During the three years of the epidemic, the global film industry was dismal, and so was Hollywood. Among the dismal, Marvel is undoubtedly the most miserable one.
Before Marvel restarted its journey to mainland China this year, the last Marvel movie to be introduced to mainland China dates back to ‘Spider-Man 2’ in June 2019, a full 3 years and 8 months after ‘Black Panther : Wakanda Forever’.
After nearly four years of reshuffling, Marvel has long ceased to be the super IP that calls the shots. of course, not only this long absence, the decline in its quality is the more critical factor.
Marvel’s failure has finally come?
Throughout the development of Marvel’s history, the first three stages of development can be described as smooth and step by step.
The first phase began with the groundbreaking ‘Iron Man’ and ended with the record-breaking ‘The Avengers’, which brought more than a sense of surprise to fans and audiences.
Many people are amazed: the movie can still be played like this? Its success is not only due to the charm of Marvel characters, subversive innovation is also a credit to.
After the first stage draws out the Comic Book Six and lays a solid foundation, the second stage begins to consolidate the previous achievements.
This stage not only strengthened Iron Man, Captain America, Thor trio, but also successfully introduced Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man and other characters. Although the main event ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ is a bit low, but the overall second stage of the project is still very good.
After the previous repeated pavement, the third stage is undoubtedly a masterpiece of Marvel, it can be said that this stage is the moment of Marvel’s true gods, but also the moment to win countless fans around the world.
Almost all of them are explosive, each is a billion dollars +, Marvel’s dominance makes everyone chill, and finally ended with the final battle of ‘Avengers: Endgame’.
Along with the fourth stage after the incomparable radiant curtain, I did not know that the situation behind is actually a fall. When countless fans for ‘Avengers: Endgame’ that decade a battle waving tears, only to find that the collapse behind brought more tears of sadness.
The outbreak of the epidemic, streaming online, no access to the market in mainland China, all of these reasons will be completely knocked into the comic book downturn.
Marvel Phase IV: box office word-of-mouth double collapse
To know the past decade or so, Marvel’s success has made many people red, the traditional Hollywood was impacted in pieces, Marvel domination has been a routine, no matter how the industry bigwigs spit it is “copy and paste”, “assembly line work”, but why there is always The audience is always there.
Just when everyone is imagining “when Marvel is finished”, the fourth phase of Marvel is immediately hit in the face.
Marvel’s fourth phase of seven films were almost reunited, in stark contrast to the third phase of the Department of explosion. You know that Marvel’s usual standard starts at $700 million and $1 billion to reach excellence.
And throughout the fourth stage, even three original direct fall to $300 million, $400 million situation, can no longer be described as a mere flunk.
Like ‘Black Widow’, ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’, ‘Eternals’ is just a coincidence with the epidemic, plus landing on streaming led to a large number of points, giving Marvel’s fourth phase to set such a pessimistic tone .
Such a low volume of box office, equivalent to the comic book to play a 50% discount, the proud comic book finally god no longer.
Of course more or their own reasons, the quality of the three films have seen a consistent decline, to know that continuous word-of-mouth collapse has never occurred, Marvel always put the quality are guaranteed at a certain level.
At the same time, the first part of the fourth stage ‘Black Widow’ also opened the way to become a comic book no-frills in mainland China.
Coincidentally, the next few films have appeared one after another at the censorship level, and the continuous coincidence makes people wonder if it is intentional.
In short, the fourth stage hit the head of the three original together flopped, and was a double loss at the box office and word of mouth.
The latter four are Marvel’s traditional trump card, are the sequel films of successful projects, which is, by definition, a guarantee of box office and quality, Marvel almost never misses in this regard.
But I don’t know if it’s the reason for Marvel’s quality control, or the reason for Disney’s change of president, in short, these are more or less the problems at the content end.
Eventually the fourth stage of the comic book is so connected to a series of quality decline.
It can not be said that there are no surprises, such as ‘Spider-Man 3’ of the three men on the same stage idea, which is unprecedented, this idea alone is worth $1 billion, the final film in the world cut a stunning $1.9 billion +, which also allows it to get the sixth position in the history of the global box office.
Unfortunately, the film is still not introduced to the Chinese mainland market, to know that before the introduction of seven ‘Spider-Man’, the series can never be broken.
The latter ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ is Marvel’s top priority throughout 2022, placing it in Marvel’s most central C position – the first week of May.
But the film obviously did not meet market expectations, and eventually regrettably failed to break the $1 billion mark.
The film not only assembled Scarlet Witch and other familiar Marvel superheroes, and Professor X’s stunning debut, but ultimately failed to recreate the Marvel miracle.
Immediately after the summer release of Marvel’s old king ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ is also underperforming, compared to the last ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ ushered in a certain decline, and word of mouth is also to the lowest point of the series.
You know even if Marvel’s headliners ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ did not make it to the fourth film, the importance of ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ speaks for itself, but unfortunately it is also far from its peak of $1 billion.
And really disastrous consequences, is the later ‘Black Panther : Wakanda Forever’, to know the film’s predecessor in Northern America exceeded $700 million, breaking the Northern America single superhero box office record, and the world is also cut a stunning $1.348 billion.
But the sequel saw a cutback in Northern America and worldwide, ending up with a mere $800 million + in volume, which is also the largest decline in Marvel’s sequels.
Throughout the fourth stage of the comic book film, from the box office and the third stage is far away, the word of mouth is also down to the bottom.
Perhaps the only good thing is that the finale ‘Black Panther : Wakanda Forever’ successfully landed in the Chinese mainland market, which is also considered the only comfort of Marvel.
Unfortunately, the film ended up with a box office volume of only 100 million, which is a far cry from its predecessor’s 660 million.
Just recently, Marvel’s fifth phase of the opening of the ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ has officially landed in the global market, but the word of mouth has hit a new low, it seems that Marvel’s bad luck continues.
And the next ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’, ‘The Marvels’ can not be missed, including next year’s ‘Captain America 4’ are expected to revive Marvel’s majestic key works.
Forced by the continuous market decline and poor quality, Disney’s newly promoted CEO also suggested that Disney needs to better manage the content output of IP.
Including Marvel President Kevin Feige also said the adjustment of Marvel episodes. In short, Disney and Marvel are reviewing the past “to win by quantity” of the road, the next also strive to return to “quality to win” the road up.
In short, no matter how well the comic book, it is always back, successfully landed again in the record in mainland China on the big screen.
In the current situation, want the Chinese mainland audience to fall in love with it again, may still need time and works of sedimentation.
