE FISH MAN'S GENITALS STILL MAD ABOUT THAT BY THE WAY.

hasnt there been so much mcu stuff after nwh? cant they just go straight to another avengers

Nukazie posted...

hasnt there been so much mcu stuff after nwh? cant they just go straight to another avengers

IIRC, the next Avengers is in 2027.

It's funny to think that just 4 years ago Disney was on top of the world. People were excited that Endgame was going to overtake Avatar's box office record.

Nowadays Avatar took back the box office record and Avatar 2 is Disney's biggest saving grace of the past year. So much for that lack of cultural relevance.

It's just too much to want to keep up with now. They're introducing too many characters. They should have a core group that they stick with and tell a story with them like did with Iron Man, Capt and Thor for Phases 1 through 3. They aren't doing that for Phases 4, 5 or whatever we are at now.

Punished_Blinx posted...

It's funny to think that just 4 years ago Disney was on top of the world. People were excited that Endgame was going to overtake Avatar's box office record.

Nowadays Avatar took back the box office record and Avatar 2 is Disney's biggest saving grace of the past year. So much for that lack of cultural relevance.

emphasizing beating box office records is a weird one for me too. Pretty much every "cultural event" movie beats the previously established box office records these days. It's less a mark of quality and more just acknowledgement that due to rampant inflation and a growing population, each cultural landmark film has a high probability of generating more revenue than the previous.

XxKrazyChaosxX posted...

It's just too much to want to keep up with now. They're introducing too many characters. They should have a core group that they stick with and tell a story with them like did with Iron Man, Capt and Thor for Phases 1 through 3. They aren't doing that for Phases 4, 5 or whatever we are at now.

Can definitely feel this. At least for phase 4 specifically. Phase 5 absolutely should be spreading its wings wide, getting weird with it, going balls to the wall, because Phase 2's reliance on sequels from phase 1... did not help it for most audiences.

But really if we want to get down to it... even though i am still largely satisfied with most of what the MCU is putting out (yeah it's not all top shelf for the franchise, but i am still reasonably entertained and I actually just really get a lot of enjoyment out of the lore speculation aspect of trying to piece things together over so much disconnected content, this is straight up a cinematic universe catered to how i enjoy stories), i can acknowledge areas where even the smallest of tweaks in release schedule and framework could do wonders for general perception.

A really big one? both in films and in marketing, hold your fuckin horses on setting up the next big saga until you ready to lay more substantial, evident groundwork for it. Don't show us the title cards for the next decade's worth of films and Disney+ shows. A lot of the smaller, character driven stories in The Infinity Saga were able to work because they didn't exist with the backdrop of knowing The Snap was coming (for general audiences, long time comic fans and people who wiki the stories and connections of where elements in the latest movie go knew, but only by virtue of knowing Thanos is present, and I imagine even then the general assumption was that the studios would chicken out on the snap).

Being outright told that the current direction of this saga is Kang the Conqueror and his multiversal war cheapens the tension of any isolated conflict, and makes any stinger to tease unrelated side arcs feel... irrelevant. It makes the core audience look at things that should, and frankly COULD stand on their own through the lens of "but how does this lead to Kang?"

And yeah, they did kind of let the cat out of the bag a little early on this one just with the content itself, but like... let's reframe it without the knowledge that marketing and conventions and early casting announcements has provided. HWR COULD have been a dope-ass hint of another potential major threat that... maybe it's the big one, maybe it isn't, maybe it's more reference than plot-direction, who REALLY knows right? Imagine, without the marketing TELLING us that it's the big one, the satisfaction of the throwback when say mid-late phase 5 in a big cross-over ensemble piece it's openly reveals it in universe. Antman KINDA cheapens it a little, but not to the point it can't still work and be a satisfying reveal without the officially sanctioned spoilers from convention panels.

