Captain Marvel is coming fresh off a triumphant opening weekend that utterly defied the negative backlash that the movie continues to face online. But in a development that’s likely to get the film’s most vocal detractors riled up all over again, it looks like YouTube has taken some measures to ensure that the site’s more petulant takes on Carol Danvers’ solo debut aren’t given quite so much exposure.
As The Verge’s Julia Alexander recently observed, YouTube has seemingly adjusted their algorithm so that videos marked News show up first when searching “Brie Larson,” ensuring that content from more authoritative sources takes precedence over anti-Captain Marvel rant videos.
YouTube isn’t the only site to make some adjustments in response to the backlash faced by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s film. A couple of weeks ago, Rotten Tomatoes, for instance, disabled comments on features that haven’t yet been released after the movie’s page was flooded with negative takes.
But while it’s clear that the online outrage over Captain Marvel isn’t going away anytime soon, the film’s first weekend has already demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that the moviegoing public isn’t being turned off by the so-called controversy surrounding the picture.
On its first weekend, Captain Marvel took in a whopping $153 million domestically, beating out the likes of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Thor: Ragnarok and every other MCU solo debut save for Black Panther. And with a CinemaScore of A, you can expect word of mouth to serve to the film well on its second weekend. But regardless of how the movie fares in these next few weeks, we’ll be seeing Carol Danvers back on our screens when Avengers: Endgame hits theaters on April 26th.
