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Stash

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The Marvels Is Tracking to Have the MCU's Worst Opening Weekend Ever​



Long-range box office tracking for The Marvels suggests not many Marvel Cinematic Universe fans are interested in watching Carol Danvers' next blockbuster feature, at least in theaters.

According to Boxoffice Pro, the upcoming MCU sequel is currently tracking to earn between $50 million and $75 million in its opening weekend at the domestic box office. If The Marvels comes in on the lower end of projections, the superhero movie would set an unfortunate new record in the MCU for the worst opening weekend ever. The Incredible Hulk (2008) currently holds that record with an opening weekend of $55.4 million, followed by Ant-Man (2015) with $57.2 million. Pre-sales trends are currently 69 percent behind the pace of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and 42 percent behind Eternals.

https://www.cbr.com/the-marvels-box-office-tracking-worst-opening-weekend-mcu/
That’s definitely what I expect. I’m not rushing out to see this one. And based on early numbers, I’m not alone.

I was guessing this was the case, and a recent barrage of advertisements confirmed my suspicions. I think Marvel/Disney know they’re in trouble here.

The MCU needs a big rebound, and this ain’t it.
 

Roadtrip635

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That’s definitely what I expect. I’m not rushing out to see this one. And based on early numbers, I’m not alone.

I was guessing this was the case, and a recent barrage of advertisements confirmed my suspicions. I think Marvel/Disney know they’re in trouble here.

The MCU needs a big rebound, and this ain’t it.
Same here, I'm not in any rush to see it. I'm sure I will eventually, but this is the Marvel movie I have been the least interested to see ever. I just never found the characters very compelling or interesting and the MCU's recent track record doesn't help my enthusiasm.
 

Stash

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Same here, I'm not in any rush to see it. I'm sure I will eventually, but this is the Marvel movie I have been the least interested to see ever. I just never found the characters very compelling or interesting and the MCU's recent track record doesn't help my enthusiasm.
I’m in complete agreement. This will I believe be the first MCU proper film I’m not seeing week one in theaters.

For me, that’s saying a lot.

And then I think there’s a significant gap between this and the next Marvel film. Hopefully the rebound happens then.
 

VaqueroTD

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The Marvels Is Tracking to Have the MCU's Worst Opening Weekend Ever​



Long-range box office tracking for The Marvels suggests not many Marvel Cinematic Universe fans are interested in watching Carol Danvers' next blockbuster feature, at least in theaters.

According to Boxoffice Pro, the upcoming MCU sequel is currently tracking to earn between $50 million and $75 million in its opening weekend at the domestic box office. If The Marvels comes in on the lower end of projections, the superhero movie would set an unfortunate new record in the MCU for the worst opening weekend ever. The Incredible Hulk (2008) currently holds that record with an opening weekend of $55.4 million, followed by Ant-Man (2015) with $57.2 million. Pre-sales trends are currently 69 percent behind the pace of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and 42 percent behind Eternals.

https://www.cbr.com/the-marvels-box-office-tracking-worst-opening-weekend-mcu/
No surprise. Hard to get excited about Captain Girl Power. Don't they know seeing a woman in a comic book shop is about as common as a day without a QB thread at the Zone?
 

nobody

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That’s definitely what I expect. I’m not rushing out to see this one. And based on early numbers, I’m not alone.

I was guessing this was the case, and a recent barrage of advertisements confirmed my suspicions. I think Marvel/Disney know they’re in trouble here.

The MCU needs a big rebound, and this ain’t it.
A huge part of the problem I mentioned many months ago here. Burnout. They just released way too much content each year and people are getting tired of it. Pile on top of that the drop of quality due to their need for quantity and their pandering to people that aren't even fans and there you have it. Star Wars has the same problem for a lot of the same reasons.
 

quickccc

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A huge part of the problem I mentioned many months ago here. Burnout. They just released way too much content each year and people are getting tired of it. Pile on top of that the drop of quality due to their need for quantity and their pandering to people that aren't even fans and there you have it. Star Wars has the same problem for a lot of the same reasons.
That's defines the case with MCU content with me quantity burnout. .. .
It would be entirely different if it was much a flood of quality content.
But it's been more of an over- flooding quantity number of suspect/questionable " quality' content.

She Hulk, Hawkeye, Ms Marvel, Captain Marvel, The Eternals, Shang Chi, Ant man, Moon Knight, ..Loki
Shazam, Shazam 2 Fury of the Gods, Blue Beetle, etc.

And I was already was not in fan at all of Capt. Marvel,.. but from looking at the trailers for the Marvels, .
Frankly I just find myself not being able to take it serious. It's something about that gives me the feeling it
gonna be a " bad corny" .... not a guilty pleasure " fun-corny" .
 

