Ms. Marvel Actress Iman Vellani Not Concerned About ‘The Marvels’ Disastrous Box Office Performance, Addresses Critics Labeling Film As Woke
Josh Berger
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Ever since releasing on the 10th of November, The Marvels has struggled to resonate with audiences. Interestingly, Ms. Marvel actress Iman Vellani says she is not concerned about the film’s disappointing performance at the box office.
In a recent interview with Yahoo, Vellani responded to the film’s marvellous financial flop, declaring, “I don’t want to focus on something that’s not even in my control, because what’s the point? That’s for [Disney CEO] Bob Iger.”
“I’m happy with the finished product, and the people that I care about enjoyed the film,” the actress explained, further noting, “It’s genuinely a good time watching this movie, and that’s all we can ask for with these films.”
Vellani elaborated, “It has superheroes, it takes place in space, it’s not that deep and it’s about teamwork and sisterhood. It’s a fun movie, and I’m just so happy that I can share it with people.”
Further, the actress addressed critics of The Marvels who have labelled the MCU’s latest outing as “woke,” claiming, “I had a lot of experience in high school alone when I would share my excitement with someone, and then they’d immediately shut me down for being so excited.”
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“I would hate to see that within the fan community as well, because it does feel awful. If people are excited about something, let them be excited about it,” Vellani went on, adding, “And if you have constructive criticism, voice it — but never be the wet blanket on someone else’s excitement.”
Regardless of the actress’ enthusiasm, The Marvels has been very poorly received by audiences — bombing at the box office with the worst opening weekend for a Marvel Studios-produced film since its debut in 2008 with Jon Favreau’s critically acclaimed Iron Man.
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Lacking the tactfulness displayed by Vellani, The Marvels director Nia DaCosta also weighed in on critics of the film, ultimately playing the victim card to dismiss accusations that both Marvel and its latest cinematic outing are “going woke.”
“There are pockets where you go because you’re like, ‘I’m a super fan. I want to exist in the space of just adoration — which includes civilized critique,’” the director prefaced, adding, “Then there are pockets that are really virulent and violent and racist — and sexist and homophobic and all those awful things.”
She then concluded, “And I choose the side of the light. That’s the part of fandom I’m most attracted to.”
Per box office data aggregator The Numbers, the film was only able to gross the fairly disappointing sum of $46,100,859 million domestically on opening weekend, followed by an abysmal drop the next week; barely managing to rake in a mediocre $10,200,000 domestically with a 78% drop from the week prior.
Unsurprisingly, disinterest in the film has made The Marvels break the record for both worst opening weekend and first Monday box office gross decline by not only a Marvel Studios production but also any other comic book film, performing even worse than Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Sony’s Morbius — with a respective 69.9% and 74% domestic audience drop-off.
While the film has struggled to find its audience domestically, The Marvels may have still been able to resonate with international moviegoers. Unfortunately for Disney, this is not the case, as the latest Marvel Studios endeavour has fared even worse outside of the U.S.
According to BoxOfficeReport, The Marvels saw a 67% drop from last weekend “with an estimated $19.5 million this weekend from 52 international markets,” further noting that the film’s respective totals “stand at $96.3 million internationally and at $161.3 million globally.”
With a production budget of $220 million, The Marvels may end up becoming Disney and Marvel Studios’ biggest financial flop to date. Furthermore, Variety’s estimates predict that the movie is also “shaping up to be the first MCU movie to fall short of $100 million at the domestic box office.”
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