The early reviews for The Marvels are here, and things are not looking good for Marvel Studios. While social media users and some media outlets have posted rave reviews about the movie, it barely escaped the rotten side of scoring on Rotten Tomatoes. With a score of 60% at the time of writing, the movie only fared better than Eternals and Ant-Man 3 among the MCU movies. It could not even surpass Thor: Love and Thunder, a movie that disappointed many.
With a record-low pre-sales figure for a Marvel movie, The Marvels needs a much better Rotten Tomatoes score to help with word-of-mouth. Interestingly, the first movie featuring Carol Danvers, Captain Marvel, scored 79% on the Tomatometer and went on to gross $1.13 billion at the box office.
Fans React To The Marvels‘ Poor Rotten Tomatoes Score
When the early scores for The Marvels arrived on Rotten Tomatoes, it was not a shock for Marvel fans. Some fans hoped the movie would be miraculously good to pull Marvel out of its current declining trend. However, the nearly zero publicity combined with the poor reception of recent movies meant that The Marvels should have scored a great fresh score to save face for Marvel.
However, some critics and social media users did find the movie ‘fun’, with many praising the performance of Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel. When the Rotten Tomatoes score (55% at the time) was published on X by @screentime, users were quick to comment on the quality of the Brie Larson movie, with some calling The Marvels a “sh*t” movie.
#TheMarvels debuts at 55% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 61 reviews pic.twitter.com/UY8b1Gz4I0
— ScreenTime (@screentime) November 8, 2023
Other fan reactions ranged from outright criticizing the movie to stating that they had hoped for better. Some called the movie “The Midvels” to comment on its quality, while others insisted that Disney must bring back Robert Downey Jr. at all costs to save the MCU. Some fan reactions read:
Nobody’s watching this shit so it makes sense
— RedY ☄ (@RedYMVP) November 8, 2023
I’m surprised it got more than eternals
— Screen Wizard 🧙♂️ (@screenwizardz) November 9, 2023
The Midvels
— After The Wasteland’s (@AFTTHWALNDS) November 8, 2023
Damn. Was hoping they pulled it back. Audience scores to come but I expect they’ll be the same if not worse
— CR Blxcky (@CRBlxcky) November 8, 2023
Christ of Almighty 😭😭😭😭😭😭
It’s even worse than the first one— Azeem⁴⁴ (@_AzeemP) November 8, 2023
Robert Downey Jr.’s phone is probably getting blown up by Disney. 😂
— Austin Clayton (@AustinClayton4) November 8, 2023
SlashFilm called the movie a “painfully rushed affair” but praised Vellani’s acting in the film. Inverse wrote that the film embodied Marvel’s “current identity crisis”. However, the film received positive reviews from The Independent, who shared that Nia DaCosta’s movie offered one thing Marvel is missing these days – heroes we actually want to root for.
The Marvels Was Plagued With Several Problems
Even if the movie garners more positive reviews in the coming days, its fate may have been sealed by its lack of promotion. At a time when promotions matter the most for Marvel movies to bring in first-day audiences, The Marvels had less than stellar marketing efforts. The actors’ strike also prevented Brie Larson and others from promoting the film in any way.
Estimates predict that The Marvels will collect somewhere between $121 million and $189 million at the domestic box office. These figures are nowhere near the first film’s domestic gross of $426.8 million, and even below the film’s own budget. The previously released Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania only made matters worse with its lousy box office performance. Some fans also alleged a planned attack against the female-led movie.
Even if the film receives a positive reception from the larger audiences, the fate of Blue Beetle may await the Marvel film. The Marvels opens in theaters tomorrow.
