Disney was once the king of the box office mountain when it came to the numbers, scoring one billion dollar hit after another. While every studio has had its struggles since the pandemic, Disney, being the one at the top previously, has fallen the farthest. Even the once bulletproof Marvel Cinematic Universe has struggled in 2022. The Marvels has been the latest film in that franchise to have a tough time in theaters. Disney CEO Bob Iger claims a lack of “supervision” for the movie’s poor performance. While that may be part of the answer, it certainly isn’t all of it based on the numbers.
In an interview at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit (via CNBC), Iger says that because The Marvels was shot during pandemic restrictions, and because the studio had drastically increased its MCU output between films and Disney+ series, The Marvels didn’t have the oversight that projects like it had previously had, which affected its quality. Iger explained…
The Marvels was shot during Covid. There wasn’t as much supervision on the set, so to speak, where we have executives [that are] really looking over what’s being done day after day after day.
Iger seems to be throwing The Marvels under the bus here a bit, claiming that the movie’s failure at the box office is a result of it not being as good as it could have been. The thing is, to be blunt, quality has never been a significant factor when it comes to box office success. Bad movies score big at the box office all the time. It’s true that critics didn’t love The Marvels the way they have other MCU movies, but the movie’s 61% Rotten Tomatoes critics score is only slightly worse than that of Thor: Love and Thunder, which grossed three-quarters of a billion dollars at the global box office.
And The Marvels has an RT audience score of over 80%, nearly 10 points better than Love and Thunder, indicating that those who have actually seen the movie like it. They don't have an issue with the quality. This means the issue, at least in part, isn’t one of quality, but simply one of getting the audience to show up at the theater in the first place.
Why the audience isn’t showing up, could be attributed to the success that streaming has had, especially for Disney. Disney+ has been a success for the company in terms of subscriber base, even if the company has yet to make money on it. Iger did acknowledge this fact during the interview, though he again indicated that he felt the determining factor for getting audiences into theaters was quality, saying…
The experience of accessing [the films] and watching them in the home is better than it ever was. And [it’s] a bargain when you think about it. Streaming Disney+ you can get for $7 a month. That’s a lot cheaper than taking your whole family to a film. So, I think the bar is now raised in terms of quality about what gets people out of their homes, into movie theaters.
Another factor that has been continually suggested for the recent struggles of superhero movies, not just Marvel, has been the idea of “superhero fatigue,” but Iger seems to reject that idea out of hand. He’s not looking to stop making sequels to popular movies, as long as the sequels have a “reason to make them.” He says…
I don’t want to apologize for making sequels. Some of them have done extraordinarily well and they’ve been good films, too. I think you there has to be a reason to make them, you have to have a good story. And often the story doesn’t hold up to is not as strong as the original story. That can be a problem.
At the end of the day, all fans want the MCU movies to tell compelling stories, and Bob Iger clearly thinks that the recent increase in quantity impacted quality. Certainly. The list of upcoming Marvel movies and series is lighter in 2024 than we've seen in years. With only one MCU movie set to release next year, we are certainly seeing adjustments being made already. Time will tell if the changes lead to more box office success.
