The Marvels opens as one of MCU’s worst performing films

The Marvels has the second worst opening weekend of any Marvel movie, but the factors behind its may be to blame.

Marvel Studios recently premiered their first super hero team up film — The Marvels — since their wildly successful film Avengers: Endgame in 2019.

The movie, which is both a sequel and a TV continuation, sees Captain Marvel, Monica Rambeau, and Ms. Marvel join forces to stop a world-ending threat as their powers continue to intermingle.

Though this is the last Marvel film for the year 2023, it hasn’t seen a lot of commercial success (so far), but the blame can’t be solely put on the film itself.

The Marvels’ slow opening weekend may be a result of strikes

As of its opening weekend, The Marvels earned $21.5 million from 4,030 venues, including $6.6 million in preview screenings.

The movie barely scrapes by other MCU box office low hitters as Ant-Man earned $22.6 million and The Incredible Hulk, the record holder for for the MCU’s lowest domestic opening day, earned $21.46 million.

The Marvels can’t even compare to its MCU peers of this year as Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania earned $106 million during its opening weekend with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 following suit with $118 million.

However, the blame for The Marvels’ low box office sales can’t be put squarely on the film itself as it currently sits at a 84% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

With the SAG-AFTRA strike in effect up until two days before the movie’s release, none of The Marvels’ stars had the chance to do press for the film and that’s where Marvel projects really shine.

Whether you’re watching MCU actors draw terrible pictures or play a drinking game with Jimmy Fallon, Marvel’s press tours are one of the biggest reasons why non-fans turn out for certain projects.

As the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes reflect, those who went to see the film clearly enjoyed it. This may be a fault of marketing rather than it being a bad film.

The Marvels is now playing in theaters. You can check out more of our coverage below:

The Marvels review | Runtime explained When does the movie take place in the MCU? | Is The Marvels setting up Secret Wars? | What is a Flerken? | How The Marvels star Park Seo-joon got his MCU role | Cast and characters | The Marvels is a sequel to multiple properties | Spoilers leak all over social media | How much has The Marvels made? | First reactions are in | Does The Marvels have a post-credits scene? | How many post-credits scenes? | What are the Nega-Bands?