18 Yuan Zhang’s chapter
Yuan Zhang
The Marvels was a box-office flop: most fans may not have been that enthusiastic
Fans of Marvel’s movies may not be happy with what Marvel offers this year. Looking at Marvel’s entire year of film and television output, only Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (Gunn, 2023) was relatively successful at the box office. And here is what The BBC has to say about the recently released The Marvels (DaCosta, 2023): “Superhero film The Marvels made just $47m (£38m) in its first weekend, in the US, making it the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s lowest opening.” (Bushby, 2023) In the face of such dismal results, CNN gave the evaluation as “audiences firmly rejecting the “Captain Marvel” sequel in a not-so-subtle fashion.” (Darcy, 2023) In fact, Marvel’s decline started after the release of 2019 Avengers: Endgame (Russo, 2019). “This is all an unprecedented turn of fortune for a company that has enjoyed a nearly uninterrupted string of hits ever since it started independently producing its movies with 2008’s “Iron Man.” That wildly profitable run culminated in the $2.8 billion success of 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame,” a high-water mark for the studio that has earned nearly $30 billion over 32 films.” (Siegel, 2023) However, after that, Marvel seemed to be headed in the wrong direction. Due to the global pandemic of COVID-19, the primary means of film distribution has had to shift from offline cinemas to online streaming services. At the time, Disney wanted Marvel to “help boost Disney’s stock price with an endless torrent of interconnected Marvel content for the studio’s fledgling streaming platform.” (Siegel, 2023) “The promise was that the events of the shows would come full circle and influence the content of Marvel’s films. In reality, for many, the inundation began to feel more like homework than entertainment.” (Whitten, 2023) With so many films being produced so quickly, it did not seem easy to maintain the quality of the content. Employees began to complain about endless overtime, and management on the set became chaotic. To make matters worse, scandals in the lead roles and changes in top management greatly delayed filming and even led to reshoots. Some fans have already spotted the problems earlier and voiced their opinions. Some fans complained about the quality of the film. In either case, the voices of these fans should be valued by Marvel. Perhaps the support and encouragement of some fans blinded them, or the once-dazzling achievements led to Marvel’s blind confidence or arrogance. They did not solve these problems in time. These problems, like time bombs, finally detonated when The Marvels were released. This also reflects that Marvel fans do not blindly support Marvel movies. If a movie is not good, fans will not buy it, as reflected in the box office. This paper will use X to analyze fans’ activities after the release of The Marvels from three perspectives: Fans vs. Anti-Fans, Audience as Commodity vs. Consumer Fandom