‘The Marvels’ will end its run as the lowest-grossing MCU movie of all time.
The superhero movies were a lot of fun, for a long time, but I hope this marks somewhat of an end to their era. It was fun, but it’s time to move on.
It’s a genre like any other, it’s been around for a lot longer than you realize, just think back to the original Superman and other hero movies from the 30s. Just like Westerns they’ll come and go but they’ll never disappear
Yeah, but back when Superman was released we would only get a few movies here and there. The last decade and a half have been a bit of an overload.
It was fine until Avengers end game, after that I feel like they can all be Disney+ movies
It was before that, engame was just the last one that was still kinda okay. Or maybe it was just because the story concluded.
I like comic books a lot, but i was never into marvel for no real reason. I still liked to see comic books coming to life. But if you take away the hype, the movies are not very good. Like when i saw the iron man movies and avengers, i thought i’m gonna rewatch these movies over and over, but most of them don’t hold up at all for me.
For us (two marvel fans, one of whom prefers to get to experience the films first in a theater setting) this has nothing to do with the movie and everything to do with how broke we are. Why would we spend 35-45 bucks on two hours when we could get 2-3 months of streaming for the same price? What we’re actually doing with the money is neither, though. We’re buying rice and chicken to prepare at home and watching the DVDs we bought a decade ago.
We are “destroying” the theater business by being frugal! lol
Bummer, I’m still looking forward to seeing this when it comes out. I like the premise, but I realized over the pandemic that I don’t actually like theaters all that much.
Watching at home with my wife is a much more pleasant experience.
I’m very interested in seeing ‘The Marvels’ because I think it’s an interesting premise that’s different from the other Marvel properties but I have no interest in seeing it in the theatres. The last several times I went to the theatre, it was dirty, people wouldn’t stop talking, and the $15 popcorn was terrible.
Did any of these jokers ever consider that the movie isn’t succeeding because theatres are terrible and not because the movie is bad? Add that to the justifiable Marvel burn-out that the article correctly mentions and it’s no wonder people aren’t seeing it in theatres.
The difference is Disney Plus is now a thing, so it feels like wasting the money to go to a theater for a movie I’m already, in a sense, paying to eventually see.
Plus everything you’ve said.
I actually don’t mind theaters, but I prefer staying home.
Same. At this point, the only thing that will really get me to go back are Dolby and/or IMAX shows for movies that I feel like would really be enhanced by that. That’s going to be rare, though. Movie theatres need to figure their shit out.
Last movie I saw in the theater was Dune and I’ll probably see Dune II in the theater as well.
However that’s also because I saw it with my 21 year old nephew and if I ask him to go see the sequel he’d be in.
They probably did consider that but noticed that other movies are still succeeding. Barbie made a ton of money just a few months ago— 5x that of The Marvels, making it the highest grossing film of the year— and it’s reasonably unlikely that theaters have significantly declined in quality since.
Another Marvel movie, Guardians of the Galaxy 3, made 3x that of The Marvels about seven months ago. Hence why said jokers are looking at other factors, or at least some reasons why Marvel and Disney as a whole have had this meteoric fall.
That’s a stretch, I think. Barbie, Oppenheimer, and Guardians all had major advantages that made them the first visit back to the theatres for a lot of people. Barbie and Oppenheimer, specifically, also had the FOMO aspect of seeing them as a combo for the memes. Unfortunately, that experience wasn’t great for most theatre goers. On top of that, theatres kept trying to squeeze the stone and raised prices and even tried to push some bullshit VIP seats for extra money. And I’m not talking about nicer seats. Just seats closer to the middle that were more expensive. Sticky seats, people talking, and gourmet garbage don’t suddenly make that worthwhile. Barbie might not have succeeded if it wasn’t Barbie, Oppenheimer might not have succeeded if it wasn’t an IMAX movie by Nolan, and Guardians might not have succeeded if it wasn’t a finale to a very well-received trilogy. The Marvels is none of those things.
Is your thinking that all other movies from now will fail then? There were other successes this year as well, like Mario, so to me it seems a much larger stretch that theater mediocrity is just now causing huge plummets and somehow coinciding with a significant quality decline in Disney/Marvel content, yet other movies are still succeeding.
AMC’s middle seat pricing was pretty stupid but never actually launched. It was a pilot program thing that didn’t expand past a few test theaters. It generated bad press but probably didn’t have much impact overall. Theater pricing continues to be terrible, which is likely preventing a lot of people from going to the movies, but it’s not causing a uniform drop in the industry.
And really, beyond that, theaters have sucked for a long time. When there are so many other factors from franchise fatigue to audiences waiting for a streaming service debut, I’m not seeing a compelling reason that the theaters themselves are suddenly making such a large impact.
