Captain America: Brave New World has been slowly bringing in the green for Marvel and Disney. Emphasis on slowly. It had a solid opening weekend haul of nearly 200 million, but has just barely been able to match its first weekend in total sales afterwards. After this weekend, the fourth film in the Captain America franchise and the first to feature Sam Wilson as Cap, has reached 400 million at the box office.
It's been reported that Brave New World needs to make 425 million at the box office to break even and not cost Marvel money. If it ends up hitting that 425 million benchmark, it will be very close. As it's been in theaters for nearly a month and a half, it's expected to leave theaters entirely soon. Showtime availability is already becoming quite limited, so there's a good chance it won't break even.
Captain America: Brave New World sits at a rotten 48% on Rotten Tomatoes, but has a much better audience score of 79%. Every day moviegoers clearly like this one much more than critics.
If Captain America: Brave New World ends it's box office run by achieving the high end of what it's projected to earn, 440 million, it will just barely break even. By those standards, it would not be considered a “flop”, but, by modern Marvel standards, calling it that would be justifiable. If Brave New World hits 440 million It will beat out The Marvels (206 million), The Incredible Hulk (264 million), Captain America: The First Avenger (370 million), Black Widow (379 million), Eternals (402 million), and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (432 million). That would make it the seventh lowest grossing MCU movie and the second lowest grossing Captain America movie.
So, why hasn't Captain America: Brave New World done better?
Poor Reviews
The reviews for Captain America: Brave New World haven't been great. As I said above, the movie has a 48% on Rotten Tomatoes, making it one of the lower rated MCU movies. Simply put, when a movie gets bad reviews, a lot of the people that weren’t sure about seeing it make up their mind. With the audience score sitting at 79%, it seems like the people that wanted to see the movie, saw it. The MCU has plenty of loyal fans that will see a movie set in the MCU no matter how poor the reviews are, but even more rely on those reviews to help them decide whether or not to see a movie. Unfortunately for Brave New World, the reviews haven't helped.
Controversy Surrounding Mackie
Anthony Mackie has had a few controversies come his way as Captain America: Brave New World has been in theaters. There were his now infamous remarks stating “Captain America represents a lot of things, dontI don't think the term America should be one of those representations.” Although, he later cleared this up, stating that he is a patriot. He also recently went on The Pivot podcast to speak about raising sons where he made quite a few comments that were seen by some as controversial including the declaration that masculinity is dead. Whether or not these comments have helped, hurt, or made no impact on the box office result at all is open to interpretation, but it is possible.
Sam Wilson As Cap
Even in comics, Sam Wilson taking the mantle of Captain America rubs some people the wrong way. Unfortunately, that's frequently for the wrong reason. There are plenty of comic readers that don't want to see Captain America be a black man, but there are also comic readers that just aren’t as interested in his character as they are Steve Rogers’. Both of these opinions will naturally translate over to the big screen and potentially affect the movie's financial performance.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Without a doubt, there are people that did not watch The Falcon and the Winter soldier. While the show did great on Disney+ with literally millions of people watching it, there are definitely still those that didn't. More successful MCU movies don't just sell a few million tickets; they sell hundreds of millions of tickets. If a couple million people watched The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, maybe Disney can't expect hundreds of millions of people to buy tickets to what is essentially its sequel. As the MCU branches out into streaming, and their movies rely on people watching those series, the series performances will definitely affect the viewership of movies that come afterwards. Interestingly, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier had solid reviews from both critics and audiences a bit over 80% each. However, while most people like the show, it's possible that not enough people watched it to justify buying a ticket. Combine this with the rising overall uninterest in the MCU, and you have a recipe for a lower box office haul.
What did you think of Captain America: Brave New World? Let us know in the comments!