Why Did The Marvels (2023) Bomb At The Box Office?

What was once a billion-dollar brand had become an assembly line of expensive, disposable content. And The Marvels? It was the unfortunate product that showed just how badly the machine had broken down.

Let's start with the numbers:

• Domestic opening weekend: $46.1 million — lowest in MCU history
• Domestic total: $84.5 million
• Global total: $206 million
• Reported production budget: $270 million
• Estimated total spend (with reshoots and marketing): $350 million
• Estimated loss: over $100 million — making it the biggest financial failure in the MCU to date

This was Marvel's first true box-office disaster. So what went wrong?

A Director Who Checked Out Early

Nia DaCosta, who had built her reputation on indie films, reportedly left the project before post-production was finished to begin work on another movie. While technically allowed, the optics were bad — and insiders say the shoot itself was chaotic. Three editors cycled through the film. Character moments were cut. The final runtime was a short 105 minutes, and it showed.

DaCosta later admitted she had limited creative control, saying Marvel's pre-planned VFX sequences and editorial system didn't leave much room for a director's vision.

Endless Reshoots, Zero Payoff

Test screenings went poorly. Major reshoots were ordered. The villain, played by Zawe Ashton, had her storyline overhauled midstream because audiences didn't understand her motivation. The second act was reshuffled repeatedly. Whole subplots were deleted.

Critics described the final product as "chopped up," "incomplete," and "rushed."

And don't forget, by late 2023, Marvel's VFX pipeline was in meltdown. Artists were overworked, underpaid, and burning out — some were actively unionizing during the film's post. The climax of The Marvels looked half-finished. It became yet another MCU release dragged for sloppy effects, right after Secret Invasion and Quantumania had done the same.

Promotion? What Promotion?

Thanks to the SAG-AFTRA strike, The Marvels had no press tour. Its cast — Brie Larson, Iman Vellani, and Teyonah Parris — couldn't promote the film until one day before release. By then, it was too late. Marvel leaned on TikTok instead, which translated to approximately zero box office momentum.

Worse: test screenings revealed audiences didn't know who Monica Rambeau was, or why the characters were "swapping powers." The basic premise was lost on casual viewers.

Too Much Homework

If you hadn't seen Captain Marvel, WandaVision, and Ms. Marvel on Disney+, you were out of the loop. But most people hadn't seen Ms. Marvel, and the movie made little effort to catch them up. The result? A film that felt like a Disney+ crossover episode pretending to be a theatrical release.

Captain Marvel Fatigue

The first Captain Marvel made $1.1 billion, but it came out right before Avengers: Endgame, when the MCU could do no wrong. Since then, Brie Larson's character became polarizing — a lightning rod for online trolls and a tough sell for general audiences. Marvel tried to offset that by adding Kamala Khan and Monica Rambeau, but it didn't help.

Larson herself seemed checked out. She reportedly clashed with Marvel over her character's direction, did limited press even after the strike, and has remained vague about returning.

Marvel Has No Plan

Post-Endgame, Marvel has been throwing projects at the wall to see what sticks. The careful buildup is gone. Now it's sequels, spin-offs, and setup with no urgency. Kevin Feige used to micromanage everything — now he's barely keeping up. The Marvels felt like a placeholder in a franchise spinning its wheels.

The superhero market was in freefall by late 2023. The Flash, Blue Beetle, Shazam 2, Ant-Man 3 — all tanked. The novelty wore off. The excitement's gone. And The Marvels, with no buzz and no real stakes, had nothing to offer except connective tissue for a universe fewer and fewer people were keeping up with.