No surprise, “Captain America: Brave New World” is being panned by critics. We all saw this coming. As it stands, ‘Brave New World’ has a 43 on Metacritic (based on 37 reviews), and 52% on RT.
‘Brave New World,’ set for release this Friday, was projected to earn $90M on opening weekend. With these reviews now out for the entire world to see, I don’t know if it’ll be able to attain that mark. In this day and age, reviews tend to influence box-office, especially for big tentpole films such as this one.
It’s been six years since Steve Rodgers (Chris Evans) handed over Captain America reigns to Sam Wilson, Aka The Falcon, in “Avengers: Endgame.” Wilson (Anthony Mackie) is the lead of Julius Onah’s “Captain America: Brave New World” which had catastrophic test screenings in 2023 and 2024, not to mention significant reshoots.
In fact, two different cuts of the film were test screened in 2024, at the same time, in different theaters, and that’s never a good sign. Back in November, I reported that Onah had been lowkey replaced during the reshoots, or as my source politely stated, “set aside” to watch.
Honest question, what was the last good MCU movie? My answer would probably be 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame” which quite significantly signaled the end of an era. Ever since then we’ve had “Black Widow,” “Doctor Strange 2,” “Thor: Love & Thunder,” “The Marvels,” “Eternals,” and ‘Ant-Man 2.’
Marvel is hoping that “Thunderbolts” and “The Fantastic Four” deliver for them later this year, but you need some critical backing to overperform at the box-office, and critics seem to have checked out of the MCU — they no longer like these films.
Meanwhile, James Gunn is over at DCU Studios attempting to recreate the glory of the his former MCU for Warner Bros. “Superman” is out this summer, and then you have “Supergirl” in 2026. There’s no indication that it’ll be a successful endeavor, but people are surely hoping that’ll be the case. It remains to be seen.
I actually find that number optimistic. Tickets for “Digger” go on sale next Tuesday, and presales will give us a better picture of how bad it’s looking.