Summary

The Marvels
redeems itself by topping streaming charts despite a lackluster theatrical performance and negative critic reviews.
Featuring Captain Marvel teaming up with Ms. Marvel and Monica Rambeau, the film still managed to win over audiences.
Arrival on Disney+ garnered 558 million minutes watched in its first week, surpassing expectations and proving its appeal.

The Marvels continues to push back against its reputation as the biggest flop of the MCU by dominating the streaming charts and soaring to the #1 spot. The film smashed through the competition offered up by Netflix to give Disney+ a huge win for the week of February 5 to February 11. Certainly an achievement worth shouting about for the film that was slammed by critics and ended its theatrical run as the worst performing Marvel Cinematic Universe movie ever.

The Marvels Release Date November 10, 2023 Director Nia DaCosta Writers Gene Colan , Roy Thomas Studio Marvel Studios Tagline Higher. Further. Faster. Together. Franchise Marvel

The Marvels sees the return of Brie Larson as Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel, as she is unexpectedly forced to team up with fellow superheroes Kamala Kahn aka Ms. Marvel and Monica Rambeau to take on the threat of Dar-Benn. Pulling threads from 2019’s Captain Marvel, TV shows WandaVision and Ms. Marvel, the film continued along the usual path of action, humor, and heart to deliver a film that audiences loved much more than their critic counterparts.

However, those positive reviews did not translate into out-of-this-world in cinemas, leading The Marvels to make less than a fifth of Captain Marvel’s impressive box office from five years ago. This left the final MCU movie of 2023 on the starting block when compared to the franchise’s previous movies, with a lower gross than previous underperformers, including The Incredible Hulk, Thor: The Dark World, and Eternals.

On its arrival on Disney+ just a few months after its cinema debut, The Marvels powered up in a big way, scoring 558 million minutes watched in its first partial week on the platform. The movie dropped on February 7, meaning that it pulled in its viewership in just five days. This pushed 2017 Micheal Keaton movie American Assassin into second place with 515 million minutes watched.

The Marvels Should Have Been a Cinematic Success

The world of blockbuster movies has been a tricky place to navigate in the last few years, but 2023 threw up a particularly devastating year for many studios. From Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, through The Flash, and to The Marvels, films that should have pulled in huge crowds failed to do so, leaving it up to the summer double bill of Barbie and Oppenheimer to save the day for many theaters.

The question of why people have not been venturing out to cinemas is still one that has yet to be definitively answered. Reasons have ranged from the fact that most movies are available to stream online within a couple of months – particularly true of MCU offerings – to many countries of the world being struck with financial uncertainty, but it is hard to tell what the truth of the matter is.

Related The Marvels Star Admits Not Knowing the X-Men Post-Credit Twist The Marvels’ Teyonah Parris was surprised with the X-Men ending twist too.

One thing that has become abundantly clear, is that The Marvels should never have landed itself with the title of the worst performing Marvel movie within the MCU – the film did surpass Sony’s Spider-Man Universe entries such as Morbius and Madame Web, which is something to celebrate. This summer will see Deadpool & Wolverine take center stage as Marvel Studio’s only theatrical release, and it is fully expected to do all the things that The Marvels didn’t. Whether that momentum will continue with 2025 movies such as The Fantastic Four and Captain America: Brave New World is something that Marvel Studios and Disney will be very interested in finding out.

The Marvels
is streaming now on Disney+.