Stephen King is not a Marvel fan, but what he likes even less is the box office reactions to “The Marvels.”
Released in theaters on November 8, The Marvels by Nia DaCosta fails to unite the crowds. During its first weekend in American theaters, the latest from Marvel Studios collected $47 million in three days. A figure below the already very pessimistic forecasts. To date, the feature film has grossed $109 million internationally.
The Marvels thus marks the worst start since the launch of the MCU in 2008, behind the 55 million greenbacks garnered by The Incredible Hulk in 2008. The feature film led by Brie Larson, Iman Vellani and Teyonah Parris garners less than a third revenue from the first Captain Marvel released in 2019.
A sad record for this adventure which features 3 superheroines discovered in previous MCU works: Captain Marvel, Miss Marvel and WandaVision.
In The Marvels, Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) must face the unforeseen consequences of her victory against the Kree. Unexpected effects now force him to assume the burden of a destabilized universe.
During a mission that propels her into a strange vortex closely linked to the actions of a Kree revolutionary, her powers mix with those of Kamala Khan – aka Miss Marvel (Iman Vellani), her super-fan from Jersey City – and those of his “niece”, Captain Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), now an astronaut within SABER
Initially chaotic, this unlikely trio soon finds themselves forced to team up.
The House of Ideas is facing “superhero fatigue” and has a string of poor results whether in cinema, with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania ($476 million internationally), Thor: Love & Thunder ($760 million) and The Marvelsor on Disney+ with the disappointing audiences for the second season of Loki.
Stephen King’s opinion
But criticism of The Marvels, the first MCU film entirely driven by superheroines, is particularly vehement from fans and does not please Stephen King. The master of horror released a tweet in which he regrets that spectators are rejoicing at the failure of the film.
“I don’t go to see the MCU films, I’m not interested in them, but I find this barely masked jubilation in the face of THE MARVELS’ low revenues very unpleasant. Why rejoice in failure?”
In 15 years, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has produced 33 feature films and established itself as a heavyweight in the film industry. But since the arrival of Disney+ and the growing number of series and intertwined stories (to understand everything about The Marvels you need to have seen 7 contents!), the spectators seem disconcerted.
Bob Iger, the General Manager of The Walt Disney Company, himself recognized the disadvantages of this glut of programs which “diluted attention and concentration“. But Marvel did not expect, however, such a disastrous start for the sequel to Captain Marvel, whose budget totaled $274 million.
Marvel The Marvels
“The level of urgency has decreased”
In addition, The Marvels was released in the middle of an actors’ strike and was therefore unable to benefit from a promotional campaign. According to Shawn Robbins, Boxoffice Pro’s chief analyst, “having Brie Larson and the rest of the cast in the promotional circuit could have helped increase the openness to some extent. But that probably wouldn’t have outweighed the other significant obstacles inherent and external to the film itself.”
He adds to the microphone Variety : “Public expectations are getting higher and higher. Even with factors beyond Marvel’s control, the mixed reception to many of their films in recent years and the often excessive volume of Disney+ series have diminished the level of urgency audiences once felt for the franchise.”
Faced with the multitude of content, fans no longer necessarily go to see films in the cinema. Marvel will therefore have to, in the future, highlight strong superheroes like Spider-Man (whose last part recorded $1.9 billion internationally) and why not bring back the original Avengers, like the ‘recently mentioned the studio.
But the future of the MCU could very well be disrupted by the arrival of Deadpool 3 in the superhero universe. Announced in our theaters on July 24, 2024, the film starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman should indeed have consequences for future MCU films… Will Kevin Feige review his plan? To be continued…