There have been six DCEU/MCU movies released in 2023 — only one has met expectations at the box-office. Superhero fatigue is real.
The story goes that Grace Randolph had reported yesterday on her show that the MCU saw a long-range forecast for “The Marvels” that completely freaked them out — it looked on par with certain non-MCU comic book flops.
Well, if the early numbers are now out, and if they turn out to be true, there’s another dud coming for Marvel.
Box-Office Pro is reporting that “The Marvels” is long-range tracking to open at $50M-$75M domestically. Pre-sales are currently 69% behind the pace of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” and 42% behind “Eternals.”
If these are the numbers that ‘Marvels’ is getting, then what awaits ‘Aquaman 2’? Possibly something far worse. Superhero fatigue, indeed.
“The Marvels” has a budget of $273 million. Estimates have it breaking even only if it makes $680 million worldwide. The Marvel mania of 2019 is not the same as that of 2023, what we’re seeing is a public that is getting tired of Comic book movies.
They are no longer the dominant force. Nintendo and Mattel have moved in. Steven Spielberg predicted this a few years ago by saying the superhero movie would go the same route as the Western did in the late ‘60s: extinction.