MCU fans have voted with their wallets, and the message is clear: they don’t want Anthony Mackie as Captain America.
The latest Marvel bomb in a string of flops from Kevin Feige is Captain America: Brave New World, which, in its fourth weekend, has failed to even come close to $400 million.
Follows major MCU failures
Captain America: Brave New World bombing follows the major failures of The Marvels and Quantumania, along with Shang-Chi, Eternals, and Black Widow.
The MCU on Disney+ hasn’t been a success either. The latest example could be Daredevil: Born Again, as Disney has yet to release any viewership data (update: viewership is similar to Agatha)—something they’ve done in the past for shows like Loki, Percy Jackson, Ahsoka, and even The Acolyte. Marvel is also slashing its Disney+ series budgets, Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed streaming lost them billions, and reportedly, Iger mandated a cut back on the amount of content released.
Lucky to hit $400 million
Regarding Captain America: Brave New World, I said it would be lucky to hit $400 million—and as of this past weekend, the box office is only at $370.7 million ($8.5M this past weekend).
Reports claim the film needs to make around $425 million just to break even. However, that appears to be an industry spin, as the movie is known to have gone through major rewrites and reshoots. It’s speculated that the real break-even number is much higher.
Comparing to Quantuamania
Compared to Quantumania, Brave New World is performing slightly better day-to-day at the domestic box office. If that trend holds, it might bring in another $20–25 million at best.
However, the film is significantly underperforming in foreign markets. Quantumania earned nearly $40 million in China, while Brave New World barely cracked $14 million. The same trend holds across other international markets, all down for Brave New World. If this continues, the movie could end up with the second-lowest international box office of any MCU film—only ahead of The Marvels. It looks like it might pass Black Widow and possibly Eternals, but overall, Brave New World is on shaky ground. Check out the full box office numbers below.
Doomsday for the MCU
Perhaps even more worrisome is the report that Anthony Mackie is set to lead a new team of Avengers heading into Avengers: Doomsday. Maybe Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom will pull off his own version of the Thanos Snap—and it’ll be doomsday for those characters. Honestly, that might be Feige and Marvel’s best shot, because nothing from the past six years of the MCU has connected with fans. Only legacy characters like Spider-Man, Deadpool, and Wolverine have stayed popular and successful.
MCU box offices numbers:
Captain America: Brave New World
- Domestic (47.6%): $176,584,423
- International (52.4%): $194,200,000
- Worldwide: $370,784,423
The Marvels
- Domestic (41%): $84,500,223
- International (59%): $121,636,602
- Worldwide: $206,136,825
Quantuamania
- Domestic (45.1%): $214,504,909
- International (54.9%): $261,566,271
- Worldwide: $476,071,180
Eternals
- Domestic (41%): $164,870,234
- International (59%): $237,194,665
- Worldwide: $402,064,899
Shang-Chi
- Domestic (51.9%): $224,543,292
- International (48.1%): $207,700,000
- Worldwide: $432,243,292
Black Widow
- Domestic (48.4%): $183,651,655
- International (51.6%): $196,100,000
- Worldwide: $379,751,655
