Kevin Feige Reveals Why Recent MCU Movies Flopped (Especially ‘The Marvels’) & He Can’t Be More Right

Kevin Feige, the head of Marvel Studios, recently opened up about why some of the recent MCU movies didn’t do as well as expected at the box office, especially The Marvels. The movie came out in November 2023 but only made about $206 million worldwide, which was disappointing for a Marvel film.

Other movies like Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts* also didn’t hit big numbers, making roughly $415 million and $382 million respectively.

Feige said he thinks the problem started with Marvel’s big push into Disney+ shows. Fans might have felt overwhelmed by all the new content, wondering if they needed to watch all those series before enjoying the movies.

He said, “It’s that expansion that I think led people to say, ‘Do I have to see all of these? It used to be fun, but now do I have to know everything about all of these?’ And I think The Marvels hit it hardest where people are like, ‘OK, I recognize her from a billion-dollar movie. But who are those other two? I guess they were in some TV show. I’ll skip it.’”

Feige shared similar thoughts with Deadline about Thunderbolts*. He explained that even though the movie was good, people didn’t recognize the title or many of the characters because they came from the shows. This confusion made people hesitate to see it. Feige said, “There was that residual effect of [audiences going], ‘I guess I had to have seen these other shows to understand who this is?’”

For Captain America: Brave New World, Feige said the audience’s reaction was different because it was the first movie without Chris Evans playing the lead. That change affected how fans received the film.

Despite these struggles, Feige is hopeful about the future. He pointed to the success of Superman at Warner Bros., which recently crossed $506.6 million worldwide, showing that superhero fatigue isn’t the problem.

Marvel is also looking forward to a strong year with The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which so far has earned $227.1 million globally.

Feige also talked about Marvel’s journey with Disney+. Before the pandemic, the MCU made about 50 hours of content, but now they have more than double that, around 102 hours of shows and movies combined, or 127 hours including animation. While he’s proud of the shows like WandaVision and Loki, Feige admitted the big expansion might have hurt the studio’s value and made fans feel overwhelmed. He said, “It’s the expansion that is certainly what devalued [the studio and its content].” Still, he thinks it was worth trying because there are so many characters fans want to see.

Talking about the future, Feige shared how Marvel has been working hard to cut production costs. They learned from other movies, like The Creator, which was made more cheaply overseas.

Marvel’s recent films, including Deadpool, Wolverine, Captain America, Thunderbolts*, and Fantastic Four, have all been made for about a third less money than movies made just a couple of years ago. The pandemic and new safety rules forced them to be smarter with budgets. Feige also wonders if AI could help with special effects costs, but he’s not sure yet.

Marvel is serious about testing their movies before release too. They moved beyond just friends-and-family screenings to professional testing groups. Feige explained, “That’s how you know when jokes work, when you’re not high on your own supply.”

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