The Marvels

[PolymerSkywalker]

https://nypost.com/2023/12/04/enter...els-could-be-mcus-lowest-grossing-movie-ever/

Ouch!

 

[wabbott]

https://www.latimes.com/entertainme...2023-12-05/the-marvels-flop-disney-mcu-future

After ‘The Marvels’ flop, questions mount for Disney over MCU’s future
By J. Clara Chan
Dec. 5, 2023 12:31 PM PST

Walt Disney Co., whose latest superhero film “The Marvels” concluded last weekend as the lowest-grossing film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is closing out a year that has served as a rude awakening for the once-unshakeable Marvel brand.

Just three weeks after its Nov. 10 release, “The Marvels” fell out of the top 10 at the domestic box office duringthe weekend and cemented its place as the lowest-grossing film in the MCU. As of publication, the film — which opened to a disappointing $46.1 million domestically — has grossed $197.2 million worldwide, with $80.8 million coming from U.S. theaters.

Those figures pale in comparison to the studio’s 2022 releases like “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” ($859.2 million in worldwide box office), “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” ($955.8 million) and “The Marvels’” 2019 predecessor, “Captain Marvel” ($1.1 billion). And perhaps in anticipation of lackluster numbers abroad, Disney said on Sunday that it will stop reporting its weekend international grosses for the film, though it will continue sharing its domestic figures.

“The one thing that everyone in this industry can agree on is that [“The Marvels”] was an extremely disappointing performance from a film that really should have done better,” said Daniel Loria, the senior vice president of content strategy at the BoxOffice Co..

The underwhelming performance of Disney’s Marvel productions comes at a difficult time for the entertainment company. After the costly pandemic and billions of dollars spent to supercharge its streaming service, Disney+, the Bob Iger–led company has spent the last year trimming costs and cutting jobs in an attempt to build back its stock value and placate Wall Street.

But this year’s slate of Marvel projects — whose complicated, interconnected stories span across film and TV and juice Disney’s parks and consumer products business — has shown some vulnerability for the company at a time when the Marvel brand, one of the linchpins of Disney’s studio business, needs to be as strong as ever.

So what went wrong? Most notably, “The Marvels” marketing efforts lacked the typical promotional blitz featuring the film’s stars Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, and “Ms. Marvel” breakout Iman Vellani due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. Disney also opted to keep the film’s Nov. 10 release date, even as rival studios pushed back the release of major fall tentpoles in response to the strike, as Warner Bros. did with its “Dune” sequel. The actors union reached its tentative deal with the studios Nov. 8.

“There’s a way you market these things,” Loria said. “Disney has been great at marketing these types of movies. They weren’t able to do it the way they used to. Every other major studio stepped back from attempting it. Disney stuck with a date and, unfortunately, it didn’t work out.”

“The Marvels” wasn’t the first sign of trouble for the MCU. “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” which arrived in theaters in February to poor reviews, quickly lost momentum after a promising opening weekend, raising concerns over the quality of the studio’s films. James Gunn’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” however, was a big hit.

Viewers were also inundated with a deluge of new Marvel releases on Disney+, like the second season of “Loki” and the Samuel L. Jackson–starring “Secret Invasion” miniseries. Combined with the mixed reception for 2021’s “Eternals” and 2022’s “Thor: Love and Thunder,” even Iger has admitted that the studio’s quality has “suffered greatly” from its increased output of Marvel-branded projects across film and TV.

In an interview at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit last week, Iger blamed the pandemic and unrealistically high standards for “The Marvels’” disappointment.

“We set the bar so high,” Iger said. “Year after year after year, we had the best performance in the business probably for a decade, and I’m not sure another studio will ever achieve some of the numbers that we achieved.... I mean, we got to the point where if a film didn’t do a billion dollars in global box office, we were disappointed. That’s an unbelievably high standard, and I think we have to get more realistic.”

He also suggested that viewers’ streaming habits contributed to lower turnout at the theaters for “The Marvels,” a factor analysts cited as well.

“One of the downsides of the Disney+ series and releasing so much Marvel content around the calendar is that the theatrical experience has been somewhat de-emphasized, so you’re seeing that [box office decline] as audiences have somewhat been trained to expect blockbuster MCU content at home,” said Brandon Katz, an analyst with the data firm Parrot Analytics.

“The Marvels” may benefit from a streaming bump when the film lands on Disney+, as has been the case for other recent MCU releases, Katz said.

“You see more people catching up at home, you see more people watching MCU TV series alongside the MCU movies,” Katz said. “So there really has been that shift. And I think what we’re seeing with Disney now, since basically mid-Phase Four, is they are slowly trying to retrain audiences to prioritize the theatrical experience once more.”

