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‘The Marvels’ Meltdown: Disney MCU Posts Lowest B.O. Opening Ever At $47M — What Went Wrong

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‘The Marvels’ Meltdown: Disney MCU Posts Lowest B.O. Opening Ever At $47M — What Went Wrong – Sunday Update
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‘The Marvels’ Meltdown: Disney MCU Seeing Lowest B.O. Opening Ever At $47M+
deadline.com /2023/11/box-office-the-marvels-1235599363/
51 comments

  • While it may not necessarily be "superhero fatigue", it could well be correct to say it's "Marvel fatigue". It's not like Disney haven't been pumping out content for the franchise in enormous quantities, to the point that even those who don't really follow the franchise are aware that it's absolutely massive and there's a lot of content you have to consume if you want to actually know what's going on. This is always a problem with big franchises: either you have to consume all of it (which means you get tired of it quicker), or you have to skip some and then be confused later when suddenly there's a character or enemy or event or whatever that you're supposed to know all about, but you don't because you didn't watch that other series/film.

    Superheroes aren't my favourite genre, but I like to dabble every now and then, and there are some superhero TV series and films that I have genuinely loved. But frankly at this point I wouldn't even know where to start with Marvel because there's literally too much of it. Keeping up with a franchise shouldn't be a full time job. But Disney is essentially assuming that everybody has time to watch everything it pumps out for its franchises, but somehow simultaneously never go "you know what, I've watched a lot of this lately, I'm in the mood for something else." The more stuff becomes required viewing, the more of the audience you lose due to people just not having enough time.

    People could well be experiencing some Marvel fatigue without feeling superhero fatigue, just like I feel a little Star Wars fatigue while still being interested in other sci-fi. Disney want a monopoly on entertainment, but they also don't want to risk spending money on a wide variety of franchises in case some of them make a loss, because the short term losses on a few failed experiments are more important than the long term gains of creating something new that endures. So all they do is recycle the same stuff over and over, oblivious to the fact that audiences won't just keep buying the same stuff over and over. Marvel, Star Wars, remakes of animated films from 30-80 years ago... Disney won't take risks anymore, so they've over-saturated their own market with repetitive products that consumers are losing interest in.

    • I think you've hit the nail on the head here. I think a lot of people haven't got back into going to the cinema since COVID which adds to the problem of not having the energy to see everything. My inertia for getting out to the cinema is much worse than it used to be, which seems to be the same with my social group. Collectively that makes it much more likely that as a group someone will be the voice of "anyone fancy a cinema trip".

      • Yep, that's definitely a factor. If people are going to the cinema less, then they're going to prioritise films that they really, really want to see, rather than just anything that looks like it might be fun. The economic issues contribute to this too, because who's going to spend money they don't have on a film that might be good but is also likely to be extremely mediocre? And there's also the fact that behaviour in cinemas is... not great these days, which creates an incentive for people who want to enjoy a film instead of, you know, throwing crap and screaming and assaulting the staff, to just stay home.

        And when you add onto that the issue I identified with the quantity of content, if you're a couple of years behind on the franchise, but a TV series you haven't got around to yet is required viewing for a film in the cinema, then you're not going to rush to go see it the very first weekend. What you might do instead is stream it or buy the Blu-ray a couple of years from now, when you've caught up on X, Y, and Z you need to watch first so the film makes sense, but then your purchase doesn't show up in the sales figures until 2-3 years in the future. And by that point, Disney have already decided the film was a failure.

      • There's not a lot being released anymore that gains a lot from seeing it in a theater vs watching at home. The quality difference isn't significant enough to effect the experience with most films.

  • I knew about it, but especially since the pandemic, there’s very, very little incentive for me to go to a theater.

    A few reasons for this…

    1. Streaming services supply high quality audio and video that I get a near enough theater experience at home. I’m willing to wait.
    2. As others have stated, with buying snacks, the theater experience is effectively a $50 per person event now. It’s ridiculous. And this whole notion of “well snacks are the only way the theater makes its money” is enough of a justification that perhaps it’s time for theaters to die. For roughly the same price and enjoyment, I can go get a very nice, large steak dinner, or quite a lot of high-quality sushi, or buy a video game.
    3. I don’t have to deal with other people.

    So many people and journalists like to lament of the plight of movie theaters, but aside from the pandemic, this is of their own making (well, not my aversion to people, of course). There will still be blockbuster movies, but after Avengers Endgame, it’s going to take a lot for another Marvel superhero movie to get to that level.

  • Well yeah. Nobody was really hyped about any of these characters. Only reason the first Ms. Marvel movie did good was cause it was during peak MCU.

  • I think it’s mostly due to advertising impacted by the strike. I watched it this week and really liked it honestly. I’m glad the strike had this kind of impact, though most people are going to chalk it up to all sorts of other issues and won’t give credit to the labor movement I’ll bet.

  • I’m so far behind the MCI—like a dozen films and a half dozen series. I’m not watching any new films until I’ve caught up, so…

    Also, I only found out this WAS a film a few days before it came out.

  • Had no idea this was even releasing.
    I guess I'll wait until it's on Disney+ who the hell wants to go to theaters anyway, it's just too expensive

  • I had my fill after Endgame.

    And the female lead movies just didn't appeal to me, as they have been consistently bad at writing "strong female characters" as they call it. It tends to just come off as cringy.

    It's kinda the same writing problem with "The Justice League". Close to the entire movies dialog is just shitty one-liners. One-dimensional.

    Like they only have two types of characters. The 'über bad-ass with the one-liners' or the 'overly emotional one with a chip on their shoulders'.

    The latter worked for 'Scarlet Witch', but even that got to be a bit much in the end.

51 comments