The Marvels’ Disastrous Opening Weekend Makes The Flash Look Successful

Summary:

• The Marvels has the worst opening weekend in franchise's history
• Moreover, the situation is even worse than with the infamous recent DCU flops
• The current chapter of the MCU, The Multiverse Saga, barely develops the overarching plot, with only one exception

The Marvels, the newest addition to the MCU, found itself in a rather tricky situation even before the movie was released.

Various sources predicted that the movie would be a failure, at least financially, estimating that the opening weekend gross would range between $50 million and $75 million, which was not an optimistic prediction for a blockbuster of this magnitude.

Now, with the release of The Marvels on November 10, 2023, the actual numbers have finally become known, and they appear to be even more depressing than originally thought.

The Marvels Has The Worst Opening Weekend In The Franchise

The film has set an anti-record for the entire MCU, earning only $47 million at the domestic box office, which is the worst result in the history of the franchise and pales in comparison to even such a forgotten disaster as The Incredible Hulk, which was released in 2008 and opened to $55.4 million.

To add insult to injury, this result is even worse than arguably the most embarrassing superhero movie flop of recent years, DCU's The Flash, which grossed $55 million in its opening weekend and $270.6 million overall against a budget of $220 million.

While The Marvels' opening weekend is better than DCU's latest flop, Blue Beetle, which opened to $25.4 million, it was also significantly more expensive to make, with a budget of approximately $270 million compared to the $104 million spent on the DCU's failed film.

That said, the movie will need a lot of luck to at least break even in the long run, as the aforementioned budget doesn't even include marketing expenses.

In addition, it seems that the international box office may not be able to save the movie, as The Marvels already bombed in China, one of the biggest foreign markets that has saved mediocre movies on several occasions, opening with only $11.5 million.

Such a devastating blow will undoubtedly, if not completely change Marvel's approach to making movies, at least lead to some changes, as almost everyone (except the studio, apparently) saw this coming.

The MCU Is In Deep Crisis After Endgame

Fans feel that perhaps the MCU should take a break for at least a few years, as it is now even more clear how much of a crisis the franchise is in.

The new characters aren't that interesting to them, and superhero fatigue has nothing to do with it, which is clearly illustrated by the Loki TV series, which just finished its second (and presumably final) season.

It was hailed as one of, if not the best thing to happen to the MCU since Avengers: Endgame, and it revolved entirely around a beloved character who has been a part of the franchise since Phase 1.

Fans also bring up the fact that the current chapter of the MCU, The Multiverse Saga, which began after The Infinity Saga concluded with Endgame, has barely developed the overarching storyline despite being ten movies in.

The project that developed the whole multiverse storyline the most was the Loki TV series (which is another reason why it was so praised), while the feature films only dipped their toes into the concept.

Spider-Man: No Way Home used the idea of the multiverse more for nostalgic purposes, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness didn't really affect the grand scheme of things, despite having "multiverse" in its title.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was supposed to fully introduce Kang the Conqueror, but his variant that was present in the movie was killed off immediately, so it was Loki (again) that did the best job of establishing the villain.

With all of this in mind, perhaps the fans are right and the MCU heads just need to take a step back and reconsider the course the franchise is taking.

The next MCU movie, Deadpool 3, is scheduled for release on July 26, 2024.

Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Reddit