Box office failure – The first sign of MCU’s decline

After more than a decade of dominating film culture, superhero studio Marvel has encountered extremely difficult challenges that they perhaps never expected. Starting with Black Widow released in 2020, which did not meet expectations, Marvel continuously failed at the box office with films in phase 4 of the MCU Cinematic Universe.

The latest movie Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania completely “failed” at the box office. After more than a month of release, the film only brought in 463 million USD worldwide. Movie revenue dropped precipitously after the first week of release. Not only did the film have bad sales, it was also severely criticized with a Rotten Tomatoes score as low as Eternals (47% positive reviews).

“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” failed miserably at the box office. (Photo: Marvel Studios)

This is a huge failure with previous stages in the Cinematic Universe that Marvel created. In its heyday (before Avengers: Endgame ), the studio’s superhero movies often broke box office records. The fact that these films achieved the dream revenue of 1 billion USD has become so familiar that the audience is no longer surprised by this news. Therefore, it can be clearly seen that the mass audience’s interest in Marvel movies is also gradually decreasing, decreasing along with box office revenue.

Superhero movies are no longer new

When the Marvel Cinematic Universe first debuted to the public, it was an extremely novel idea for the superhero genre. The audience is curious about how the concept of a linked cinematic universe will work, because this is something that has never been done before. MCU has thus become a famous concept, quickly developing thanks to its uniqueness and close connection.

However, after more than 10 years, this novelty has disappeared. Attracting audiences with new, unexpected content is becoming more and more difficult because they have already seen this same content… many years ago. The film formula in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is also easy to predict and falls into certain patterns, making the audience increasingly bored.

The MCU connects with fans, but the mass audience does not

(Photo: Marvel Studios)

The MCU actually has a clear strategy and vision for its films, which is to allow for the creation of a unified and interconnected world. This helps viewers easily follow and understand the main storyline of the movie.

With each phase, Marvel builds bigger events (think The Avengers or Avengers: Infinity War ) or a model to keep viewers hooked and discussing what’s to come. Therefore, Marvel often uses its movies to reach fans – certain segments of the audience. Most recent Marvel Cinematic Universe movies have focused on pleasing fans by bringing in some elements, characters, or references to the comics. But, this makes Marvel forget that it needs to focus on content and develop a good plot. As a result, there is no connection between Marvel movies and the general public.

The characters all acted blandly

For more than 10 years, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has brought to the audience characters with depth and realism, with great influence in Hollywood. From Iron Man to Thor, all are extremely engaging and dynamic, their stories easily captivate audiences because the characters have been thoroughly developed throughout the comic series.

Top MCU actors like Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson… all bring depth and sophistication to their characters. It is this immersion that enhances the quality of Marvel superhero movies. However, the departure of the old actors is an extremely painful attack on Marvel’s future.

Too many new characters and many storylines in “Eternals” make it difficult for the audience to focus on the main plot of the film. (Photo: Marvel Studios)

Due to the lack of attractive characters and not so great acting from the new cast, recent MCU films have not been rated. It’s difficult to immerse the audience in a story if the characters lack authenticity or the actors lack charisma. Even many new characters that appeared were bluntly criticized by the audience for being shallow.

Marvel lost its way

Thor: Love and Thunder, Eternals, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania… . Neither seems to have a clear connection in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. One thing that the studio needs to reconsider is that the MCU does not have a clear direction. This lack of direction makes the audience feel confused with all that is happening on the big screen.

Not stopping there, Victoria Alonso – Marvel’s main executive director – has officially quit her job. This is a “fatal” blow to Marvel at the present time when Ms. Alonso is one of the key “right-hand men” of boss Kevin Feige. She has also been with Marvel since its inception, joining the company in 2006, which was before the release of the studio’s first film – Iron Man (2008).

In general, Marvel’s decline is something the audience can completely notice. Fans worry that the studio has exhausted its brain power after 30 movies and eight streaming TV series over the past 15 years. However, Marvel can still turn the situation around with upcoming film projects if they change. The question here is how will Marvel regain trust from fans when their rival – DC – is getting better and better in their films.