The Marvels was destined to face a box office disaster even before its release. From the disappointing presales figures to the poor opening weekend, despite favorable reviews, The Marvels follows a similar fate as James Gunn’s Blue Beetle. However, among the two, Blue Beetle will be the clear winner, owing to its considerably lower budget compared to the MCU film.
Brie Larson’s The Marvels is expected to set a new Marvel record for the lowest-grossing film in the franchise. Despite its desperate state, the movie also set a positive record by becoming the highest-grossing theatrical release by a Black woman director.
James Gunn’s Blue Beetle’s Bombing At Box Office Was Far Better Than The Marvels’
According to Box Office Mojo, on its third weekday, The Marvels grossed $1.8 million at the domestic box office, facing a -45.8% drop from Tuesday. The movie made a total of $7 million in its first three weekdays at the domestic box office and almost a similar figure at the international box office. Comparatively, Blue Beetle had also previously collected $1.8 million on the same day, with the exception that it only faced a -44.4% drop.
The earnings of The Marvels at the box office totaled $125 million. With the competition from other films like The Hunger Games prequel, Trolls Band Together, and Napoleon, the Brie Larson starrer will end up losing millions for Disney. The massive budget of $274.8 million makes things even worse for the film. James Gunn‘s DCU film Blue Beetle, made on a budget of $104 million, ended its box office run at $129 million worldwide, becoming the lowest-grossing DCEU film.
Despite being a box office disaster, Blue Beetle suffers a far better failure than what The Marvels is headed for. Apart from the competition from other films, the lack of strong word-of-mouth publicity might hinder the film’s chances of recovering miraculously in its second week. The declining trend in superhero movies, in general, and Marvel movies, in particular, has definitely affected The Marvels’ box office.
James Gunn’s Blue Beetle And Brie Larson’s The Marvels Share A Similar Fate
Unfortunately, the colossal failure of both the Marvel film and the DC film is not justified completely, as both received favorable reviews from critics and audiences. This fact leads to the speculation that external factors played a major role in both films’ fate. Blue Beetle was a kind of leftover project from the scrapped DCEU, which made it less appealing to the mass DC audience.
The failure of earlier DCEU movies like Black Adam, The Flash, and Shazam! Fury of the Gods also affected the footfall for the film. Similarly, The Marvels was also affected by people’s disappointment with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and the Disney+ series like She-Hulk and Secret Invasion. Another major external factor that ruined a fighting chance for both films was the SAG AFTRA strikes, which prevented actors from promoting their films.
The fate of The Marvels will impact how Marvel Studios decides to go forward with projects from now on. Although Loki Season 2 came as a saving grace, the studio has a lot to do to bring back the audience base for their movies.