Then we have the movies that did succeed recently: Hunger Games is doing well right now in the same theater conditions. Avatar 2 is the third highest grossing movie (nominal) of all time and happened last year. Maverick was a resounding and frankly somewhat unbelievable success. Barbie and Oppenheimer. Mario made >1.35bil right before Barbie and had no significant meme value to my knowledge. John Wick 4 and Spider-Verse weren’t anything special, just more sequels to well liked movies, and those saw large improvements (34% and 80% respectively) over their predecessors both in 2023. Audiences showed up for regular sequels a few months ago but not now, except for Hunger Games?
Then look at the ones which failed immensely: The Flash, Indiana Jones 5, Blue Beetle, The Marvels, Wish, and probably others. There are a few obvious shared qualities between many of these, but it’s theater conditions that killed these specific films but not others…?
Anyway sorry this comment is so long! I typed it up in bursts while doing other things. Some of it is probably redundant because I kept losing my train of thought, there are other things I likely forgot to mention that may come to me if you respond. Also I don’t fully disagree with you because theaters really aren’t worth my time and money either, I just feel like it’s very obviously not the cause here and is more likely to be seen in the continuing small decrease in actual tickets sold year over year. And here’s my standard disclaimer that I’m not picking a fight, I’m not on Lemmy for the internet arguments of old and all of this is merely mild disagreement
Notice the pattern that you’re mentioning, though. All the films you’re claiming were successes are all sequels to incredibly successful films or are films based on properties that are globally successful already and were their first forays since theatres had to close for COVID. Then look at all the failures you listed - new films/characters without previous films or a singular sequel to a franchise that is widely considered past its prime whose last film was almost universally panned.
My thinking is not that all other movies will fail but that people won’t see them in the theatres and, if they do, they won’t be as successful as similar films in the past. When our group saw Avatar 2, every single person in the group said that wouldn’t be coming back to the theatre for a movie until something like Avatar 3 and that was only because it’s a 3D IMAX movie best viewed that way.
Right, but that’s the point and is why the originally mentioned jokers are looking at other factors. Sequels being successful with struggling original films has been status quo for years, and does not indicate that theater conditions plays a large part in the decline seen this year. Your group may feel that way but groups can be very like minded, especially for minor things wherein agreeing is trivial, and one group isn’t terribly representative of society. Doubly so when we consider other countries which do not have the same theater conditions but follow the trends for those films.
“New films/characters without previous films or a singular sequel to a franchise that is widely considered past its prime whose last film was almost universally panned”— it is reasonably unclear which film in the list you’re referring to. The Flash was a sequel to a franchise widely considered past its prime whose last film (DC, Shazam 2) was almost universally panned. Indiana Jones 5 was a sequel to a franchise widely considered past its prime whose last film (IJ, Crystal Skull) was almost universally panned. The Marvels was a sequel to a franchise widely considered past its prime whose second to last film (Marvel, Quantumania) was almost universally panned. Blue Beetle too was a sequel to a franchise widely considered past its prime whose last film (DC, The Flash) was almost universally panned. Four out of five of the listed are direct entries into existing franchises and not original, and the final one Wish could be argued as another entry into the Princess franchise as it is being marketed as (see the theme parks).
Hence what is a difficult to deny trend: sequels with goodwill, quality, and a solid predecessor succeed. Sequels that have none of these fail. The trend of audience disinterest has been leading this way since Covid “ended”, and there’s a decrease in box office revenue that directly accompanies it. There is clear data which makes a much, much more compelling argument than anecdotes of your local theater.
Also difficult to deny: theaters aren’t noticeably worse than they’ve been the past few years. Actually, pricing aside, they’re probably better thanks to new screen/audio tech and renovations— mine is brand new and very nice, so while I don’t actually watch many movies in theater (last was Barbie, been there thrice this year), I find it fairly enjoyable when I do. You haven’t said why a perceived decline in theater quality would suddenly have such massive impact when they’ve either been decaying at the same rate or improving, nor why this is not US-specific when the US does not dictate worldwide theater industry.
I think you’re really stretching here. Flash is not a sequel to Shazam 2 and Blue Beetle is not a sequel to Flash. The Marvels is also not a sequel unless you consider it a direct sequel to both Wandavision and Ms. Marvel, neither of which were films, or to Captain Marvel which it is not being marketed as. Claiming that Wish is also a sequel or another entry in the Princess franchise is just disingenuous. These films have nothing to do the previous ones and would, at best, be considered successors rather than sequels.
The data shows that movies that don’t succeed in theatres are still seeing success on streaming services. That alone should show that the theatres are, at a minimum, a big enough part of the problem (whether it’s because they’re worse, more expensive, or just not worthwhile anymore) that they’re not sustainable in a post-Marvel world.
