Captain America: Brave New World arrives in just over two weeks, but the noise surrounding a new Marvel film appears to have dampened.
On 14th February, just over two weeks away from this piece being written, Marvel Studios releases its latest film. The movie in question has had a bit of a time getting to the screen, but it’s also the latest Captain America feature, Captain America: Brave New World.
This is, as always, part of the latest phase of pictures in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and you don’t need me to tell you that across that franchise, Captain America films have been big deals. Captain America: The Winter Soldier remains one of the most acclaimed Marvel productions, and Captain America: Civil War took home over $1.1bn at the box office.
There were mitigating factors, of course. The last Captain America film was a pseudo-Avengers movie, introducing Tom Holland’s take on Spider-Man into the Marvel world. Also, Chris Evans by this stage had become something of a star attraction and a half. Plus, Marvel had peak momentum with its storytelling, and in the weeks and months leading up to the release of Captain America: Civil War in particular, anticipation seemed pretty much off the scale.
What’s interesting about the build-up to Captain America: Brave New World is that the swagger, the confidence and the noise surrounding a new Marvel release clearly isn’t what it was. Iāve seen an Empire cover and report, and a few trailers. But not that much else to do specifically with the film.
Again, there’s a mitigating factor, in that Chris Evans is no longer in the title role, and he’s been a hell of a star for Marvel Studios. But still, Anthony Mackie is no slouch, and extra box office muscle has been recruiting in the form of Harrison Ford. This is the kind of stuff that Marvel and Disney’s marketing department would have managed to tattoo to our eyeballs six or seven years ago.
To use a British sporting metaphor for a minute, it feels like there’s something of a Manchester City moment going on.
For those not football inclined, Manchester City have dominated British football/soccer/kicking a pig’s bladder around for the last six or seven years in particular, winning everything in sight, and routinely notching up heavy wins against their opposition. Only this season, they’ve suddenly looked vulnerable. They look beatable. They may still be fourth or fifth in the league, and so very much around the top spots, but they don’t look like the leaders and the pathfinders anymore.
Marvel Studios looks in a similar place.
It’s hardly suffering, and Captain America: Brave New World will comfortably top the box office on the week of its release. But is a new Marvel film the same kind of event that it once was? Given how comparably quiet the film world is surrounding the new film, I don’t think it is. Six or seven years ago, it’d be unfathomable that a new Captain America film would be released in February (appreciating that movies can become blockbusters at any time of year in the modern era), and for things to be so quiet two weeks before its release.
Squillions of words, of course, have been written about why Marvel finds itself where it is.
It’s impossible not to tie it back to some degree to the launch of Disney+, where the requirement for umpteen TV shows to feed a new streaming service led not quite to a killing of a golden goose, but certainly gave it a few broken bones. The most dominant entertainment franchise of its era was now required to not just give us movies – and Marvel had, whether you like the films or not, carefully curated its film output – but also a whole bunch of generally middling TV shows. Quality control evidently slipped with the need to increase output (this book, incidentally, is an excellent read).
Worse, for the outsider to the Marvel world who only turned up to the films, there became the perception that if you didn’t watch everything, then you were missing out to some degree on the films themselves. Certainly watching something like The Marvels, there are conversations in that film that leave the casual viewer behind. From being some of the most accessible films in cinema, you now needed a far more overt knowledge of what had gone before to get the most out of some of what was going on screen when Marvel turned up. Easter eggs had become part of the main narrative.
Sometimes it works, of course. After years searching for a new $1bn hit – and that’s the bar that Marvel Studios comfortably used to clear – the studio found one with last year’s Deadpool And Wolverine. It got that by turning inwards to its fanbase I’d argue rather than recruiting. But you don’t get to a billion dollars by just playing to those with a doctorate in Marvel movies, and Deadpool And Wolverine delivered the studio a hugely-needed megahit. Debate about the film ensued, but you canāt argue with the numbers.
Still, that film feels like it exists on the outskirts of the Marvel world. It’s not part of a main narrative undercurrent, the kind that’s so expertly threaded films together before. It doesnāt naturally lead to the next chapter in a universe of stories.
After all,the post-credits sting of one film effectively became a key part of the marketing campaign for the next, and helped fuel anticipation. Does that still happen? I’m not sure it does (witness a character introduced in the post-credits sting in Thor: Love & Thunder who doesn’t seem to have been mentioned since on the big screen). The weakness of – again – much discussed no stakes multiverse backdrops, and the emergency narrative course correction following the dismissal of Jonathan Majors as the character of Kang means the threads from each film to the next are nowhere near as strong as they were. It’s been hard for Marvel to do a setup when its overall narrative has been changing so much.
Fundamentally too, the films haven’t been resonating in the way they once were. For a huge audience, a Marvel movie was always, at least, a guaranteed good night out at the movies. Now, following the middling reception of movies such as The Marvels, Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, I do wonder if people are leaving the cinema, keen to see what Marvel comes up with next.
Marvel is, of course, going back to playing its hits in the future. Disney has dug into its piggy bank to bring back Robert Downey Jr and the Russo brothers at enormous expense. On the surface, it looks like playing to the crowd rather than building anything new. But also, these are people that helped build the studio enormous success. They may do so again.
But still: we find ourselves on the eve of a new Marvel movie, and something has clearly changed. Itās unlikely to be permanent.
Just as I fully expect Manchester City to eventually learn from their mistakes and rebuild, so I anticipate the same with Marvel Studios. Already, this summer’s Fantastic Four reboot looks like the big bet for the studio, which is presumably why it’s snagged the prime release slot.
Also, to get this into perspective, Captain America: Brave New World is still expected to enjoy a healthy opening weekend. There may not be adverts on the side of buses, and every time I open a web browser I may not be being hit with fresh publicity for the film, but current tracking suggests a $90m opening weekend in the US. Tickets are already on sale, and selling well, suggests this Deadline report.
Still, the last time a film went out with Captain America in the title, the opening weekend in the US was $179m. There are, as discussed, umpteen reasons why Captain America: Brave New World won’t do that kind of number. But still, it would have been folly to suggest after Civil War that the next Captain America feature would track at half of its opening number.
That’s where we are, though.
I’ve deliberately not commented or shared personal views on the films concerned, incidentally, as the internet is awash with people either bashing Marvel or praising Marvel to the high heavens. I just find it interesting that we find ourselves where we are. Two weeks out from a new Marvel film, wondering where a good chunk of the noise has gone.
The best riposte to all of this from Marvel? Deliver a rollicking good film, that demands to be seen in a cinema. Very much fingers crossed for thatā¦
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