As The Marvels' box office run approaches its end, the embattled Marvel Cinematic Universe project has come upon another unfortunate distinction to crown its time at the box office, causing Marvel Studios' parent company to turn away from the Captain Marvel sequel.

Captain Marvel 2 showed promise on paper, sporting a unique premise and being the sequel to the highly successful Captain Marvel, which crossed the coveted billion-dollar mark at the box office. However, the film was troubled even before it was released, with reports of backstage issues and a disheartening record for the MCU's most disliked trailer when its first promo dropped. This bad start led to conservative box office predictions, which came true when The Marvels opened to a record-low MCU box office. While this was a significant blow, there was some small hope of a comeback, as the end of the actors' strikes meant that the film’s stars could finally help promote the movie.

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Unfortunately, this comeback was nowhere to be seen, as The Marvels saw a second-weekend drop surpassing any MCU film, cementing the film’s grim fate at the box office. Per Exhibitor Relations Co., the film’s current total earnings of $80.7 million domestically and $116.3 internationally (totaling $197 million) put it down as the lowest-grossing MCU film of all time, a potential mark of shame that hung over the film from the moment it saw record-low Thursday box office totals. Even if The Marvels ends its theatrical run with $210 million worldwide (via The Hollywood Handle), it would still fail to beat The Incredible Hulk, which was the MCU's worst film on multiple metrics before The Marvels beat it.

Marvel Studios' parent organization, The Walt Disney Company, released a statement declaring an end to the company’s weekend reporting on The Marvels gross, only four weeks into the film’s disastrous theatrical run. "With The Marvels box office now winding down, we will stop weekend reporting of international/global grosses on this title," reads the statement. This decision was likely made to distance the company and stars from the discourse surrounding the film’s poor performance, a problem that even saw Stephen King call out reactions to The Marvels that seemed to celebrate the film’s failure.

It’s now pretty clear that the amount that The Marvels needs to gross to break even at the box office is far out of reach for the film, with all potential steam gone out of its theatrical run. This is a disaster for Marvel Studios, as this magnitude of failure for a big-budget film can’t be good for the bottom line and doesn’t help the discourse surrounding the MCU's current decline in performance. While Disney boss Bob Iger blamed The Marvels' box office crash on COVID-19's impact on set supervision, it's undeniable that the issue is more extensive than just one project, with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 being the only recent project that had the same shine as the MCU's heyday.

With Disney not reporting on it anymore and Aquaman 2 projected to do worse at the box office, The Marvels might soon be out of the public conversation. However, how Marvel Studios will learn and rebound from this bad patch remains to be seen. Kevin Feige's previous strategies for fixing fatigue haven’t worked, and it might be too late to salvage the company’s current phase.

The Marvels is now playing in theaters.

The Marvels

Carol Danvers teams up with Monica Rambeau and Kamala Khan in The Marvels. As the three heroes find their powers entangled, they must work together to stop Dar-Benn from enacting her evil plan.

Release Date

November 10, 2023

Director

Nia DaCosta

Cast

Brie Larson , Teyonah Parris , Iman Vellani , Zawe Ashton , Samuel L. Jackson

Runtime

105 Minutes

Studio

Marvel Studios

Franchise

MCU

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Source: Exhibitor Relations Co., The Hollywood Handle