And counterpoint, to see it go the other way. Let's go back to Phase 1 and the Infinity Saga again. We have to play around a bit to REALLY make this comparison stick, so bare with me for a minute. First, to better reflect the issue with phase 4, lets swap the releases of Captain America and The Incredible Hulk (the "present day" elements take place in the same week with no substantial crossover, so this has zero impact on the narrative itself), and now throughout CA's development we are told "The Space Stone is a big part of this film's story" and then closer to or shortly after release we are told by the studios "some viewers may have noticed the presence of The Time Stone, even though we didn't directly name it. In the comics, this is one of the six infinity stones that are going to be a central theme throughout this saga in the franchise as they are sought after by Thanos, who will have a minor appearance at the end of this phase, and plans to use their combined might to eliminate half of all life in the universe!" Like holy shit, congratulations, you've basically made every film that does not in some way feature an Infinity Stone feel pointless then and there. It won't matter as it's released that Thor builds solid development for characters who will continue to have relevance in the saga, or that it gently expands the MCU's world building beyond Earth. It'll just be a movie that didn't directly advance the core conflict of The Infinity Saga. Captain America: The Last Avenger is now no-longer noteworthy for establishing Steve Rogers as a paragon of liberty, or for the government subterfuge aspects of introducing the tessaract as a cosmic power source that "good guy" government agencies will abuse, but simply for showing us that the space stone exists and where it was last seen.

Like, FUCK. This was a great saga, with a few films that kinda flopped, but at no point was the question of how any of them fed into The Infinity Saga a factor in public interest. We were thrilled just to see in-film confirmation that they even shared a universe and that was primarily viewed as just an easter-egg for most viewers that caught it.

Overmarketing and oversharing of the long term direction of a story that will take nearly a decade and around 20-some movies to tell hurts interest, it doesn't build it.

... Disney in an off year still owns like 17% of the entire box office. That is in a terrible year for them. Also it is with 11 films compared to 21% of ticket sales for Universal with 18 films.

CE's favorite tuber explains why the marvels is a catastrophic bomb!

https://youtu.be/NnFqai4EGhE

Is this accurate? Or is it simply because of toxic men babies crying online? (despite 65% of box office being men)

Gremlynn posted...

it's kinda funny to me how everybody here who says they saw the movie seems to have found it enjoyable, while everybody in this topic talking about it being bad are only referencing the trailers, super hero fatigue, their thoughts on Phase 4 and 5 as a whole, a lack of interest in the characters themselves, lack of marketing, under performing ticket sales, and negative reviews.

Anyone going to watch a marvel movie in 2023 is absolutely going to be clapping like seals the whole time. I think after like 20 of these fucking things you know what you're signing up for. I think a lot of us are just tired of the incessant march of capeshit and simply won't go watch them. I'm glad they're there for people who like them but I was so tired of a new marvel movie every 3 months even when it was at its peak.

XxX_6GAMING9GOKU_XxX posted...

Anyone going to watch a marvel movie in 2023 is absolutely going to be clapping like seals the whole time. I think after like 20 of these fucking things you know what you're signing up for. I think a lot of us are just tired of the incessant march of capeshit and simply won't go watch them. I'm glad they're there for people who like them but I was so tired of a new marvel movie every 3 months even when it was at its peak.

People losing interest in the MCU after the big saga was wrapped up is totally reasonable. I don't think it's reasonable to make significant claims regarding the quality of any specific production in a franchise / genre that you have already admittedly lost interest in due to perceived over-saturation.

Also don't think it's accurate to imply anybody still showing an interest is at this point just straight up brainwashed to absolutely love whatever they are fed. Some are better than others, we all know it. Even die hard fans of the entire infinity saga can point out plenty of films within it that they did not really care for. The theater I attended for The Marvels had a mix of people who seemed to barely care what they were watching, people who seemed to enjoy it, and people who seemed to be underwhelmed when they left. I think most people who enjoyed the film recognize that the musical planet sequence was cringe as hell and went on too long. It's possible to enjoy the content and still recognize dumb weird flaws in it.

It's just one of those things really. Eventually people get bored of more of the same.

The Gerard Butler and Liam Neeson action movies of today don't review particularly well as they're based on movies that revolutionised cinema four decades ago but they do their job and have their audience.

I wonder if that's the future of superhero movies eventually.

Punished_Blinx posted...

It's just one of those things really. Eventually people get bored of more of the same.

The Gerard Butler and Liam Neeson action movies of today don't review particularly well as they're based on movies that revolutionised cinema four decades ago but they do their job and have their audience.