It’s not immediately clear how Disney may begin pulling back on its volume of Marvel material. The company has previously outlined a release schedule through 2025 for what is known as “Phase Five” of the MCU driven by films including “Deadpool 3,” “Captain America: Brave New World,” and “Fantastic Four.”

Due to production delays caused by the strike, “Deadpool 3” is set to be the only Disney-released Marvel title planned for next year, though audiences will still see Marvel characters on screen via Sony Pictures’ “Madame Web,” “Kraven the Hunter,” and “Venom 3.”

Other entries — like those featuring the villain Kang the Conqueror, who was previously touted by Marvel boss Kevin Feige as a key character for “Phase Five” — remain in limbo as star Jonathan Majors is currently on trial for misdemeanor assault.

When it comes to the quality of Marvel’s next productions, Disney will be tasked with refreshing the superhero category it catapulted into the mainstream for increasingly discerning audiences.

“I don’t think that it’s audiences being done with superhero movies,” Loria said. “I think it’s audiences expecting something different from their superhero movies or franchises.”

J. Clara Chan is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times’ Company Town team, where she covers the entertainment business.

 

[Evinrude21]

it is a really good movie. Brie, Iman and Teyonah deserved better

 

[Jwaire]

Not releasing this to VOD providers (iTunes, Amazon, etc) this holiday season was a huge miss. At $24.99 a pop, this would have been an easy way to recoup some of the costs.

Lionsgate and Dreamworks are making bank off Songbirds & Snakes and Trolls respectively, which were both released to theaters after The Marvels.

Most theaters have already stopped showing it anyway, Disney stopped reporting box office numbers for it weeks ago and they just let this opportunity go. Its 45 day window was up Christmas Day.

Who is running this company?

 

[Evinrude21]

Aquaman 2 tanked just as hard if not harder yet nobody talked about or wrote dumb think pieces about it like they did the Marvels

hmm

 

[Jwaire]

Aquaman 2 tanked just as hard if not harder yet nobody talked about or wrote dumb think pieces about it like they did the Marvels

hmm

Because they didn't see it.

Also, it was expected to fail. Marvel films are new to underperforming at the box office, DC not so much.

 

[Evinrude21]

Because they didn't see it.

Also, it was expected to fail. Marvel films are new to underperforming at the box office, DC not so much.

right, but most people wrote The Marvels off before they even saw it when it reality its a good movie

Brie Larson hit pieces and how its "woke" before it even came out

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

Brie has done that to herself by being so insufferable in her interviews over the years. I mean she hired a PR firm to attempt to rehab her image during Covid.

 

[Jwaire]

right, but most people wrote The Marvels off before they even saw it when it reality its a good movie

Brie Larson hit pieces and how its "woke" before it even came out

I haven't had the chance to see it yet. However, it's not hard to see why it received harsh criticism from the beginning.

1. The film has suffered from multiple delays including a major push back from Summer 2023 to November 2023. There's been reports of multiple reshoots and Kevin Feige not happy with the product in the trade press from the beginning of the film. That doesn't inspire confidence in the film.

2. Brie Larson does not shine as Captain Marvel. She just doesn't. She's cold. Her expressions are either over the top or barely there. I personally feel like she was a miscast in this role. If you want to see Brie Larson shine, go watch Lessons in Chemistry on Apple TV+. She deserves an EMMY nomination for that role.

3. Captain Marvel (OG film) was billed as an essential part of the MCU. That contributed to its success. When in reality, you could skip it and be fine. It remains one of the lowest rated (audience score) MCU1 films. I don't think it ended up aging well and the comic book audience remembers.

4. Disney should be ashamed of the CGI quality in the trailer release. In fact, the current trailer still provided by Disney on Apple TV and other platforms has Monica Rambeau looking like a character from Into the Spider-verse. The Captain Marvel space scene is almost comically as bad. I hope the final film's CGI was better.



5. This comes on the heals of She Hulk, Ms. Marvel and Secret Invasion which were, even by Disney+ standards, of questionable quality.

Secret Invasion was one of the worst Marvel TV series I've seen and that's saying something considering the Fox and Netflix properties. How the same studio can make Wandavision and Loki and release She Hulk and Secret Invasion, I don't know. I'll give Ms. Marvel a pass simply because they were trying to bring in a new type of audience (teen girls) and I thought the production quality was acceptable for that project.

6. Disney's management knew this was not a Tier 1 film. They quickly abandoned it. Iger threw it under the bridge immediately, blaming COVID and mismanagement, and they stopped reporting box office numbers within three weeks, causing many smaller theaters to flat out dump the film or negate it to matinee status.

7. Marvel fatigue for all the reasons above.

TWDC needs an Eisner/Wells-level savior and I'm afraid it's not going to be Iger 2.0.

