Summary
- The Marvels and Madame Web both had disappointing box office drops
- The Marvels holds the record for the worst MCU and superhero movie drop in history
- The movies may have set female superheroes back at least a decade due to poor writing and directing
Sony and Madame Web are breathing a sigh of relief as The Marvels still holds the record for the worst MCU and superhero movie box office drop in history.
The Marvels opened to $46 million back on Nov. 10 followed by a disastrous drop of 78.1%.
While Madame Web opened to its own disaster with $15 million, the flick only dropped 60% in its second weekend.
The Marvels is a bigger bomb than Madame Web
Sure, you can argue that not as many people came out to see Madame Web, but the numbers are what the numbers say they are and The Marvels still holds the record for the worst MCU and comic book movie drop of all time.
You could probably argue it looks worse for The Marvels, which is a part of the MCU and follows Captain Marvel which opened to over $153 million and brought in over $1.1 billion at the box office. Madame Web? It followed Morbius (lol).
The Marvels also cost around $300 million to make and lost Disney $200 million, while Madame Web cost around $80-$100M.
The Marvels also had a second weekend box office of only $10 million, while Madame Web is at $6 million, so that’s not that big of a difference.
Set female superheroes back at least a decade
You can also argue that both films set female superheroes back at least a decade, which isn’t the fault of being a female superhero nor “superhero fatigue” (which is what the producers are blaming to save their jobs) but the shitty writing, directing, and producing that involves sending a message instead of telling a quality story.
The same applies to the MCU’s Disney+ projects such as Hawkeye, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, and Secret Invasion. They all feature female characters, but the story really sucks and they go out of their way to shit on male characters instead of propping them both up.
The first Wonder Woman is a good example of featuring strong characters on both sides (Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor saves the day and empowers Diana to beat Ares at the end), but of course when they went The Message route for WW84, it was another disaster. Ditto Birds of Prey. Same for Ghostbusters, Doctor Who, et al.
It seems James Gunn might be the last hope for female superheroes depending what he does with new Supergirl Milly Alcock in the DCU.
As a result of all the massive fails, a none-too-pleased Disney exec – who happens to be all about The Message – has revealed that Disney CEO Bob Iger is apparently pivoting away from female leads to male leads.
However, again, it’s not really about whatever gender the characters are, it’s the writing, otherwise we would all love Morbius, eh?
