The Marvels arrived in theaters during the tail end of 2023's Hollywood strikes. Despite scoring mostly positive reviews (it's "Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes with 62%), the Captain Marvel sequel only managed to gross $206.1 million worldwide.
That makes it one of Marvel Studios' biggest box office flops, and it's still hard to pinpoint where it all went wrong for the movie. After all, how could a follow-up to a $1 billion blockbuster and critically acclaimed shows like WandaVision and Ms. Marvel fall so short of expectations?
Filmmaker Nia DaCosta quickly moved on to Hedda and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, and promoting the latter while speaking to Deadline, she reflected on The Marvels' struggles.
"It’s so interesting, because the Marvel machine had so much chatter around it," DaCosta recalled. "But when I look back on it, everyone tried their best. Everyone was trying to make a great film, and I will say I’m really happy to have those relationships."
"I was just visiting the Avengers set last summer, which was really fun, catching up with the producers, seeing the Russos, and some of my friends were in the movie," she continued. "So it was really nice, despite how everything went with the box office and the reviews, knowing that the relationships are so good."
"I look back and everyone tried their best and everyone was trying to do the right thing, and it is what it is," DaCosta concluded.
Due to the SAG-AFTRA strikes, The Marvels' cast was unable to promote the movie when it was released. That definitely hurt its chances of box office success, but a mixture of it featuring Disney+ characters in lead roles and trailers that failed to make the Captain Marvel follow-up look like much of an event also didn't help.
Marvel Studios is renowned for using reshoots to tinker with and improve its movies. However, in recent years, those appear to have largely done the opposite, with Captain America: Brave New World a good example. The Marvels underwent similar alterations and ultimately lost the studio around $237 million.
Regardless, many fans decided they might as well wait for The Marvels to be released on Digital or streaming, and what the future holds in store for Carol Danvers, Ms. Marvel, and Monica Rambeau is now a mystery.
While not confirmed for Avengers: Doomsday, all three are rumoured to appear in some capacity after Monica was left stranded in the X-Men Universe at the end of The Marvels. Captain Marvel will likely assemble alongside The Avengers, while Kamala Khan is expected to found the Champions with Kate Bishop.