Movies are all about stories, but sometimes, the story around the movie can be even more exciting than the movie itself. In fact, the making or breaking of a movie can go hand-in-hand with the buzz surrounding its release.
If the conversation around a film is that it will bomb, and then it bombs, the narrative quickly shifts to “it’s a bad movie.” For some reason, we’ve come to correlate a movie’s success at the box office with its quality. Why is that?
I’ve been thinking about this of late because of The Marvels, which was a box office “bomb.” This movie has recently found a new home on streaming, quickly becoming the most streamed movie on Disney+. Once it was available to stream, my social media feeds were flooded with people posting about their love for The Marvels.
So what changed? The movie is still the same and yet the narrative surrounding it couldn’t be more different.
The Marvels has me wondering if we’ve made some assumptions about box office numbers that aren’t accurate. What if there were some other lessons we could learn from this film’s “box office bomb” and streaming success?
Here are three things that I think The Marvels box office performance can reveal to us that have nothing to do with its quality.
The Difficulty of Creating an MCU Property Now
In the early 2010s, it was easy to get into the MCU. There were only a handful of movies, and you could focus on the hero(es) you wanted to. I could happily watch Iron Man or Thor without needing to watch all of the Captain America or Hulk movies.
Then, it was cool when Marvel began combining movies. We loved seeing these characters team up and intersect with each other in interesting ways. But I think that Marvel has created a bit of a monster for themselves. What started out as a really fun and exciting way to build these worlds has become overwhelming.
Today, you have to do a lot of homework to understand what’s going on in a new Marvel movie. For me, it’s too much work. While I will watch some movies and series, I’m unwilling to watch every single item in the cinematic universe.
The interconnected nature of the MCU means that the potential viewer base for these properties is shrinking with each new movie or show. Of course, there are people who will see the movie without doing the homework, but that’s probably not as big of an audience.
The nature of MCU properties today means that the potential audience is smaller than ever before. And that audience is continuing to shrink as the MCU continues to expand. That’s a problem that the team at Marvel will need to figure out how to solve.
The Difficulty of Getting People to Theaters
A new Marvel movie used to be the cinematic event of the season. People flocked to the theaters, and it was an incredible experience. Even though I’m not the biggest superhero movie fan, I had a great time going to the theaters with friends to see their favorite superhero on the big screen.
Marvel movies used to draw a crowd. But things are different today because the world is different.
Endgame closed the door on some of our favorite superheroes.
Chadwick Boseman passed away, changing the trajectory of Black Panther and the MCU.
COVID-19 came onto the scene, and the world shut down.
Recession, inflation, and other economic woes are a reality.
These days, people aren’t as excited to go to the theaters as they used to be for a lot of very valid reasons. Today, for many, going to the movies is an extra-special treat rather than a weekly or monthly staple.
Over the past few years, we have also grown more accustomed to seeing movies at home. Though it’s not as good as seeing a movie in the theater, it’s a cheaper option that is just easier to fit into our already busy lives.
With all the very good, very valid reasons not to go to the theater, a movie and its marketing need to show people why they need to show up. Both Barbenheimer and Dune: Part Two have shown us that there is a way to excite audiences to go see a movie in theaters.
Unfortunately, that was not a problem that the marketing team for The Marvels was able to solve. There wasn’t a strong enough motivator for people to leave their homes, so they didn’t.
The Difficulty of Breaking Through
I stay fairly up-to-date on movie releases, and I’m going to be honest: I missed this movie completely when it was in the theaters.
When writing this article, I looked up the date of its theatrical release, thinking that it got overlooked during the summer Barbenheimer craze. I was wrong. The Marvels was released in U.S. theaters on November 10th, around the same time as Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla and Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers.
There weren’t any big franchise movies sucking up all the oxygen when The Marvels was released, and still, people didn’t know about it.
What I find fascinating is that when this film came to Disney+, you couldn’t escape it. I was served so many ads for The Marvels and knew exactly when it was coming to streaming. I watched this movie soon after its streaming release because those ads had created excitement. My social media feeds were also filled with people sharing about how good the movie was, so I had to check it out.
When it came to streaming, The Marvels broke through. But that level of excitement and promotion didn’t seem to be present for its theatrical release.
Of course, it’s difficult to break through and capture people’s attention these days. It almost seems like Marvel didn’t even try to make this a box-office success, and that’s a real shame.
I am fascinated and frustrated by the idea that we tend to equate box office success with quality. While those factors are sometimes connected, more often than not, there are other factors at play.
The Marvels isn’t the greatest superhero movie in the MCU, but it’s also not the worst. This movie is fun, light-hearted, and made by people who love these characters. The Marvels didn’t deserve all of the vitriol it received online.
But its struggles commercially point to some difficulties that Marvel will have to overcome if they want to see their films have more success at the box office.
I don’t have the solutions to these problems, but I do know this: what used to work for Marvel no longer does. It’s a whole new world that requires new tactics to get their movies to gain traction.
Marvel innovated the superhero genre, making it one of the most popular types of film today. And if Marvel wants their newer properties to survive, they have to innovate again.
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Sarah Callen is a columnist for Boardwalk Times
