In 2008, Marvel Studios released one of the riskiest projects in recent memory, “Iron Man”. Billed as a superhero movie with the hero being portrayed by a B-list actor, the movie had an astronomical budget of about $140 million. This led to immense speculation that the movie would be a flop.
Instead, the movie grossed its budget and then some during the opening weekend, bringing in about $148 million. So began a period of about twelve years where Marvel dominated box offices worldwide whenever a new movie was released.
Some of the more notable examples include “Avengers: Infinity War”, which for three straight weeks near the end of April 2018 grossed $750 million with $400 million in the opening week. Another example is “Avengers: Endgame”. For three straight weeks in late April – early May 2019, “Endgame” grossed about $950 million with an opening weekend gross of about $500 million.
However, fans may have already seen the downturn of the MCU. In late 2021, Marvel Studios released what may be their biggest flop ever with the highly controversial movie, “The Eternals”. Released with a budget of about $276 million, it stayed at the top of the charts for just two weeks, grossing just about $220 million.
Experts speculate the opening weekend of “The Marvels” will not clear $100 million gross. It is easy to see why people may say the MCU is in a downward spiral.
James Marker, a freshman at the University of North Georgia, said he used to love Marvel movies, but he will not continue to support them after it was publicized how they run things.
“They promote homogenization in filmmaking, they overwork their VFX teams and the movies are just boring.” – James Marker, a freshman at UNG
Another student shares Marker’s sentiment of not watching the movies.
Carter Daum, a freshman at UNG, said that Marvel has lost his interest. Daum says that it started with “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”, which was released earlier this year to similar reactions from fans to “The Eternals”.
Nathaniel Hines, a senior at UNG, says that he would go see “The Marvels” as long as his friends go and see it with him. For him, it seems to be about the camaraderie and spending time with his buddies.
Time will tell if “The Marvels” can save the MCU. One thing that is certain is that if this movie flops, Marvel will be in some serious hot water.