I wonder if that's the future of superhero movies eventually.

I don't think its that. The writing is what's killing them.

The problem goes way beyond MCU writing with the sheer amount of bombs in theaters this year.

People are only going to go to the cinemas in droves for an event movie. Superhero movies aren't an event by default anymore. People didn't even bother showing up for Michael Keaton returning as Batman.

Audiences were very, very harsh to franchises that felt tired this year. Marvel has suddenly found itself right on that same hole with DC and as we've seen with them it's a very tough hole to dig out of.

I think we're very quickly going to find ourselves back in a world where people only show up for Spider-Man, Batman and the X-Men.

Solo_Wing posted...

https://youtu.be/NnFqai4EGhE

The guy opens by harping on all of the excuses the studios and the "media" came up with as to why the movie failed at the box office, then proceeds to make a bunch of excuses as to why the Captain Marvel movie made a shitload of money. Guy's full of shit and just as guilty of creating a narrative as the people he claims are doing it to make excuses for The Marvels.

Marvel's mistake here was in not recognizing that the landscape has shifted and this movie was never going to be profitable based on the excessive amount of money they spent on making it. And still, it didn't suck. However, this...

XxX_6GAMING9GOKU_XxX posted...

Anyone going to watch a marvel movie in 2023 is absolutely going to be clapping like seals the whole time.

is utter fucking nonsense. It was a decent movie, good for killing 95-ish minutes with some moments of amusement, nothing more.

Punished_Blinx posted...

The problem goes way beyond MCU writing with the sheer amount of bombs in theaters this year.

I still don't think that's true. Marvel had a ton of goodwill which is why for a time their movies were still making bank. But as the shows and movies continued to be awful that goodwill quickly dried up. If they had kept writing at a good will, that wouldn't have happened.

no one cares about these characters

Think the negative helped me personally IMO. I thought it was entertaining enough because my standards were in the toilet.

Wall of text poster made a great point that I've been saying this whole time. Despite me enjoying the flick (the shorter runtime compared to today's average helped too), (marvels spoilers:) there was zero reason for me to remember outside the final scene and post credit scene.

Holy shit.

The Marvels made an estimated $9.7 million in the US this weekend.

Biggest 2nd week drop for an MCU movie ever, which is insane since it was already the lowest opening ever.

This is gonna be one of the biggest box office bombs in history. Damn. I didn't expect it to go this badly, especially since there was some level of good word of mouth from last weekend.

HornyLevel posted...

Holy shit.

The Marvels made an estimated $9.7 million in the US this weekend.

Biggest 2nd week drop for an MCU movie ever, which is insane since it was already the lowest opening ever.

This is gonna be one of the biggest box office bombs in history. Damn. I didn't expect it to go this badly, especially since there was some level of good word of mouth from last weekend.

Lots of factors working against the movie doing well. Not surprising.

Every photo I've seen from this movie looks like cosplayers.

What happened to the amazing MCU production value?

Now playing trailer!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6TGg0_xtLoA

If this won't put butts in the seats and help Brie hit 1b again, then I dunno what will

They seem desperate

HornyLevel posted...

This is gonna be one of the biggest box office bombs in history. Damn. I didn't expect it to go this badly, especially since there was some level of good word of mouth from last weekend.

The only good word of mouth came from Grace Randolph......

Oof. Even mainstream media shills calling out Disney on their bullshittery

https://thedirect.com/article/thanos-mcu-phase-5-disney-role

Why Disney Lied About Thanos' Role
"...I never taught you to lie. Thats why youre so bad at it." - Thanos

In the weeks leading up to The Marvels release, box office projections were shockingly lower than with previous MCU films.

This appears to have led to a last-minute marketing push to get the fan base's attention which not only included The Marvels trailer referencing Thanos but also that sneaky X-Men tease and Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie cameo.

While understandable at the time, and even appreciated by audiences craving stakes and connectivity, in retrospect, the use of Thanos in a Phase 5 project and alongside Dar-Benn not only seems desperate but deceptive.

Mechu posted...

"You could not live with your own failure. And where did that bring you? Back to me."

lol