‘The Marvels’ Bombing Should Lead To Lower Budgets And Lower Expectations

I maintain that if The Marvels came out even 4-5 years ago, we’d be having a different conversation today. There would be higher review scores, and a larger box office haul, given that Captain Marvel itself made a billion dollars worldwide, despite not being an especially good MCU offering.

Now, The Marvels has the lowest opening weekend ever for an MCU movie, bringing in just $47 million domestically and $88.5 million elsewhere. Below Quantumania, Eternals, everything else.

The movie is fine, good even. Far from actual huge missteps like Quantumania or Love and Thunder, but it really just doesn’t matter. It’s the wrong movie and the wrong point in time for the MCU and this was always going to happen. But this, along with other recent Marvel failures, really has to modify expectations going forward for both Disney and the fanbase itself.

First, Disney has absolutely lost control of its budgets. The Marvels isn’t even the worst example of this, as that problem is best showcased via Disney Plus TV shows, where She-Hulk episode budgets were reportedly as much as Game of Thrones episodes, and Secret Invasion, a show so bad it felt like The Marvels actually removed it from canon, cost over $200 million to make.

Yes, to a certain extent, a big budget is a necessity to many superhero projects, but they are ballooning out of control and can no longer rely on sky-high totals to justify them. It’s worst on streaming, which is why Disney Plus is scaling back those series, but The Marvels shows that we’re entering a new era here, something that obviously DC isn’t immune to either with its recent bombs. And the crunch it takes to make these films means that A) they cost an insane amount because of all the VFX work but also B) the VFX work is often quite bad because of the rushed deadlines and overall labor shortages. This just did not used to be the case when all this started.

Then there’s just the fact that expectations have to come down, on both the corporate and fan side. The upcoming slate of Marvel projects feels like it’s going to be all over the place in terms of potential box office returns. A Deadpool sequel co-starring Wolverine? Yeah, probably solid, even if rated R. A fourth Captain America movie without Chris Evans? Probably not. The first introduction of The Fantastic Four? Big. Thunderbolts, a Suicide Squad-like assembly of cast-off MCU villains? Eh. And I simply do not expect the planned pair of Avengers movies to get anywhere near Infinity War and Endgame.

At least for now, the superhero genre is in decline. These movies can still make a lot of money, but as we’re about to see, we are far from the era of movies like Captain Marvel and Aquaman making a billion dollars with their eyes closed. There is hope for both brands, Marvel once it brings in the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, DC if James Gunn’s rebooted vision works. But for now, yes, this is going to be an awkward time full of a lot of failure, and in some cases, through no fault of the project itself, which I would say about The Marvels (less so, Quantumania and Secret Invasion).

Disney already feels like they’re retooling MCU plans, both on the streaming side, but the strike has actually provided a lengthy breathing window where the only 2024 MCU movie will be Deadpool 3. After that, 2025 allegedly has four MCU movies, but I’m guessing half those get pushed. More time between these will help, but there’s more work to be done, clearly.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.