A triple-whammy of unfortunate circumstances may have already cut ‘The Marvels’ and its dreams of box office glory off at the knees

Having banked upwards of $1.1 billion at the box office, Captain Marvel still remains one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s highest-grossing origin stories, but there’s already a growing belief that The Marvels won’t come anywhere close to matching those numbers.

Thanks to a gradual decline in quality on both a critical and commercial level, the days when every single installment in the superhero franchise was expected to cross 10 figures are long gone, matters that most definitely haven’t been helped by the Disney Plus expansion spreading Kevin Feige far too thin and hurting the MCU’s overall output across the board as a result.

As a sequel to Captain Marvel, WandaVision, Ms. Marvel, and Secret Invasion all at once, The Marvels already has a lot of legwork to do from a storytelling standpoint (never mind the unwanted tag of having to succeed the worst-rated content in Marvel history), but a conflation of unfortunate circumstances may have already drastically reduced its chances of flying as high at the box office as it potentially could.

Reports have indicated that Brie Larson’s second solo adventure won’t be approved for release in China – where the MCU has fallen on hard times anyway – which would be a bummer when its predecessor netted $145 million from the region. Secondly, Dune: Part Two is hoovering up IMAX exclusivity for anywhere up to six weeks, robbing Nia DaCosta’s film of the chance to rake in some of that premium format revenue.

We can’t help but mention the strikes, which has already seen Sony blink first and delay its own Marvel content into next year and beyond. There’s no sign of the picket lines emptying anytime soon, either, so it wouldn’t even be a shock if The Marvels didn’t even hit the big screen until 2024.