Stash

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A huge part of the problem I mentioned many months ago here. Burnout. They just released way too much content each year and people are getting tired of it.
Yeah. We all knew that ‘superhero fatigue’ had to set in at some point, right?


Pile on top of that the drop of quality due to their need for quantity and their pandering to people that aren't even fans and there you have it. Star Wars has the same problem for a lot of the same reasons.
They definitely went quantity over quality and it’s hurt them. And they’ve made some bad choices along the way. In trying to be all things to all people, they’ve disappointed their most loyal fans.

And I also think leaning so heavily into the Multiverse concept has turned people off. It might be a fun sandbox to play in creatively, but fans just want some action and a good story, not a physics lesson.

They’ve got a large hill to climb to get back to past levels with a lot of factors working against them.
 

Roadtrip635

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That's defines the case with MCU content with me quantity burnout. .. .
It would be entirely different if it was much a flood of quality content.
But it's been more of an over- flooding quantity number of suspect/questionable " quality' content.

She Hulk, Hawkeye, Ms Marvel, Captain Marvel, The Eternals, Shang Chi, Ant man, Moon Knight, ..Loki
Shazam, Shazam 2 Fury of the Gods, Blue Beetle, etc.

And I was already was not in fan at all of Capt. Marvel,.. but from looking at the trailers for the Marvels, .
Frankly I just find myself not being able to take it serious. It's something about that gives me the feeling it
gonna be a " bad corny" .... not a guilty pleasure " fun-corny" .
I think there are a lot of reasons of varying degrees. They've removed too many pillars of the MCU that fans have grown to love, Black Widow, Iron Man, Capt. America, Thor (sorta), Back Panther(no choice there), even Hawkeye all too close together and are trying to replace them with watered down copies. Giving Falcon a shield doesn't make him Captain America, the same way being able to build a suit of armor doesn't make them Tony Stark. They tried replacing too many characters too close together.

The problem gets compounded by the fact the MCU is becoming so big and bloated and trying to interconnect so many moving parts that fans won't get to see the newly introduced characters for a long time. When is the next Shang-Chi appearance? For example, fans loved Agatha Harkness, but it will be what 4 years before she reappears in a 6 episode streaming series? Turnaround shouldn't take that long for 6 TV episodes.

They have become so big and bloated, kinda like trying to turnaround and oil tanker and too enslaved to their own timeline to make adjustments. Maybe it's arrogance or overconfidence that they could just make a bunch of stuff and people would love it.

They just haven't figured out how to make TV episodes, seems like they try to make mini movies instead of embracing the medium and lean into the story telling, Marvel has decades worth of material to work with. It's OK to have a stand alone series with a character that doesn't have to tie into a movie plot line. A re-occurring series for a character would be great, focus on that character and their journey, it doesn't have to tie into a movie. Quantity is fine if you understand how to use the medium, instead their TV series feel like homework for the next movie. No one likes homework.


Not all fans will like every character or story, it's not like even comics readers read every title, but they put so many eggs into a basket. They spend so much to hit homeruns that they lose sight that getting those those base hits and doubles will also keep fan interest also. While it seems counterintuitive, making more series may make more sense. Budget friendly type series, that focus on the story and not SFX. Approach the medium similar to the way Netflix tackled it, you don't need big budget SFX to hook fans. You can have even more content instead of those big ebb and flows between the wait for the next series, which make people even more impatient, waiting for the characters they actually want to see.

Disney has owned the rights for X-Men,one of the most popular comics titles ever, for 4 years, but the next X-Men movie is still years away..........why? We mustn't disturb the Sacred Timeline? This should have been one of their top priorities, they are spending too much time trying to introduce new characters but they don't use characters that need no introduction. Most people would would rather see Wolverine, (at least Ryan Reynolds understands this), Storm, Phoenix, Cyclops etc than Ms. Marvel, Echo or Iron Heart. This isn't a concert where we need to sit through the opening act to get to the headliners. To make it worse they are trying to treat the opening acts like headliners.

The interconnected stories and world of the MCU is great when a story works, but the Multiverse story, at least for me, seems tiresome and already worn out. Marvel has used it several times but so have other franchises, TV and movies. It would have been fine if it were only a couple or small handful, but they wanted to stretch it out, Ant-Man, Wanda, Dr. Strange, Loki, Marvels etc and there is no end in sight. I don't know how much is super hero fatigue, at least for me, than fatigue for this overall story arc. Enough of the Multiverse concept already, just give me a stand alone, fun, action super hero movie/show. Unfortunately, they have already committed so much time and resources to this idea, they have trapped themselves. Again this MCU concept is great when it works, but when it doesn't they don't have an easy out. Watching these movies/shows feels like homework for the next movie.

