About a month ago, you couldn’t move for people authoritatively claiming that Captain Marvel was going to be a record flop for Marvel Studios. Their reasoning was that Brie Larson’s milquetoast comments on feminism would surely torpedo the film’s box office chances. They said that Disney was so terrified by the failure (?) of Star Wars: The Last Jedi that they were afraid of losing the white male market and claimed there was insider information that Disney and Marvel Studios had already concluded that the film would be a disaster and may have even scrubbed Captain Marvel from most of Avengers: Endgame.
Well, Carol Danvers’ solo pic has just topped one billion dollars worldwide, so it’s safe to say some commentators might not have the expert grasp on global box office trends that they think they do. Not only that, but this milestone makes Captain Marvel the seventh most successful MCU movie of all-time, surpassing hits like Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. And with Endgame hype cranking up and Carol featuring in the trailers, it may even get another boost and go on to overtake the $1.1 billion haul of Captain America: Civil War.
I mean, if they were right and Disney really was alienating white male audiences, figures like this prove that a film can be hugely successful without them. So, by their logic, the Mouse House should immediately put a lot more female-fronted and openly feminist superhero movies into production. But of course, they’re not right, and the vast majority of audiences around the world couldn’t give a toss about the opinions of a bunch of bedroom dwelling neckbeards with nothing to do but review-bomb superhero movies.
Still, they have a chance to redeem their prognosticating powers with Star Wars: Episode IX. Their hot gossip is that after The Last Jedi was infested with w-w-women, it’s sure to be a ginormous, Ishtar-sized failure. I guess we’ll see come December.