 

[Douglas Dubh]

I finally watched The Marvels on D+ last night and it wasn’t good. It just felt like they tried to put in too much too quickly. It’s not the worse MCU movie, but it’s definitely in the lowest fifth. The whole flerkin on the space station thing was ridiculous and didn’t need to be there.

 

[Skywalker3]

I also watched The Marvels last night, and agree with pp, it was fine, meh, but still entertaining. not the worst at all like it was made out to be. But still , maybe a B-. I also think it moved a bit fast. Stuff just kinda thrown at you. Storytelling just not well done. I did like it better than Thor 4 and Ant-Man 3 and Secret Invasion.
I really enjoyed the Ms Marvel series. Wandavision not so much, I had forgotten how it ends, how Monica even gets her power.
Well, that said, DH caught about the last 45 mins and said it was dumb. So I can understand the mixed reviews on it, but not all the hate.

 

[Jwaire]

I finally watched The Marvels on D+ last night and it wasn’t good. It just felt like they tried to put in too much too quickly. It’s not the worse MCU movie, but it’s definitely in the lowest fifth. The whole flerkin on the space station thing was ridiculous and didn’t need to be there.

It's in my bottom two, maybe three for sure. You can tell they filmed it during COVID because the majority of the movie only had a handful of actors in most of the scenes. I’m not even sure some of them were together on set. It looks that fake.

 

[leiaorgana]

Finally saw this yesterday and came here to say how fun I thought it was and how much I loved the chemistry between Brie, Iman and Teyonah even though the production value looked pretty rough at times but after reading through the whole thread I think I’ll save it for somewhere else haha

 

[Moliphino]

I finally watched The Marvels on D+ last night and it wasn’t good. It just felt like they tried to put in too much too quickly. It’s not the worse MCU movie, but it’s definitely in the lowest fifth. The whole flerkin on the space station thing was ridiculous and didn’t need to be there.

That was the best part.

 

[BrianL]

That was the best part.

For me the best part was the planet where they sing everything, but the Flerkins was a close second.

 

[bryaalre]

I finally watched this and agree it was actually pretty good. i wouldn't put it in my top 10 Marvel movies but I thought it had some good points and one thing I like about it was the run time not feeling like it dragged all that much. I would put it in the top half of Marvel films and would re watch again.

 

[BrianL]

I finally watched this and agree it was actually pretty good. i wouldn't put it in my top 10 Marvel movies but I thought it had some good points and one thing I like about it was the run time not feeling like it dragged all that much. I would put it in the top half of Marvel films and would re watch again.

That's exactly what I did like about it - it was light and breezy, not overly long like so many are, and most of all FUN. For me, it may very well be in my top 10 MCU films, or at least close.

 

[wabbott]

Thought this thread was probably the best place to post this?

https://deadline.com/2024/02/marvel-thunderbolts-fantastic-four-release-dates-1235825474/

Marvel Moves On The Theatrical Sked: ‘Thunderbolts’ Shifts Up; ‘The Fantastic Four’ Moves Back In 2025
By Anthony D'Alessandro - Editorial Director/Box Office Editor
February 14, 2024 - 8:05am PST

Marvel Studios in addition to moving up Thunderbolts to the start of summer on May 2, 2025, and pushing back Fantastic Four to July 25, 2025, has confirmed the cast for the latter movie:

The reboot of Fantastic Four will star Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards (aka Mr. Fantastic), Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm (aka the Invisible Woman), Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm (aka the Human Torch) and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm (aka the Thing). The news made official on Instagram.

WandaVision helmer Matt Shakman is directing Fantastic Four off a script by Josh Friedman, Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer.

Thunderbolts is directed by Jake Schreier and stars Florence Pugh, Harrison Ford, Geraldine Viswanathan, Olga Kurylenko, Wyatt Russell and Hannah John-Kamen. The movie reportedly revolves around a group of villains who are sent on missions commissioned by the government.

 

[kbelle8995]

I re-watched again. Still enjoyed it. Look it's a personal choice. Plus more Kamala and her family please.

Boy Joseph Quinn is just racking in the roles after Stranger things. Good for him. I enjoyed him as Eddie.

 

[maverik85]

I also watched The Marvels last night, and agree with pp, it was fine, meh, but still entertaining. not the worst at all like it was made out to be. But still , maybe a B-. I also think it moved a bit fast. Stuff just kinda thrown at you. Storytelling just not well done. I did like it better than Thor 4 and Ant-Man 3 and Secret Invasion.

I agree with this. The overall movie was pretty meh, but it is a fun, enjoyable movie while watching and the three leads were great together. I put it above many other things from the MCU but is still easily a bottom half for me.