Does The Marvels, Marvel's biggest failure, sign the end of the era of superheroes?

Not a very glorious record for a superhero. Nia DaCosta's The Marvels has become the biggest commercial failure of the Marvel universe, which had not experienced such a setback since 2008. The new adventures of Carole Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, will not have brought in three weeks of exploitation than 80 million dollars at the American box office. This is the first time that a member of the Avengers has not passed the $100 million mark in revenue. The drop in attendance from one week to the next is so strong that Disney will no longer communicate on admissions for the month of December.

Played by Oscar-winning actress Brie Larson, Carol Danvers appeared on screens in 2019. She was the first MCU superhero to carry a film in her own name. The spectators were there for Captain Marvel: the film had raised 426 million dollars in North America and 700 million internationally.

Four years later, the figures for The Marvels, which sees Carol Danvers teaming up with two other young women Monica Rambeau and high school student Kamala Khan, are no longer wonderful. And they are no better internationally: barely 116 million. The review was mixed, praising a certain humor but deploring a shoddy script and editing, despite a budget of $220 million. Promotion of The Marvels has been minimal. The film was released just as the actors' strike ended. Brie Larson was only able to make a few appearances on talk show sets once the feature film was released.

This public disaffection for the MCU is symptomatic of the breakdown affecting the entire Disney franchise. The predecessor of The Marvels, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania didn't do well either, with just 214 million in revenue in the United States. The press and fans were harsh on the execrable quality of the special effects.

The only success of the MCU in 2023 was the third installment of Guardians of the Galaxy which amassed more than 845 million in revenue. The fact that these adventures were staged by James Gunn, whom Disney fired before rehiring, was seen as an irony of fate. James Gunn now presides over the fate of Marvel's adversary, DC. The house of Batman and Superman is also completely devitalized.

For Hollywood connoisseurs, the poor performance of the latest Marvel films is to be found in the dilution of the brand. By launching series in all directions for its Disney platform and films, Disney has saturated the minds of fans and made incomprehensible a general plot which crosses all productions and which is based on parallel worlds and realities. The manufacturing process is also called into question. On these projects, the big boss is Kevin Feige. The president of Marvel Studios leaves little room for maneuver to directors, screenwriters and showrunners to ensure narrative continuity.

Disney boss Bob Iger believes, for his part, that the blame lies with Covid, which prevented good supervision of the filming of The Marvels. To hear him say, the stratospheric performances of previous films, such as Avengers - Endgame, which passed the billion mark in revenue, have also created impossible expectations by setting the bar ever higher. “What is considered a failure at Disney would be a success for another studio,” confided Bob Iger. Still, the MCU is not the only Disney department to underperform. His latest animated film Wish is also struggling. Just like the fifth part of the Indiana Jones saga, the dial of destiny.

In 2024, the big-eared firm will have to regain its magic and its luster. Cautiously, it ultimately released only one superhero film Deadpool 3. Following the strike, Captain America - A Brave New World, Thunderbolts and Blade were postponed to 2025.