The Marvels has started off its box office run with a meh $6.6 million in Thursday evening previews, well behind the $20.7 million grossed by Captain Marvel in 2019.
The 33rd installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a sequel to the 2019 Brie Larson-starrer Captain Marvel, which opened to $153.4 million in North America on its way to earning a massive $1.13 billion worldwide, not adjusted for inflation. That movie had a clear advantage in that it was teased in the post-credit scene of 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, while its titular star was a player in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame (it was released between the two Marvel mega-blockbusters).
The sequel, from Marvel Studios and Disney, faces several major challenges as it officially opens everywhere on Friday. The movie has been slipping in tracking, an unusual situation. Three weeks ago, major research films showed Captain Marvel debuting to $75 million-$80 million at the domestic box office.
Now, however, the female-fronted superhero pic may only clear $60 million-$65 million in what would mark one of the lowest starts ever for Kevin Feige‘s storied Marvel Studios. And at least one service, The Quorum, is predicting south of $60 million. Marvel and Disney remain hopeful that interest and awareness will pick up, and that The Marvels will see a boost from some kids being out of school Friday because of Veteran’s Day (the holiday is Saturday, but is being observed on Friday).
In the new movie, Larson is joined by Iman Vellani, the breakout star of the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel, as well as Teyonah Parris as the grown-up version of Captain Marvel character Monica Rambeau. The actor made her Marvel debut with WandaVision, which counted The Marvels screenwriter Megan McDonnell among its writers.
The Marvels is unique in that it stars three female leads. And it was directed by Nia DaCosta, who is the first Black woman to direct a Marvel Studios movie, as well as the youngest director of an MCU film (DaCosta turns 34 on Nov. 8). Marvel has taken pride on fostering indie directors as Ryan Coogler, Taika Waititi and Chloé Zhao.
To date, 2008’s The Incredible Hulk holds the record for the lowest domestic opening of any MCU title at $55.4 million, not adjusted for inflation (Marvel, which wasn’t owned by Disney at the time, partnered with Universal for Hulk).
The next lowest MCU opening belongs to Marvel/Disney’s Ant-Man, which started off with $57.2 million domestically in 2015.
Thursday previews don’t necessarily determine a movie’s fate, although The Marvels’ number is
The cast of The Marvels wasn’t able to do any promotion or publicity because of the SAG-AFTRA strike, although Larson and her co-stars sprung into action on Thursday after the strike ended. Larson will appear on The Tonight Show on Friday, while she and her co-stars will surprise fans at various screenings of the movie in New York City.
The Marvel is also battling superhero fatigue. This summer, DC’s The Flash — which had been billed as a triumph by Warner Bros. leadership prior to its opening — debuted to a dismal $55 million domestically on its way to topping out at a paltry $270.6 million domestically.
Overseas, The Marvels is pacing to open to $60 million for a global start of $140 million, compared to nearly $190 million for Captain Marvel.
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