The Marvels poster
Walt Disney Co.'s Marvel Studios is about to come out with a new movie. Four years ago, that would be a big deal. Today? Not so much.
In 2019, Marvel released Avengers: Endgame. It generated almost $2.8 billion in global box office. The long movie (three hours or so) also concluded a series of movies that lasted more than a decade. For Marvel boss Kevin Feige, it capped a series of hits.
Since then? Like other studios, Marvel encountered the COVID-19 pandemic. Releases were delayed.
What's more, some Marvel characters were done. Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man was killed off. Chris Evans' Captain America wasn't going forward. Chadwick Boseman died, and Marvel opted not to recast his role as the Black Panther.
Marvel also pressed ahead with other characters in its catalog. One such property was The Eternals, created by Jack Kirby in the 1970s. The move came and went in 2021 without much excitement.
Marvel's biggest success during this period was Spider-Man: No Way Home, a joint venture with Sony. That movie featured three Spider-Man actors and was a huge fit. But Marvel couldn't replicate that success.
Marvel Studios saw its resources stretched making a series of television series for the Disney + streaming service. The studio's new movie, The Marvels, draws upon 2019's Captain Marvel and some of the Disney + TV shows.
If you go to YouTube, you'll find plenty of videos predicting The Marvels will be a flop. Is it because Marvel passed over many of its established characters in favor of newer ones? Or is it because what goes up must come down?
Regardless, Marvel is not what it was four years ago.
