Why The Marvels Just Broke Another Unwanted MCU Box Office Record

The Marvels‘ box office failure snowballed into a bigger disappointment for the MCU than it should have been. Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels brings together three important MCU heroes, two of them introduced in the Multiverse Saga and one introduced in the billion-dollar prelude to Avengers: Endgame. Yet, the first Captain Marvel sequel has performed even worse at the box office than recent flops, not only from Marvel but from DC as well. Several factors played against The Marvels, including the effects of the actors’ strike on the movie’s promotion and the characters’ lack of popularity in comparison to other Marvel heroes. However, that doesn’t fully explain The Marvels‘ record-breaking negative performance.

The Marvels‘ opening weekend earned the film $47 million, which presaged a difficult climb towards the movie’s $270 million budget. To make matters worse, The Marvels‘ second weekend saw a massive drop of around 80% in ticket sales, with barely around $10 million earned over the weekend — a record in superhero movie history, as it surpassed movies with worse critics and audience reception such as Morbius and Black Adam. Despite The Marvels‘ ending setups and post-credits scene, its struggle to captivate audiences is undeniable. But there’s also luck and timing involved in its box office disaster.

Poor Word Of Mouth Killed The Marvels’ Box Office Longevity

The Marvels‘ struggle at the box office seemed dire from the very start with its extremely low opening weekend performance. As earnings only dropped faster each day, reports about The Marvels‘ disastrous box office made its commercial failure a self-fulfilling prophecy, with even more potential viewers avoiding the film due to its record-breaking performance. Independently of its quality or fun factor, the fact that The Marvels made the headlines almost exclusively for its poor box office overshadowed its strengths, and public attention focused solely on its weaknesses. Every time The Marvels reaches a new low, more people are unlikely to give the MCU movie a chance.

The Marvels‘ record-breaking flop is only heightened by a string of critical and commercial disappointments in the superhero genre, with films such as Morbius, Black Adam, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Shazam: Fury of the Gods, The Flash, and Blue Beetle tainting the superhero genre before The Marvels‘ release. Despite the success of entries like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, discussions about superhero fatigue have also impacted the already faltering reception of The Marvels. Had The Marvels been released a couple of years before, audiences might have been a little more forgiving.

The Marvels’ Advertising Campaign Came Too Late

The Marvels is the first Marvel movie after the SAG-AFTRA strikes to have its stars promoting the film, which may have helped its reception to some degree. Unfortunately, the damage is already done. The Marvels‘ MCU cast was only able to start promoting the movie the very day it was released. The window to raise anticipation before reviews and box office numbers started rolling in was already gone by then. This means that The Marvels‘ box office could have been even worse without last-minute promotion. But on the bright side, it also means that future MCU movies will be able to put more focus on their advertising campaign months before their release.