Has the runaway success of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, both critically and commercially, shone a bit of an unwelcome light into some of the rest of the MCU? It must have done. Everybody, us included, has been quick to proclaim that a combination of superhero fatigue and changing consumer habits has left, as many put it, “cape shit” dead as a genre.
Then along comes Spider-Man and the money just rolls in and theaters sell out around the clock. It would also be a very brave man who would bet against Avengers: Doomsday doing the same thing later this year. Seemingly good for Marvel Studios, but where exactly does this leave the rest of the MCU?
The Fantastic Four: First Steps, for instance. This was supposed to be the big hitter. This was the introduction of the Marvel “First Family” to the MCU. They were going to carry the MCU onwards to new heights as more well-loved characters came back into the Disney/Marvel fold. Then it didn’t.
On a budget of $181 million, the film made $521.9 million worldwide. Against the take from Deadpool vs Wolverine, or any of the Spidey movies, that is disappointing.
The same year, there was also Captain America: Brave New World ($415.1 million) and Thunderbolts* ($382.4 million). None of those movies were bad. Yet none of those movies performed at anything like the heights we have come to expect from the MCU.
So where exactly is the MCU these days? One man who might have the answers is Marvel Studios supremo Kevin Feige. In an interview with Variety about Spider-Man, he had this to say:
“Many things can be true at once. I think last year’s Fantastic Four looked and sounded like nothing that had been done in a superhero movie before, and it only [grossed] $521 million.
Brand New Day is very directly a part four. It picks up right after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, and yet it tells a story that resonates. It’s ultimately about loneliness, and the dangers of staying in our apartments by ourselves, looking at our phones. That resonates across cultures and across the globe right now.
So what are the expectations at the studio for Avengers: Doomsday? Feige says:
“For ‘Avengers: Doomsday and X Men, it bodes very well. When a shared universe works, these are the results.”
Avengers: Doomsday opens December 18th.