Despite their past success, it seems like the MCU is being mismanaged in a number of ways.
 

DallasEast

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Disney has owned the rights for X-Men,one of the most popular comics titles ever, for 4 years, but the next X-Men movie is still years away..........why? We mustn't disturb the Sacred Timeline? This should have been one of their top priorities, they are spending too much time trying to introduce new characters but they don't use characters that need no introduction. Most people would would rather see Wolverine, (at least Ryan Reynolds understands this), Storm, Phoenix, Cyclops etc than Ms. Marvel, Echo or Iron Heart. This isn't a concert where we need to sit through the opening act to get to the headliners. To make it worse they are trying to treat the opening acts like headliners.
Just my two cents but several factors may have helped contribute to delaying the mutants re-introduction:
  1. Disney and Marvel's decision to re-start the animated series. X-Men1997 is rumored to debut this January. I still have not seen an 'official' announcement yet. Marvel.com has paperback news of the X-Men for New York Comic Con. Disneyplus.com's Coming Soon Marvel news is a Lego Avengers whatever (smh).
  2. Deadpool 3 is slated for May.
I think these are some reasons why there has not been any firm mutant MCU news. My belief is Kevin Feige wants the animated series to revigorated the older casual fanbase, who grew up with the original series in the 1990s, while creating some young fans of the concept first.

I believe that may have been part of the plan all along but D3 threw a monkey wrench into that strategy. Logan and Dark Phoenix were or should have been the capstone of live action X-Men for audiences by 2019. The New Mutants released a year later but was not memorable and disconnected with the core characters anyway, so that film would not have mattered to any future planning.

Both Hugh Jackman, plus first and second generation X-Men actors would have been retired, A clean casting slate could have been implemented. The enormously popular Jackman, who enjoyed a prototype portrayal of the character in my opinion, will re-establish him as Wolverine with audiences. I think the new X-Men was pushed back further to allow this Jackman/Wolverine Blip (pun intended) to come out, shine and run its course in the audience psyche first. It might explain why a tentative but tangible future release date was announced for the new live action Fantastic Four but not for the mutants.
 

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Lucasfilm and Marvel Studios Were Forced to Announce Star Wars and MCU Projects Before They Were Ready

By Maca Reynolds | MovieWeb
October 23, 2023

<snip>


Similarly, Marvel Studios massively increased output once under the ownership of Disney, with the Marvel Cinematic Universe growing to become the biggest franchise in the world. As well as the continuing cinematic saga releasing up to four movies a year, the dawn of Disney+ saw the arrival of several TV shows, such as WandaVision, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and Loki.

Being part of the largest entertainment company in the world can bring a lot of pressure for anyone, even Lucasfilm or the equally expansive Marvel Studios. In the new book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards detail how both Kathleen Kennedy and Kevin Feige were forced to announce projects for their franchises that were not ready in order to meet Disney's demands during Investor Day back in 2020 (via Screen Rant):

"Kevin Feige and Lucasfilm chair Kathleen Kennedy appeared onscreen to announce a dizzying number of new projects... Both Feige and Kennedy were pressured into announcing projects that were nowhere near ready, some of which have since been canceled... or significantly overhauled and delayed."​
Read more
 

VaqueroTD

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Rumor: Kelsey Grammar coming back as Beast.

Little bit of CGI and make-up, no problem for his age.

From article:

The rumor began to rumble across X, formerly known as Twitter, with @DanielRPK teasing that "Someone who was the perfect casting for a certain role and never got his chance to do justice with it cuz they wasted him on a ****** movie is coming back. That's all I'm gonna say."

That's how I've always thought of his casting too, so would not be shocked if true.

I would just caution this is from Microsoft's AI gossip engine which is usually way off. This is where I saw the rumor the Cowboys were trading for Kyle Pitts.

Any social media rumor, no matter how bizarre, instantly gets turned into a legit-looking article and linked on your page if they know you like the topic.
 

Stash

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Rumor: Kelsey Grammar coming back as Beast.

Little bit of CGI and make-up, no problem for his age.

From article:



That's how I've always thought of his casting too, so would not be shocked if true.

I would just caution this is from Microsoft's AI gossip engine which is usually way off. This is where I saw the rumor the Cowboys were trading for Kyle Pitts.

Any social media rumor, no matter how bizarre, instantly gets turned into a legit-looking article and linked on your page if they know you like the topic.
I don’t believe this one for a second.
 

