The Fantastic Featured Image Courtesy: Amelia Bailey
If you went back in time about four years ago, who in the world could have ever predicted this? At a time when The Walt Disney Company is watching their latest three Marvel movies all lose money, Sony is about to show Disney how Marvel is done. After a run of unparalleled success in the film industry, Disney has not seen a profitable Marvel movie since the Avengers’ Infinity War: Endgame. Apparently, Thanos’ snap cut off the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s charm, and Tony Stark has yet to return or bring it back.
You’re unlikely to hear anything like that on other sites just yet. The narrative has yet to flip. But the truth is that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been losing money to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars for the past six months. The Marvel Disney+ series have been unable to generate enough interest to accelerate — or even maintain — Disney+ subscriber growth. That is there number one job. Commentators and industry analysts have thus far kept their criticisms to the pandemic, even while some other films have kept profitability. But all of that is about to change with Spider-Man: No Way Home.
"Eternals" is the 3rd Disney-Marvel woke flop in 4 months. It has $119 million after 11 days. Black Widow, $134 mil after 11 days, ended with $183. Shang-Chi $147 mil after 11 days, ended with $224. Compare to Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), 11 days – 181 mil, total $333 mil.
— Philosopher_Jay (@Philosopher_Jay) November 17, 2021
Sure, there are some fans who are miffed that the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer left out the stars of the prior Spider-Man movie series. But seriously, is it going to matter? The Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer has absolutely erupted on the internet, to the point that I would even argue that it is damaging Ghostbusters Afterlife by sucking up all the oxygen in the room. There simply hasn’t been a film since Sonic the Hedgehog that has generated this much buzz… and it blows Sonic out of the water. Just look at these seven-day search engine queries for the big three films people are discussing this weekend:
It looks like Ghostbusters Afterlife is heading for an underperformance, even though I hope very much to be wrong. Spider-Man: No Way Home, on the other hand, may be the gangbusters film that signals all of this pandemic excuse for movies since summer has been overblown. How much of it has been the pandemic and how much of it has been movies that failed to spark interest? How else can you explain films that open to pre-pandemic levels only to taper off at remarkable rates?
That means the narrative is going to have to flip. And yes, I do expect some in the media to attempt a racial angle on the subject, claiming that Spider-Man proves audiences are bigoted because they show up for a Caucasian film. Nobody should be fooled by that, however. The reality is that Kevin Feigie’s vision for his Phase 4 Marvel movies has been one that was always either going to be a trailblazing phenomenon or a why-in-the-world failure. Releasing a Black Widow film about a character we already know is dead and gives us no insight into a new big baddie was bizarre. Shang-Chi is a character that literally nobody knew anything about, and although it overperformed, you don’t get Guardians of the Galaxy shockers often. The Eternals has been panned from the very beginning for a plethora of issues, and has now earned Marvel’s very worst modern rotten rating.
But Sony gets it. Sony saw Into the Spiderverse, and they said, “let’s do live action.” They also get Dr. Strange. Apparently Disney doesn’t, if you can believe it. The Doctor Strange sequel was so poorly received by internal Disney audiences that they’re very nearly reshooting the whole thing. Meanwhile, Sony has figured out a way to connect all this multiverse stuff with their own properties, therefore meaning they can run with old Spider-Man nostalgia berries for plenty more money. Feige apparently has forgotten what butters his biscuits… and it isn’t unknown, obscure properties. It’s Spider-Man, Captain America, Ironman, Thor, The Hulk, etc. I don’t know if hubris managed its way in, or if social agendas are the problem, but at some point, the people behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe forgot that these characters are great because they’re intrinsically great. And discarding your properties for poorly developed, untested characters is unwise. For a lesson in how that goes, compare the last episode of The Mandalorian’s reception to the reception of the Star Wars sequel trilogy.
Spider-Man: No Way Home may not be the wake-up call Kevin Feige needs. But it is certainly going to be all that Walt Disney Company CEO, Bob Chapek, needs to say “enough is enough”. Because in our very strange reality, Sony is about to show Disney how to Marvel.
Maybe with Spider Holland 3, Sony may show Disney how to Marvel but they haven’t with Venom whist total gross is slightly below Shang Chi according to The Numbers.
Great point! The one thing I would remind you is that Venom also has a production budget that is $50 million less, with a smaller marketing budget to boot. Shang-Chi may put up bigger box office totals, but Venom is likely to make a profit… something that Shang-Chi has proven difficult to achieve.