As Marvel continues to experience box-office failures and sees its stories increasingly shunned by fans, studios are reportedly looking to change course again. Even if it means burying certain licenses with definite potential, but not profitable enough.
More independent stories don't appeal to Marvel audiences
We saw it coming. Thunderbolts* marks another failure for Marvel, a few months after the disaster of Captain America 4. Already the second this year. Fantastic Four will have the difficult task of saving the MCU from a catastrophic year at the box office, if the film also turns out to be a failure. Even if the feature film, carried by its five-star cast and the induction of Galactus into the MCU, manages to avoid sinking, when the time comes to take stock, the House of Ideas will see red. This raises the following question: do original and independent stories still attract audiences? In other words: can those not based on iconic characters from the stable still be profitable?
It must be said that with the successive failures of The Marvel, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Madame Web in 2023, then this year of Captain America: Brave New World (without Steve Rogers) and Thunderbolts*, we have every reason to believe that they will not. After its heyday and huge box-office successes such as Endgame, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange 2, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Marvel has produced an overabundance of interconnected stories in the MCU. Enough, no doubt, to keep its audiences fed up. The COVID crisis hasn't helped either, weakening the global market.
Some MCU licenses are doomed to die
The glass ceiling could therefore be reached. Seeing the drastic drop in the scores of its licenses, Marvel could make big changes, slow down its pace again, and fall back on its franchises, its sure values. We saw it with Deadpool & Wolverine released in 2024, the only feature film of 2024, and which took advantage of the notoriety of its two superheroes to reach $1.3 billion in revenue.
The schedule of future releases speaks for itself: the two Avengers Doomsday and Secret Wars, respectively announced (but postponed) in 2026 and 2027, Spider-Man 4 next year, then two films on the X-Men and Black Panther currently on the way. The Blade reboot could be shelved (a third director has left, which obviously doesn't help matters). The unofficial sequels Shang-Chi 2 and even Doctor Strange 3 could also be shelved.
Also, Marvel is reportedly looking to cut its production costs, thus sacrificing certain licenses that may not exceed $600 million or even $700 million in revenue. However, this hypothesis has its limits: the studio's flagship films, which are destined to become global blockbusters, require a significant investment, including actors' salaries, production costs, visual effects, post-production, marketing and promotional costs. It's therefore difficult to tighten one's belt.
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