The most recent movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe had an historic failure at the box office, grossing a mere $47 million during opening weekend to mark the blockbuster franchise’s worst-ever performance.
The Marvels, a sequel to Captain Marvel which also starred actress Brie Larson, significantly missed opening weekend projections. The first film in the series earned more than $153 million four years ago during its opening weekend.
The Marvels features three female leads and was directed by a black female director, Nia DaCosta, who at thirty-four years old is the youngest director in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Despite the progressive cast and director, however, the film grossed some $20 million less than industry predictions.
Rotten Tomatoes rated The Marvels at a 62% critic score, with the New York Times titling their review “You’ve Seen This Movie 32 Times Before.”
The numbers reflect multiple ongoing trends with Hollywood, combining fatigue with big-budget movies and frustration with the embrace of wokeness from companies such as Disney, which owns Marvel Entertainment. The film also fared poorly in part due to the actor strike that ended shortly before the premiere, meaning that the actors could not promote the film as they had promoted predecessors.
Larsen was criticized over Captain Marvel after she contended that too many film critics are white males and claimed that the movie was needed for female empowerment.
Beyond conservative-leaning moviegoers, Disney has earned high-profile criticism for the firm’s devotion to wokeness: Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis waged a legal battle with Disney after the company rebuked legislation that bans classroom discussions about homosexuality and transgenderism for young elementary schoolers.
Earlier this year, the remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs caused a stir after the film featured Rachel Zegler, a Latina actress, and used actors of various races, heights, and genders instead of dwarfs. “There’s nothing wrong with casting a diverse crew, but Disney is refashioning a classic fairy tale merely to virtue signal," asserted one opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, which added that wokeness has been decreasing the company's performance.
Disney recently used LGBT romantic themes in Lightyear, a spinoff of the popular Toy Story franchise, resulting in low box office turnout. One executive at Pixar eventually admitted they “asked too much of the audience” to include homosexual content in the film.
