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It’s been interesting to watch the media cover The Eternals. I was perusing the internet over the weekend and I couldn’t help but notice some of the takes about a movie that ultimately we now know is going to lose money.
Weekend #BoxOffice: #Eternals Recovers Overseas And Nears $300 Million Global As #Dune Tops $350 Million Worldwide While #TheFrenchDispatch And #Spencer Hold Firm via @forbes by @ScottMendelson https://t.co/wdyxrC9HeH
— Scott Mendelson (@ScottMendelson) November 14, 2021
Eternals Good Hold Keeps It On Top
The Eternals Powers a 27 Million Dollar + Weekend
You would think that a film on the way for a potential hundred million dollar loss and a rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes would be receiving media scrutiny. But looking at most of the stories about the box office weekend, articles are spinning a 61% (estimated) loss from the first weekend to the second as a win for The Eternals and Marvel. However, it seems like media writers are spinning this as if costing your company hundreds of millions of dollars is sustainable and acceptable. Hint: it isnt.
“Eternals” managed to win the weekend with $27.5 million, as per Box Office Mojo. That represents a 61.4% drop week-to-week, after debuting with a (relatively) robust $71 million in its debut. That drop isn’t as steep as “Black Widow” faced in its second week, with Scarlett Johansson’s MCU flick plunging 67.8%. It had much better reviews, and was based on a character that audiences had loved for a decade. So the fact that director Chloe Zhao’s “Eternals,” based on an unknown property with mixed reviews, managed to do this well in week two, solidifies both the strength of the Marvel brand and the power of theatrical exclusivity, in most cases. Remember, “Black Widow” took a lot of heat for its day-and-date release on Disney+. But hybrid releases do work in some cases.”
— Ryan Scott, SlashFilm
So I’ve been thinking about this shared narrative. What is it that is driving writers to excuse flops as if financial failures are a good thing? Beyond just the cognitive dissonance I think the media is experiencing in regards to Marvel having had three straight flops, I began to ponder Ghostbusters Afterlife and its review bombing over Ghostbusters 2016. You’ll recall that it was the female-led Ghostbusters film that originally started this huge cultural divide between critics and fans. It was that same divide that manifested itself again in 2017, on a much larger scale, with the release of The Last Jedi.
When it comes to The Eternals, it’s everything the media wants, only packaged so poorly that they cannot reward it with a positive review. The Last Jedi, on the other hand, was likewise a poor film — in my humble opinion — but they went all in on defending it. It was a masterpiece, except that it began the downfall of Star Wars as a successful franchise. Now they can’t even fill the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser hotel without serious effort. And ever since then, there’s been this horrid battle between the media and the fans. Remember when they were claiming the Russians were manipulating movie review scores? Good grief.
So I’m just thinking about The Eternals, a movie that is destined to lose huge money for The Walt Disney Company. It’s now going up against Ghostbusters Afterlife, a film that is essentially everything the fans have been asking for. It’s a direct counter to the 2016 Ghostbusters film. It honors the original source material. It even reveres it. Peter Venkman is unlikely to die or be a pathetic failure like Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi. Rather, the Ghostbusters are returning victories, straight out of the eighties, and coming to the rescue of a new, young female lead. It’s literally the exact opposite of direction Rian Johnson in every way possible. Maybe it was buoyed by the success of the Sonic the Hedgehog film, in which it was like Hollywood finally discovered that catering to people who love your material is a good thing?
Why are they playing this faux narrative that The Eternals is a successful flick? I think it’s because Ghostbusters is coming, and if it can be successful, it will be everything they despise coming to fruition. It’s not a guarantee that Ghostbusters will succeed though — there’s been pushback from the very fanbase that it needs. It could definitely go either way at the box office with this film. It will have huge competition as it goes towards Christmas. But in my opinion, the defense of The Eternals is the media trying to lobby for Marvel’s Phase 4 shift, trying to lobby for the direction of postmodern nihilism in movies like Star Wars, the irreverence of source material in Ghostbusters 2016… and they’re desperate for you to believe it.
Because if you no longer believe what they’re saying, the show is over for the media that has been actively trying to divide us all for the past six years.
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