‘The Marvels’ Sets Another Record, Posts Worst Second Weekend Box Office Drop-Off In Comic Book Movie History

Spencer Baculi |

Nov 19, 2023

Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) readies herself for the Kree's counter-attack in The Marvels (2023), Marvel Entertainment

‘Higher, Further, Faster’? Far from it.

In continuing to solidify its reputation as one of the biggest duds to ever hit the silver screen, The Marvels has followed-up its record-breaking opening weekend and first Monday box offices underperformances by posting the worst second weekend box audience drop-off in the history of not just the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but comic book movies as a whole.

Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) takes to the skies in The Marvels (2023), Marvel Entertainment

Per information provided by box office data aggregator The Numbers, The Marvels only managed to pull in $10,200,000 domestically during its second weekend in theaters – a drop of 78% when compared against its $46,100,859 pull a week prior.

The Marvels domestic box office performance across its first two weekends via The-Numbers

As noted above, this figure represents the worst such audience drop-off suffered by any MCU or comic book film, beating out both the respective 69.9% and 74% faced by previous record holders Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Morbius.

Further, this audience disinterest also left The Marvels to walk away from the weekend as its fourth most popular film, coming in behind The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes ($44,000,000), Trolls Band Together ($30,600,000), and Sony’s holiday-themed schlock-horror film Thanksgiving (which tied Marvel’s latest in box office total, but did so with 800 less available theaters).

Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) prepares to activate the Quantum Bands in The Marvels (2023), Marvel Entertainment

And unfortunately for Kevin Feige and company, the film did not fare any better internationally.

According to a review of early numbers provided by fellow box office data aggregator BoxOfficeReport.com, The Marvels pulled in a lowly `$19.5 million among non-US audiences in its second weekend.

Compared to its opening pull of $96.3 million, should these figures stand, they would indicate that the film saw a slightly-worse international second-weekend drop-off of 80%.

The Marvels Box Office. Archive Link BoxOfficeReport.com via Twitter — Archive Link BoxOfficeReport.com via Twitter

Making matters even worse for Marvel is the fact that, at this rate, the film will likely fail to come anywhere close to making back its (undoubtedly conservatively) reported budget of $220 million.

Further, per Variety’s estimates, The Marvels is also “shaping up to be the first MCU movie to fall short of $100 million at the domestic box office.”

Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) is excited to meet Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) in The Marvels (2023), Marvel Entertainment

All in all, it seems that The Marvels is shaping up to the be the definitive death-knell of the MCU’s current ‘fly-by-night, find-the-story-in-editing, throw-CGI-onto-everything’ way of film making.

And while both Feige and current Disney CEO Bob Iger have previously signaled some level of recognition towards Marvel Studios’ falling quality, whether or not this film’s disastrous performance will lead to a positive turning point for the MCU ultimately remains to be seen.