‘The Marvels’ Global Box Office Remains Lowest-Grossing MCU Film Ever

The Big Picture

Disney’s The Marvels had a disappointing box office performance, with a record-low opening and a significant drop in revenue.
The film is expected to conclude as the lowest-grossing film in MCU history, despite the franchise’s previous successes.
The increasing sense of sameness and Disney’s focus on streaming content have contributed to the struggles faced by the post-Endgame MCU.

Disney’s The Marvels kept bleeding at the box office this weekend, after delivering a record-low opening for the once-unbeatable Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise. Stars Brie Larson and Iman Vellani began promoting the superhero sequel a couple of days prior to its debut, once a tentative agreement was reached in the SAG-AFTRA strike. But the writing was already on the wall by then.

The film is in a tight race for the number three spot with Eli Roth’s horror film Thanksgiving at the domestic box office this weekend, and is expected to generate around $10 million, marking a hefty 78% drop — another record for the MCU. It made $46 million in its opening weekend at the domestic box office while generating $110 million worldwide in the same frame. And now, after 10 days of release, the movie’s global gross stands at $161 million.

For context, 10 MCU movies grossed more than this in their domestic opening weekends alone. Avengers: Endgame, for instance, nearly grossed $160 million domestically on its first day. Even Captain Marvel generated $153 million in its domestic opening weekend, and ultimately finished with over $1.1 billion worldwide. But as things stand, The Marvels will probably conclude its theatrical run as the lowest-grossing film in the history of the MCU, which remains the highest-grossing movie franchise with nearly $30 billion in global box office revenue.

Lowest Grossing MCU Movies Worldwide	Global Gross
The Marvels	$161 million
The Incredible Hulk	$265 million
Captain America: The First Avenger	$370 million
Black Widow	$379 million
Eternals	$401 million

Marvel’s Woes Began After the Pandemic

The tail-end of the MCU is currently occupied by The Incredible Hulk ($265 million worldwide), Captain America: The First Avenger ($370 million), Black Widow ($379 million despite a day-and-date streaming release) and Eternals ($401 million in mid-pandemic 2021). The franchise’s highest-grossing movie remains Endgame, which generated $2.78 billion worldwide in 2019. Things have been rather hit-or-miss for the series in the post-Endgame/post-pandemic era, with Disney doubling down on streaming content that proved to be too much for general audiences to handle. Combined with an increasing sense of sameness, the series was dealt major blows both theatrically (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) and on Disney+ (Secret Invasion) in recent months, despite the occasional hit.

And these projects don’t come cheap; The Marvels reportedly cost over $250 million to produce, and will need to recover $700 million worldwide in order to break even, which is impossible given its current performance and mixed reviews. Directed by Nia DaCosta, the film currently sits at a borderline “fresh” 62% score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, and earned a franchise-low B- CinemaScore from opening day audiences. What remains to be seen now is if it’ll end its run as the first MCU film to not crack the $100 million mark domestically. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.