Marvel Is Losing It According to New Data

Marvel has been hurting lately…

Almost since the very beginning, projects from the Marvel Cinematic Universe have held top slots for both critics and audiences. For almost two decades, fans of Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and so many others have proved that the filmmakers at the studio know what they’re doing…or at least…knew what they were doing.

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For eleven years, Marvel Studios churned out hit after hit with few exceptions. All building to the Infinity Saga, movies featuring The Avengers and their allies dazzled audiences and brought to the screen not just great action and adventure but moving drama and side-splitting humor. The studio realized early on that great superhero movies follow the same rules as any other great movie: great actors, great story, great dialogue, and great production value, just set on a superhero backdrop.

This all culminated in Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019), when after Thanos’ (Josh Brolin) brief victory, The Avengers took back what was lost, losing three great figures in the process: Tony Stark (Downey Jr.), Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), and Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson). Each had an emotional end to their 11-year ark, bringing to a close one of the most amazing chapters in not only superhero film history but cinema itself.

Since then, Kevin Feige’s studio has struggled to find its footing in a Post-Endgame world. There have been ups and downs, but many fans have complained that something just feels off. Some blame superhero fatigue, others Marvel fatigue, and still others that the quality of the product being produced by the Disney-owned studio is decreasing. Whatever the cause, audiences and critics alike aren’t happy, and the data shows it.

The Direct reported on a compilation graph from Rotten Tomatoes that shows a clear downward trend for the studio giant. In addition to the clear visual of the downward trend, the Direct also cites the average scores for each phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, starting with an average of 80% in Phase One, 81% in Phase Two, 89% in Phase Three, and a dismal 76% in Phase Four. If they had included the burgeoning Phase Five, which just began with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), the fifth phase would be at a depressing 47%.

That’s not all: The Direct cites other movie critic sources, as well as the Rotten Tomatoes audience scores, which, while higher or lower, all reflect the same downward trend. So, what could be to blame for this downturn in Marvel’s popularity amongst critics and audiences alike? There are many possible answers, but likely are the three cited above: superhero fatigue in general, fatigue from the studio itself, and the overall quality of the product being released being generally poorer.

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That’s the tricky thing: art is, and always has been, very subjective, and cinema as an art is no different. Studios, filmmakers, screenwriters, actors, and others can all do their best to predict what audiences will like and what they won’t, but after nearly two decades of making films that lie solidly in one genre, things change. The question will be, can Marvel change with the times and still deliver what audiences want? Or will they fall by the wayside, becoming just another fond cinematic memory?

What do you think of this data? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments below!