Ignoring the downturn in quality that’s seen all of the franchise’s worst-reviewed projects emerge during the Multiverse Saga, you could make the argument that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has never truly recovered from the pandemic in a box office sense, something The Marvels will be seeking to change.
Of the nine movies to have released since the Infinity Saga drew to a close, only one of them has managed to blow past 10 figures globally, and that was the worldwide phenomenon Spider-Man: No Way Home. Of the nine to release prior to the web-slinging epic, five of them sailed past a billion, and not a single one of them earned less than the $622 million of Ant-Man and the Wasp.
With that in mind, it’s fairly unreasonable to expect The Marvels to match the $1.1 billion of its predecessor, but it may have just gotten a significant boost after being confirmed for a day-and-date release in China on Nov. 10. The local marketing has been touting the sequel as the much more straightforward Captain Marvel 2 instead, but that’s a small price to pay for what could prove to be a lucrative run in multiplexes.
The opening installment notched $154 million from Chinese cinemas back in 2018, and while the MCU is only just beginning to make inroads in the market once again following its years-long exile, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 did manage to haul in $86 million from the territory, roughly on a par with what the first installment made if slightly below Vol. 2‘s $100 million.
If The Marvels suffers a similar drop, then there’s no reason why it can’t bring in north of $100 million from China alone, which would be a huge help in preventing it from becoming the sagging superhero series’ latest under-performer.