‘The Marvels’ Domestic Box Office Struggles With Franchise-Low Opening

The Big Picture

• The Marvels is delivering record-low figures for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, signaling a worrying trend of public sentiment souring towards the franchise.
• The movie’s opening Friday earnings of $21.5 million put it at a franchise-low, falling behind predecessors like The Incredible Hulk and Ant-Man.
• Factors like delayed promotion due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, mixed reviews, and audience fatigue with the oversaturated Marvel brand have contributed to the underperformance of The Marvels.

Disney’s The Marvels is delivering record-low figures for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which, over a decade and a half, has emerged as the biggest film franchise of all time. Public sentiment in recent years, however, has been worryingly souring, with The Marvels proving to be the final straw. Directed by Nia DaCosta, the movie grossed a reported $21.5 million on Friday, which includes the $6.6 million that it made in Thursday previews. This puts it on track to open with around $50 million across the three-day weekend.

This would mark a franchise-low opening, below the $55 million that The Incredible Hulk grossed in 2008, and the $57 million that Ant-Man made in 2015. As far as opening Fridays go, The Marvels is paling in comparison to its own predecessor, the surprise hit Captain Marvel, which debuted with $61 million on its way to a $153 million weekend, and a $426 million lifetime haul at the domestic box office. The Marvels’ $21 million debut puts it behind Ant-Man’s $22 million and Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger’s $25 million opening day hauls.

A couple of key factors hurt the movie heading into release. Stars Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris and Iman Vellani weren’t able to promote it until a couple of days ago because of the recently concluded SAG-AFTRA strike. Reviews have been muted, with the film currently sitting at a borderline “fresh” 62% score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Opening day audiences awarded it a franchise-low B CinemaScore, which doesn’t bode well for its future. But more than anything, it’s the over-saturated Marvel brand that casual audiences seem to be rejecting, which is surprising, considering just how invincible the studio seemed pre-pandemic. Introspection is in order.

The Top Five Includes Four Holdover Titles

Slipping to second place after two weekends at the top, Universal’s hit horror picture Five Nights at Freddy’s grossed a little over $2.5 million on its third Friday, and is eying a weekend haul of around $8 million. This should take its running domestic total to over $125 million, against a reported budget of just $20 million. All in all, this is a nifty little hit for Blumhouse and Universal, which recently experienced a high-profile setback with The Exorcist: Believer. For context, Five Nights at Freddy’s will have grossed twice as much as that franchise-starter by the time this weekend’s over.

Director Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla is holding remarkably well in its second weekend in wide release, as it looks to finish in third place with around $3 million. This should take the biopic’s running domestic total past the $10 million mark by Sunday. Based on the complex relationship between Priscilla Presley and Elvis Presley, the well-reviewed drama was touted as the antithesis to director Baz Luhrmann’s flamboyant cradle to the grave Elvis from last year.

The fourth and fifth spots this weekend went to Paramount’s Killers of the Flower Moon and Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour concert film. Scorsese’s three and a half hour epic isn’t showing encouraging signs in its fourth weekend, as it nears the $60 million mark domestically. The film was never meant to be a box office hit, despite its reported $200 million production budget and the uncommonly expansive release that it received. Apple is essentially using its theatrical run as marketing for its eventual streaming release, and should be pleased with the projected $150 million-plus global haul that it is expected to generate by the end of its run. Swift’s concert film, on the other hand, will hit $170 million domestically by Sunday. Stay tuned to Collider for more box office coverage over the weekend.

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