‘The Marvels’ Confirmed As Biggest Box Office Bomb Of 2023

quote:

---

To the surprise of absolutely no one save the most die-hard and delusional of the franchise’s dwindling fanbase, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s most recent entry, The Marvels, has been revealed to have been not only the worst performing film of 2023, but also a more than $200 million dollar sinkhole USD for the already-financially-embattered Disney.

---

quote:

---

Meanwhile, four of the above releases ended up placing in the tournament’s bottom five, with Haunted Mansion, Wish, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Warner Bros. Discovery’s The Flash, and The Marvels walking away from the competition as ‘The Worst Performing Films of The Year’.

---

quote:

---

The Marvels
Disney/Marvel
Net Loss: -$237M

When Marvel fanboys and fangirls smell it’s going to be good, they crowd the theater. But when it’s a dud, they stay away. One would think a sequel to a $1.1 billion-grossing female superhero movie would be logical, and asked for. However, The Marvels‘ predecessor, Captain Marvel, benefited at the box office from being a bridge between the Avengers finales Infinity War and Endgame.

---

quote:

---

The Flash
Warner Bros/DC Studios
Net Loss: -$155M

Released well before the actors strike, it doesn’t help when your leading star is making lots of tabloid headlines, the person here being Ezra Miller. Miller was kept at bay in regards to promoting the DC movie, and the pic’s stars, which included Michael Keaton returning as Batman, were either available in limited doses or shied away from doing press (no one wanted to field questions about Miller).

---

quote:

---

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Disney
Net Loss: -$143M

Harrison Ford reportedly loved the script of this finale, which is why it got made. However, Steven Spielberg passed on directing, handing the reins to James Mangold — a smart choice and able filmmaker given his history with Logan and Ford v. Ferrari. However, something went amiss. In the hands of Disney, the formerly Paramount-distributed Lucasfilm franchise sequel had too many cooks in the kitchen. There were reports of several editors trying to fix the film at the last minute, not to mention there was no attempt to cast-up this older, male-skewing movie ala Top Gun: Maverick with stars that could appeal to the under-40 crowd, which would have expanded the audience.

---

quote:

---

Wish
Disney
Net Loss: -$131M

Disney always needs to plant an animated family film in the Thanksgiving corridor; the only problem is that the studio hasn’t seen glory since before Covid with Frozen 2. Wish followed the 2022 bomb Strange World. While original animation is always an uphill battle to launch at the box office, audiences have seen this plug-and-play princess and silly sidekicks (in this case a talking goat and puffy star) movie before, and waited this one out for Disney+ (another potential catalyst for dwindling Disney moviegoing).

---

quote:

---

Haunted Mansion
Disney
Net Loss: -$117M

This movie, which opened July 28, was the first big casualty of the strike with its cast unable to show up at the pic’s Disneyland premiere, which the studio billed as a fan event. Above all, Haunted Mansion burned down because of its release date, opening in the wake of Barbie and ahead of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, thus losing out on the younger-skewing audience it wanted.

---