No shortage of terrible movies have ended up making serious bank at the box office, but the lack of critical enthusiasm for Eternals must have stung the pride of Marvel Studios, after all 25 of the outfit’s previous comic book blockbusters comfortably secured a Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
That’s not to say that the acclaim of critics is the standard by which the project lives or dies, especially when you consider that audiences deemed the intergalactic epic worthy of an 80% user score on RT, miles ahead of the mere 47% of reviews that praised two-time Academy Award winner Chloe Zhao’s contributions to the MCU.
Speaking to Variety, top-level Marvel Studios executive Victoria Alonso addressed Eternals landing the worst reviews in franchise history, where she unsurprisingly praised the fanbase for giving the film their seal of approval above all else.
“We have tried to stir it up and sometimes the critics are not with us. That’s okay. That’s okay. We thank you for being a critic. We thank you for writing about us. And the fans will decide.”
It doesn’t really matter if Eternals ended up with a 0% or 100% score on RT, if the fans respond with unbridled enthusiasm and it makes enough money during its theatrical run, then those are the metrics with which Alonso, Kevin Feige and the rest of the Marvel brain trust will use to decide whether or not the sprawling saga is worthy of at least one sequel.
