The Marvels Misfires with $47 Million, Lowest MCU Opening Weekend of All Time
by Rebecca Rubin
Nov. 12, 2023


Disney‘s Marvel Cinematic Universe is no longer a bulletproof box office franchise. That much is clear after The Marvels misfired with $47 million in its opening weekend to land the worst debut in MCU history.

Initial tracking was closer to $75 million to $80 million, but those projections shrank dramatically in recent weeks to $60 million to $65 million. With bad buzz and actors like Brie Larson unable to promote the film due to the SAG strike (which finally ended on Friday), The Marvels didn’t even match those disappointing estimates.



The Marvels also fell short of expectations at the international box office with $63.3 million from 51 territories for a worldwide start of $110 million. Disney had hoped to generate at least $140 million globally over the weekend.

Even that wouldn’t have been great for a tentpole that cost roughly $220 million to produce and $100 million to promote the film to audiences across the globe.






Five Nights at Freddy’s dropped to second place with $9 million from 3,694 theaters in its third weekend of release.

Universal and Blumhouse’s video game adaptation has been a bright spot this time of year, generating a scary-good $127 million in North America and $215 million worldwide to date.




In third place, Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour added another $5.9 million from 2,484 venues in its fifth weekend of release.

The concert film, produced by Swift and distributed by AMC Theatres, has grossed $172.5 million in North America and $240.9 million globally.




Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla Presley biopic Priscilla remained in fourth with $4.79 million from 2,361 theaters, a barely-there 10% decline from the prior weekend.

It’s an impressive hold for the A24 movie, which has generated $12.7 million so far.




Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon landed at No. 5 with $4.6 million from 3,357 locations in its fourth frame.

Ticket sales stayed strong with a 34% drop. So far, it has grossed $59.9 million domestically and $137 million worldwide.

https://variety.com/2023/film/box-office/box-office-the-marvels-bombs-worst-marvel-cinematic-universe-opening-weekend-1235788513/






November 10-12, 2023: Weekend Studio Estimates

1. The Marvels $47,000,000
2. Five Nights at Freddy's $9,000,000 / $127,205,300
3. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour $5,900,000 / $172,526,901
4. Priscilla $4,792,678 / $12,728,840
5. Killers of the Flower Moon $4,650,000 / $59,937,384
6. The Holdovers $3,200,000 / $4,274,260
7. Journey to Bethlehem $2,425,000
8. PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie $1,760,000 / $64,564,318
9. Radical $1,752,000 / $5,209,758
10. The Exorcist: Believer $1,150,000 / $64,994,335

Yikes. Those are DC levels of opening.

The Marvels Lacked On-Set Supervision, Bob Iger Admits in Analysis of its Dismal Box Office
by Bruce Haring
December 2, 2023


Disney CEO Bob Iger blames the pandemic effect as part of the reason for the dismal box office results on The Marvels.

Speaking at a New York Times business summit earlier this week, Iger said the studio needs some revitalization.

“The Marvels was shot during Covid,” he explained. “There wasn’t as much supervision on the set, so to speak, where we have executives [that are] really looking over what’s being done day after day after day.”




He listed a number of reasons why the studio’s recent string of films is lagging, among them streaming and messaging.

“The experience of accessing [the films] and watching them in the home is better than it ever was,” he said. “And [it’s] a bargain when you think about it. Streaming Disney+ you can get for $7 a month. That’s a lot cheaper than taking your whole family to a film. So, I think the bar is now raised in terms of quality about what gets people out of their homes, into movie theaters.”




Iger also acknowledged that messaging in recent films has turned off a certain audience segment. “Entertain first, not messages,” Iger said, adding that “positive messages for the world” sometimes overwhelmed storytelling.

“And I’m not sure another studio will ever achieve some of the numbers that we achieved,” he said, pointing to past successes. “I mean, we got to the point where if a film didn’t do a billion dollars in global box office, we were disappointed,” he said.

“That’s an unbelievably high standard and I think we have to get more realistic.”

https://deadline.com/2023/12/the-marvels-lacked-on-set-supervision-bob-iger-admits-1235649619/

10 Reasons No MCU Movie Has Made $1 Billion In 2 Years (https://screenrant.com/mcu-movies-no-billion-dollar-box-office-explained/)

The MCU (https://screenrant.com/tag/mcu/) has gone a record amount of time without a billion-dollar movie at the box office, for a variety of reasons in and out of their own control.