'The Marvels' Sets Catastrophic MCU Milestone

Now that the numbers are officially out, it’s been revealed that The Marvels has set a disastrous milestone for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Monica Rambeau, Captain Marvel, and Kamala Khan looking up to the sky — Credit: Marvel Studios

Helmed by director Nia DaCosta, The Marvels was a surprisingly fun movie. A significant reason for this was due to its short runtime, fun action sequences, and a charismatic cast that included Brie Larson as Carol Danvers (AKA Captain Marvel), Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan (AKA Ms. Marvel), Teyonah Parris as Captain Monica Rambeau, Zawe Ashton as the Kree revolutionary Dar-Benn, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, and Park Seo-joon as Prince Yan.

However, things didn’t go as planned for the film. While it set many milestones, including being the highest-grossing movie directed by a Black woman, it was still a disappointment at the box office, grossing only $206.1 million worldwide, meaning The Marvels has set additional MCU records no one ever wanted to earn.

‘The Marvels’ is the First MCU Film To Truly Bomb

Captain Marvel giving a look of disbelief in her iconic white tank top — Credit: Marvel Studios

The Marvels failed to meet expectations in a truly calamitous way. While earning over $200 million may sound impressive, it marks the lowest amount earned for a Marvel Studios film, “surpassing” the previous record-holder, The Incredible Hulk (2008).

However, it gets much worse than that. While Disney and Marvel Studios originally reported the budget for the film to be between $150-200 million, it was actually much higher, coming in at around $220-275 million. This means that The Marvels is the first film in the MCU not even to make back its budget.

Monica Rambeau and Captain Marvel looking confused — Credit: Marvel Studios

This is an absolute shame because The Marvels is not even close to a bad movie. It seems to be marred by unfortunate timing, releasing just after the 2023 Actors Strike, meaning none of the cast could promote the film. On top of this, multiple inferior Marvel products were released earlier in the year, including Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) and Secret Invasion (2023). Add on general online vitriol toward the film; it seems like it was almost set up for failure.

The movie did not deserve the hate and reaction it received, but its reputation has been sealed. The Marvels is officially the largest and only true box office bomb in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Do you think The Marvels deserves this reputation? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!