John813

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Yea, 0% interest in watching The Marvels/actually paying for the movie.
Nothing against the actors or any off the set stuff.
Just seems like a filler movie and the premise just seems meh.

They had a great cast and run. The remaining characters just seem meh and no one of the new introductions seem really worth watching as standalone films.
Need to get into introducing the X-men and not messing up the casting. Will be hard enough trying to replace Hugh-even with his string of meh sequels outside of Logan.

Also, haven't looked this up, but any reason why Loki is just staying in the TV series and not back in any film? Is that a choice from Tom, or Marvel just wants him to showcase the TV series?
Haven't watched season 2 yet. Want to watch 2 episodes at a time in a weekend.
 
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Runwildboys

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Yea, 0% interest in watching The Marvels/actually paying for the movie.
Nothing against the actors or any off the set stuff.
Just seems like a filler movie and the premise just seems meh.

They had a great cast and run. The remaining characters just seem meh and no one of the new introductions seem really worth watching as standalone films.
Need to get into introducing the X-men and not messing up the casting. Will be hard enough trying to replace Hugh-even with his string of meh sequels outside of Logan.

Also, haven't looked this up, but any reason why Loki is just staying in the TV series and not back in any film? Is that a choice from Tom, or Marvel just wants him to showcase the TV series?
Haven't watched season 2 yet. Want to watch 2 episodes at a time in a weekend.
Loki died in Infinity Wars, so maybe that's why you won't see him in any more movies, unless it's a prequel.
 

John813

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Loki died in Infinity Wars, so maybe that's why you won't see him in any more movies, unless it's a prequel.
True, Guess I got confused on if he ever did enter the Earth 616 realm or not during season 1. Guess it would be odd for him to come back to the main universe.
 

DallasEast

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Also, haven't looked this up, but any reason why Loki is just staying in the TV series and not back in any film? Is that a choice from Tom, or Marvel just wants him to showcase the TV series?
Haven't watched season 2 yet. Want to watch 2 episodes at a time in a weekend.
In my opinion, Kevin Feige wants Hiddleston as a familial connection between the previous phases and these heavy time paradox laden phases. It may also be a professional boon to him personally for getting essentially paid as a small screen audience tour guide for any story connecting big screen films like Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania. The brief television episodic season is easy money in comparison to full-fledged movie work. Of course, none of it matters, the series or Hiddleston's contributions, to anyone not subscribing to Disney+.
Loki died in Infinity Wars, so maybe that's why you won't see him in any more movies, unless it's a prequel.
True, Guess I got confused on if he ever did enter the Earth 616 realm or not during season 1. Guess it would be odd for him to come back to the main universe.
When you think about it, nothing is stopping Hiddleston from reprising his role as A Loki. This is a multiverse format. Anything goes. The Loki variant seen in the series can take over the prime Loki's place in any timeline that has not been pruned. Basically the same principle can be applied to any living actor written off in the previous phases.
 

Stash

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Yea, 0% interest in watching The Marvels/actually paying for the movie.
Nothing against the actors or any off the set stuff.
Just seems like a filler movie and the premise just seems meh.

They had a great cast and run. The remaining characters just seem meh and no one of the new introductions seem really worth watching as standalone films.
Need to get into introducing the X-men and not messing up the casting. Will be hard enough trying to replace Hugh-even with his string of meh sequels outside of Logan.

Also, haven't looked this up, but any reason why Loki is just staying in the TV series and not back in any film? Is that a choice from Tom, or Marvel just wants him to showcase the TV series?
Haven't watched season 2 yet. Want to watch 2 episodes at a time in a weekend.
I agree with you. I think they need to do 1 of 2 things:

1. Create more films directly connected to a big event

2. Roll out the MCU’s version of the X-Men.

And I think Loki is focused on the TV series because there are no big stories in film worthy of bringing him back.
 

Stash

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In my opinion, Kevin Feige wants Hiddleston as a familial connection between the previous phases and these heavy time paradox laden phases. It may also be a professional boon to him personally for getting essentially paid as a small screen audience tour guide for any story connecting big screen films like Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania. The brief television episodic season is easy money in comparison to full-fledged movie work. Of course, none of it matters, the series or Hiddleston's contributions, to anyone not subscribing to Disney+.


When you think about it, nothing is stopping Hiddleston from reprising his role as A Loki. This is a multiverse format. Anything goes. The Loki variant seen in the series can take over the prime Loki's place in any timeline that has not been pruned. Basically the same principle can be applied to any living actor written off in the previous phases.
Agreed. And my personal theory is that Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars will kill off some and introduce new characters before slamming the door shut on the Multiverse and establishing a new status quo.
 
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