You said franchise. Far, far more disingenuous to say an entry into a franchise has nothing to do with the previous entry. The Marvels is suffering a massive drop from Captain Marvel in line with the current drop in MCU, as nearly every other film mentioned did. You acknowledge that there is less interest in Marvel, but not that it would produce disinterest in the next entry? The Marvels’ alone shows a huge drop out of line from CM, but fits right into the overall trend of MCU. We’ll have another similar film soon, Aquaman 2, which will probably see a large drop from Aquaman because audiences are real people who know that it’s another DC movie. These movies don’t exist in vacuums and audiences (real people) know this.
It’s certainly a bold claim that a movie won’t benefit or suffer from its franchise, did audiences love theaters so much in 2019 that they flocked to Captain Marvel for the theater experience? Marvel had new characters appear in their own movies frequently and all of them, from Captain America to Shang-Chi succeeded— you genuinely believe this was independent of its franchise, and because theaters were… better until 2022? All based on your personal, anecdotal experience with Avatar 2?
It also somewhat surprises me that you do seem to think theater conditions play such a massive part and the studios haven’t considered it. They don’t own the theaters and have no stake in them, they’d blame theaters to their shareholders if it were believable. Surely some of the people with real stakes in this would have thought about this? Are corporations like Disney usually quick to blame themselves for failing films? Like really, I think Iger wouldn’t have admitted these movies were blunders if the theater excuse was even marginally believable.
Excuse my incredulous tone, it seems like we’re going in circles. I feel like you’re inclined to ignore every other factor despite the evidence, from the sudden speed of the decline to other sequels succeeding to the fact that it’s not a US-only phenomenon, since you only respond to one or two points and don’t seem to notice all the other evidence. Which is fine, I don’t expect thorough conversations on the internet, but it’s not fun to put thought into replies only for entire points to be ignored wholesale. So probably best if we don’t continue. Please don’t take this as a rude thing, if you scroll through my profile I’m here for good vibes and thoughtful/enjoyable back and forth so I don’t reply to certain things if they’re less than productive, not because of personal dislike or anything like that. I still respect your opinion and there are no hard feelings, and none of this is meant to read harshly, I know it can be hard to get tone across in words. You can still respond if you’d like, of course; it might be fun to actually respond to all my various points now and get the last word or whatever, and in the unlikely event that anyone else sees this comment chain, maybe it’ll generate a response from someone else and that could be good. I won’t see any response here at all though so probably not the best use of your time
That said if you really do want to continue, cause I do enjoy a thoughtful back and forth, you can PM me about it. Just cause I won’t see any responses to this comment doesn’t mean I won’t see PMs either
I’m in Canada. Last time I took my wife and daughter to the movie theatre, I spent about $75+ between the tickets, drinks/popcorn. Fuck that nonsense, it’s not worth it anymore.
My wife and I went to a dine-in theatre and I realized too late that I was paying for a dinner date with my wife and I wasn’t even allowed to talk to her. We could have gone to a nicer restaurant (like a steakhouse) and watched the movie at home where it didn’t smell like stale “butter” and we didn’t have to listen to some loud a-hole whispering about the man-hating politics of Barbie.
Not worth it at all.
I saw it and it was just a fun romp. Nothing incredible, but silly and fun. That’s all I need in a movie date, honestly.
That’s my household. We had stopped going to theaters probably two years before Covid even happened for all but the absolute biggest films we wanted to see. When we used to go to something literally every Friday for years. But the theaters kept getting worse and charging more and long ago crossed the line for “worth it”
Covid was just the last straw to really put some effort into making home better for movies.
Now? The only movie we have on our list that will get us out of the house for it is Dune part 2, and even that is iffy.
I have been reading a bunch of articles purporting to explain why, and they all talk about the tiny fraction of fans who complain about the MCU going “woke.” That cannot possibly explain a failure of this magnitude.
Having seen the film, my guess is it’s a combination of the following:
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The movie itself is mediocre, with an inconsistent tone and not a lot for fans to get excited about, plus a few scenes were just plain silly.
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People are beyond broke and won’t spend money at the theater unless it’s a guaranteed spectacular experience.
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Folks already pay for Disney+ and know they’ll be able to see it soon. They’re just not in a rush.
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Most didn’t watch Ms. Marvel and suspect they may not get what’s going on without doing so first.
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The MCU has fragmented into so many different moving parts that only the most dedicated fans have time to watch it all. The storyline has become incoherent. Fatigue has set in.
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People, or landlords? They aren’t really the same thing. If you sold your house in the last 5 years, more often than not you’ve sold it to a rich asshole buying another house to rent or a corporation buying it for the exact same reason.
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I just hate pandering movies in general. I don’t care about woke, but anything marketed as: Look it’s girls only! Look it’s guys only! Look it’s blacks only! Look it’s Asians only!
I don’t give a shit, all it tells me is that probably you don’t have a good story so you’re resorting to this kind of pandering.
Good movies, super hero or not don’t need this kind of weak sauce.
Lowest-grossing MCU movie I’m history… so far.
Abed’s girlfriend is a superhero? Neat.
Gonna take a break Disney? Nah? Then we’ll keep being fatigued.
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