Film Producer Describes Marvel Studios’ Huge Loss Of Value With ‘The Marvels’ As “Rare And Hard To Do”
John F. Trent
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An anonymous film producer provided Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios with some backhanded praise describing The Marvels’ box office bomb as something “rare and hard to do.”
The Nia DaCosta directed and Brie Larson starring The Marvels bombed at the box office only bringing in $46.1 million domestically, the worst opening weekend in Marvel Cinematic Universe history.
Not only did it perform terribly at the domestic box office, but it only brought in another $62.8 million internationally for a global gross of $108.9 million, the worst global opening in Marvel Cinematic Universe history.
Reacting to the disastrous opening weekend an anonymous film producer had some harsh words for Marvel Studios producers and The Walt Disney Company while speaking with The Hollywood Reporter.
The producer questioned, “Why not simply make Captain Marvel 2? Why produce The Marvels when your audience identified, empathized, and even hero-identified with Brie Larson’s character? More importantly, why offer people similar or the same characters and stories that are on Disney+ if you expect them to go to a theater together? Disney/Marvel diluted their product.”
“Of course, a picture works or fails for other reasons too, but losing so much value picture-over-picture is rare and hard to do,” the producer added.
The loss in value the producer is likely talking about is the drop in box office revenues between Captain Marvel and The Marvels.
Captain Marvel had an opening weekend of $153.4 million domestically. It would go on to gross a total of $426.8 million domestically and add another $702.7 million internationally for a global haul of $1.1 billion.
Box office and financial analyst Valliant Renegade predicts The Marvels will likely peter out at the box office between $200 million and $250 million.
If The Marvels hits that high end mark of $250 million, it would still be a nearly 80% decline in revenue from Captain Marvel.
On the low end at $200 million, it’s an over 82% decline.
As for the question about making the film Captain Marvel 2, Marvel Studios originally announced The Marvels as Captain Marvel 2 during the Disney Investor Day 2020 presentation.
During that presentation Kevin Feige stated, “The fact about Ms. Marvel is that her idol is Captain Marvel. And Captain Marvel 2 is currently in the works with director Nia DaCosta.”
“And today I’m excited to announce that Ms. Marvel played by Iman will be joining Brie Larson and co-starring in Captain Marvel 2 along with a grown-up Monica Rambeau played by Teyonah Parris, who you will have already met in the upcoming WandaVision,” he added.
He concluded, “So by now you should start getting a sense of the interconnectedness that infuses all of our storytelling.”
Alongside his comments, they shared a graphic reading Captain Marvel 2.
The Captain Marvel 2 moniker would be publicly ditched back in May 2021 without an explanation. However, a rumor at the time from Drew Dietsch at Giant Freakin Robot detailed, “According to our source, Brie Larson saw Captain Marvel 2 turn into The Marvels because the powers-that-be at Marvel Studios did not feel that she ‘delivered’ in the first one on her own.”
“It was clear that the folks at Marvel Studios were not confident that another solo Captain Marvel movie was strong enough to stand on its own two legs,” he added.
It’s likely there were a number of reasons the film’s title was changed from Captain Marvel 2 to The Marvels. One of the big reasons might have been to reduce Larson’s prominence in the film given the reception the first one had from moviegoers. The film received a poor 6.8 out of 10 rating on IMDb.
It’s also likely Marvel Studios had internal metrics that detailed much of the original film’s box office was likely due to expert marketing and scheduling that sandwiched the film between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Not only was the film sandwiched between those two films, but the end credit scene of Avengers: Infinity War hinted that the Captain Marvel film was essential viewing for Avengers: Endgame. It was not.
Another reason is they likely hoped that the film would get audiences interested in their Disney+ offerings of Ms. Marvel and WandaVision where Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan and Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau were heavily featured.
What do you make of what this film producer had to say about The Marvels?
NEXT: ‘The Marvels’ Director Nia DaCosta Endorses Murdering One Individual In Order To Save The Many
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