From Top Gun Maverick to the third Jurassic World movie, in a cinematic world of reboots the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) tries to deliver something new in each of its entries – even if their required viewing list continues to grow.
With the success of Spider-Man: No Way Home bringing in enormous box office figures, the highest a pandemic era film has seen, it’s fair to say that the MCU is back in full swing.
Marvel Studios has had a somewhat lacklustre line-up since Avengers: Endgame, the conclusion to a decade old saga that meant the expiration of several actors’ contracts and uncertainties about the direction for remaining characters to go.
New characters and former small characters, such as Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) in Hawkeye or Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) in WandaVision, have fans latching on to them in the absence of Iron Man and Captain America to carry the MCU forward.
Even Eternals, which featured an entirely new roster of characters, managed to persevere through surprisingly negative reviews and still maintained a global box office of almost $400 million – higher than Black Widow and Into the Spider-Verse.
With all of Marvel Studio’s attempts to one-up themselves following Avengers Endgame, including FOUR films and FIVE Disney+ streaming projects in 2021 alone, it’s inevitable that ‘Marvel fatigue’ will start to set in.
Through all of this, Marvel Studios has managed to successfully endure the pandemic, bad ratings, and the retirement of the Avengers and continue to dominate the box office and please fans. How? The question is no longer WHEN the MCU will end, but if anything CAN put an end to its reign as a box office juggernaut.
Marvel is subsidiary company owned by The Walt Disney Company – this includes not only Marvel Studios, but also Marvel Entertainment and Marvel Comics.
Disney are in the intellectual property business – a great box office is only the icing on the cake. Through their ownership of Marvel as an intellectual property, they can profit immensely from merchandise (clothing, toys, collectible figures), limited food tie-ins, crossovers, and Disneyland attractions. Essentially, Marvel films act as advertisements for the colossal range of merchandise produced by Disney.
Consider Disneyland’s new attraction – Avenger’s campus. The attraction is an enormous section of the park featuring areas themed around the Avengers compound, Doctor Strange’s Sanctum, Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-Man and Ant Man.
This collection of attractions is marketed as an Avengers campus, and not specifically focussed on one or a few characters, because it allows Disney to easily switch in new or different characters that prove more popular. For instance, if the Doctor Strange magic show falls flat it can be replaced by a Scarlet Witch illusion show – as Elizabeth Olsen’s character has in recent years been a fan favourite. Disney can use Marvel’s intellectual property to introduce and swap out characters as often as they feel to ensure that the brand never feels stale.
The continued box office success of the MCU has meant that even the film industry believes it to be too big to fail. Most big blockbusters no longer try to compete against each other. Film release scheduling now tends to allow for one big blockbuster release per genre per week to avoid competition. However, when a Marvel Studios film releases, all other blockbusters steer clear and keep well away – else risking their potential box office being absorbed by the inevitable absence of Marvel film fans in the audience.
Despite them seeming unbeatable, there is vulnerability in Marvel’s films. 2021 saw many of their riskiest projects yet – Black Widow was the solo film featuring an already dead protagonist, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was based on one of their less popular characters and was not expected to do as well as it did, and Eternals featured a completely new set of characters to the MCU based on comics that weren’t all that popular with fans. Rival film studios could try to take Marvel down – but no one wants to take the shot.
Spider-Man: No Way Home shattered pandemic era box office records, raking in well over $1.8 billion and filling cinema seats across the world. The pandemic caused shocking damage to box office figures, and seriously impacted cinemas everywhere. 2021 franchise films that would have performed successfully, if not for the pandemic, did significantly worse at the box office than their prior instalments.
Martin Scorsese, director of Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, and Goodfellas, came under heavy fire for his criticisms of the MCU after he claimed: “that’s not cinema”.
“Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”
Cinema viewership has steadily been on the decline, even before the pandemic. However, audiences consistently look forward to seeing Marvel movies on the big screen – which arguably is keeping the film business alive. Cinemas need trade.
In a recent interview, Morbius star Jared Leto told Variety: “If it wasn’t for Marvel films, I don’t even know if theatres would exist."
“I also have gratitude for these movies because they’re keeping cinema alive,” he added.
Nicholas Cage, star of the upcoming film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent also voiced his support of Marvel movies in a recent interview with GQ.
“Marvel has done a really excellent job of entertaining the whole family. They put a lot of thought into it. I mean it’s definitely had a big progression from when I was doing the first two Ghost Rider movies.”
“Kevin Feige, or whoever is behind that machine, has found a masterful way of weaving the stories together and interconnecting all the characters.”
One big question about the MCU is this – how long can it last? When members of the cast start to get too old or their contracts are up, a difficult narrative decision needs to be made about where to take those characters – or the dreaded idea of recasting.
Spider-Man: No Way Home cleverly shadow dropped the idea of a more mature Spider-Man, featuring Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s takes on the character, with the former having been Spider-Man for over two decades now. Judging by fans reactions, and an overwhelming demand for Andrew Garfield to star in a new Amazing Spider-Man film, maybe audiences can still find engaging stories when beloved characters get much older than we’re used to – like with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine in 2017’s Logan.
The tragic death of Chadwick Boseman, star of Black Panther, has put Marvel in a difficult position too. Regardless of their decisions for Black Panther there will be backlash amongst fans, but Marvel has two options: recast the role of T’Challa to another actor, which many believe would disrespect Boseman’s legacy, or to find a narrative justification for his character’s death offscreen and offer the mantle of Black Panther to another Wakandan character – such as Letitia Wright’s Shuri.
Marvel’s formula has crafted an episodic narrative structure, with each of their movies and Disney+ shows acting as chapters feeding into the larger narrative. They tap into the never-ending story structure of soap operas; characters come and go but the story continues.
Already we have the seeds of a Young Avengers team planted in the MCU, having introduced key members Wiccan and Speed as the Scarlet Witch’s children in WandaVision, young super soldier Patriot in Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Kate Bishop in Hawkeye, and soon to be introduced are America Chavez in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and Kamala Khan in Ms. Marvel.
The ’passing the torch’ narrative is nothing new to Marvel fans. Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man could be seen gradually training Tom Holland’s Spider-Man up to replace him as a key player in the MCU.
If Marvel were to go away, nothing in Hollywood right now could fill the vacuum. Although, YouTube, TikTok, video games and streaming platforms could. 70% of people would rather stay at home than go to a cinema to watch a film. The MCU’s real superpower is cultural relevance – consistently proving worthy of your time.