Captain Marvel was a success at the box office, even though reactions to its titular character were mixed. Now it looks like the sequel, The Marvels, is expected to perform much worse at the box office. In fact, The Marvels appears to have the worst ticket pre-sales for a MCU movie in years.
This was pointed out by box office insider Luiz Fernando. He delivered a lengthy breakdown on The Marvels, and noted that the film has the weakest pre-sale for tickets in the post-COVID era. Due to these numbers, he suggests that audiences aren’t much interested in The Marvels and thus the low ticket sales.
As explained below:
“Pre-sales for #TheMarvels have been the weakest for an MCU film Post-Covid (yeah, even under #Eternals), what could denote lack of interest from general audiences in the new entry.”
#Disney’s apparent lack of confidence in #TheMarvels is really giving me those #DarkPhoenix dejavus.
It was already concerning that the studio never considered to push the blockbuster back to 2024 despite of the strikes, almost as they didn’t think the film was worth fighting for… pic.twitter.com/CKJaiKxaur— Luiz Fernando (@Luiz_Fernando_J) October 23, 2023
The insider also theorizes that Disney doesn’t have much faith in the film. That’s why, Fernando hypothesizes, that they’re holding the film’s review embargo until the morning the film releases in international territories. Of course, that’s only a theory, so it should be taken with a grain of salt.
In any case, The Marvels clearly has a lot going against it. Especially with a release during the SAG-AFTRA strike in which its cast cannot promote the film. These different aspects could be very detrimental to the film’s box office performance and result in one of the lowest-grossing MCU movies yet. Furthermore, this could mean the Marvel Cinematic Universe is losing its blockbuster appeal, which would be devastating for Disney as it’s one of the biggest film franchises in history.
Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for any additional updates regarding The Marvels and any other Marvel Cinematic Universe projects as we have them. In the meantime, we’ll have to see how The Marvels actually performs at the box office.