The Marvels To Finish Box Office Run As Lowest-Grossing MCU Movie Ever It happened faster than anyone could have predicted earlier in the year, but it’s pretty much a wrap on “The Marvels” at the box office. The movie isn’t leaving theaters just yet but the latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is running out of gas very quickly — so much so that it is assured to finish its run as the lowest-grossing entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 33 movies across 15 years and not one of them has made less than this movie will. It’s a sobering moment for Disney, as well as the state of superhero cinema in general. “The Marvels” took in just $2.5 million in its fourth weekend, representing a 60% drop that took the movie out of the top ten, per The Numbers. It’s an unthinkably quick fall from grace for a Marvel film, as this brand has been unthinkably dominant for more than a decade now. As it stands, director Nia DaCosta’s “Captain Marvel” sequel has amassed $197 million worldwide, including just $80.7 million domestically. It will be the first MCU movie to not cross the $100 million mark in North America. It also means that 2008’s “The Incredible Hulk” ($265 million worldwide) will no longer be the low bar for MCU movies going forward. One key difference is that “Hulk” had a budget of around $137 million, whereas “The Marvels” cost around $220 million, so the losses on this one are going to be far greater. Disney sent out a note to the press (per Variety) stating, “With ‘The Marvels’ box office now winding down, we will stop weekend reporting of international/global grosses on this title.” It feels very much like the studio is throwing in the towel as this is highly unusual for a massive blockbuster. If things were going well, Disney would like the information to be out there. An unfortunate disaster We will be analyzing what went wrong here for years to come but let’s be clear: there is nothing to celebrate. It’s bad for movie theaters that were depending on this movie to help keep ticket sales steady ahead of the holiday season. It’s bad for Disney, a studio that is having a pretty bad year at the box office. More than anything, it’s bad for Nia DaCosta, a director who came in and did the job she was asked to do. It’s also a damn shame that this happened to a female-fronted superhero movie, as we’ve had far fewer of those compared to the ones led by men. “The Marvels” is by no means a critical disaster, so it’s not as though we can write this off as an out-and-out bad movie performing poorly. It’s bad every way you look at it. It says much about the state of the industry, one that has been propped up by superhero movies for years now. The only superhero films that have been outright successes in 2023 are “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” ($845 million worldwide) and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ($690 million worldwide). There’s also “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem ($180 million worldwide), which was a relatively modest success given its thrifty budget. The days of these movies sailing to $1 billion worldwide are well behind us as “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” ($476 million worldwide), “The Flash” ($270 million worldwide), “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” ($133 million worldwide), and “Blue Beetle” ($129 million worldwide) all disappointed on various levels. In DC’s case, things are really bleak and the early outlook for “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” is not great. In 2024 and beyond, Hollywood will need to look elsewhere as the age of presumed superhero dominance is over. “The Marvels” is in theaters now.
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