At the current rate, The Marvels‘ may be facing the lowest opening since The Eternals,w which opened to $71.2M during the pandemic. Of course, it’s not definite but the presales are currently tracing behind Black Adam and The Flash according to a new piece by Deadline. It’s the first MCU film truly affected by the strike, as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was still able to promote with its cast before SAG went on strike as well. There’s also the hot debate regarding Marvel and superhero fatigue with the latter showing its fangs with other releases like Blue Beetle, Shazam: Fury of Gods, and The Flash.
Marvel normally pulls in viewership and has strong openings with bigger drops going into its second weekend. So, it’s unclear if it’ll pick up the pace going into its final week, especially with hopes that the SAG strike is wrapped this weekend and the cast can start promoting the film. Whether that’ll make a major change is a different point of discussion and remains surprising that Marvel Studios has yet to postpone the release.
Some are pointing to the “homework” aspect which is a hot debate online. It’s hard to believe that those expectations are set by non-online viewers given that we’re introduced to a variety of characters in films for the first time and not everyone watches every single MCU project faithfully.
Of course, there’s also the potential that current film visits are closer to a “wait and see” approach rather than going all-in with presales. While Five Nights at Freddy’s managed to pull in strong numbers, they were above the initial expectations due to strong word-of-mouth. The same could also go for the MCU’s latest entry. So, all eyes are going to be on those reviews which are also only going to drop shortly before the release. For now, we can only wait until the film releases with the first Thursday preview numbers and its Friday box office hinting at where the film will end.
Source: Deadline
