You may have peeped in at Not the Bee over the weekend and seen some, ah, debate over the MCU's newest offering, "The Marvels":
All of us in the NTB staffroom were stepping out quietly amid that debate like:
In any event, as it turns out, it looks like Beelon Musk (AKA NTB owner Dan Dillon) won this round:
Since 2008's "Iron Man," the Marvel machine has been one of the most unstoppable forces in box-office history. Now, though, that aura of invincibility is showing signs of wear and tear. The superhero factory hit a new low with the weekend launch of "The Marvels," which opened with just $47 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The 33rd installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a sequel to the 2019 Brie Larson-led "Captain Marvel," managed less than a third of the $153.4 million its predecessor launched with before ultimately taking in $1.13 billion worldwide.
BRUTAL.
As the AP notes, "The Marvels" debuted at $100 million less than its predecessor, "something no sequel before has ever done."
This movie is breaking records left and right, folks!
Why is it failing? Probably because it's a lame movie, would be my guess. People tend to patronize good movies and stay away from lame ones.
The AP and other critics just can't figure it out. I mean, according to the Associated Press, it's a historic film, for Pete's sake! Why wouldn't you want to go see it?
[It] was the first MCU release directed by a Black woman. It was also the rare Marvel movie led by three women โ Larson, Teyonah Parris and Iman Vellani.
Sign me up, that's all I need to know! As Dan Dillon noted last week, the film's uber-feminist selling point is actually perhaps its dumbest and weakest factor:
The trio of female leads exists for no other purpose than to show that "women can do this too," which is a message that has been systematically used to create a false narrative that men and women are inherently the same as each other, with no defining characteristics to separate them. The idea that women can be strong leaders is not itself the danger, it's the idea that women don't need men at all. And these movies are another (lame) attempt to convince our youth that this is absolutely the case.
Evidently the youth ain't buying it. Nobody is, it would seem! If you were one of the scant few Americans to pony up your hard-earned dollars to see this movie, we salute you. And we pity you a little bit, too.
But don't worry, we still like you!
The only question is whether or not Marvel will learn from this mistake and actually try to make some decent movies rather than just woke trash ones. A good business sense would compel them to pivot to the former; a hardcore woke ideology would dictate the latter.
Start placing bets now what it'll be. Don't save any money back for movie tickets, either.
P.S. Now check out our latest video ๐