Well, the MCU bashers have had quite the workout so far this year haven’t they? The haters brushed off their usual talking points and recycled platitudes the second Dr. Strange 2 kicked off movie season last May. Then the Marvel hate train got a second head of steam two months later when Thor: Love and Thunder hit theatres. When Ms. Marvel debuted in June it was a veritable party for the anti-MCU crew and when She-Hulk premiered? Well, to paraphrase Joe Pesci, forget about it.
And the train isn’t even parked for the year. You can expect the conductor to yell all aboard once more in November when Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is released (with a helping of racism thrown in for disgusting measure). It’s become as predictable as it is sad.
Thor: Love and Thunder had a pretty impressive opening, knocking it out of the box office park by grossing a little over 144 million dollars in its first weekend (more than double what Black Adam collected in its first weekend, a movie that was touted as the renewal of the DCEU). But like many of its recent MCU brethren, it fell pretty hard in its second weekend (though it still ruled the box office despite a whopping 67% drop in business). And just like all other MCU movies, Thor’s second weekend struggles shook the haters out of the woodwork like termites during an earthquake.Â
They were lining up to bash Thor 4 even before it made it’s long awaited debut in theatres and its second weekend box office plummet sent them into frenzied fits of glee. And hateful fans weren’t the only ones drooling at the idea they’d get to spout recycled and nonsensical talking points. There are plenty of established film makers, media pundits and even politicians among the MCU’s haters, all of them rubbing their hands in pretentious anticipation of a misstep or even an outright failure.
Look, when you’re as big as the MCU is (and the MCU is an unprecedented Hollywood success), you’re going to become a great big target (often for preposterous reasons). Nobody was talking about Top Gun: Maverick until it became unimaginably successful (it’s probably going to be 2022’s top global box office champion). But as soon as it began blowing the doors off the box office you couldn’t turn around without tripping over accusations of military jingoism and propaganda. We live in a culture that builds heroes up just so it can tear them down for its own amusement. A culture that sharpens the knives as soon as something becomes popular and successful. And increasingly, a culture that demonizes what other people enjoy, no matter how harmless or benign. Movies are sadly no different and the MCU’s size and success put’s it firmly in a lot of crosshairs.
Before we get to the haters, let’s take a look at the MCU’s unprecedented success. Including Sony’s related Spider-Man trilogy, the MCU has 29 movies on its resume with an accumulated 27 billion plus dollars under its box office belt. There are over a dozen more films in various stages of development with four scheduled for release over the next ten months.
And that doesn’t include the new arm of the MCU; DisneyPlus. There have been eight Marvel shows on Disney’s fledgling streaming service the last two years alone, with plenty more on the horizon.
All since Robert Downey Jr and Iron Man got the ball rolling in 2008. Yep, all of that has taken a mere 14 years to accomplish (with a global pandemic thrown in for good measure). No other franchise in the history of the planet has been either that prolific or that profitable, let alone in such a short amount of time.
Eternals took a lot of flak for being different but the reality is it grossed over 670 million dollars worldwide despite the surging Omicron strain (scaring a lot of people away from crowded theatres) and China’s refusal to play it in the Middle Kingdom (no MCU film has seen the inside of Chinese theatres since 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home). Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness was pretty divisive among fans and critics alike, but its global haul will finish well over non hundred million greenbacks. And not only was it absent from Chinese theatres, but Russian ones as well due to Western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine. Add those countries into the equation and Dr Strange 2 hits a billion dollars easily. Hell, even Eternals (which was banned from China because it hates Chloe Zhao) may have at least knocked on the door of the coveted billion dollar club if it had access to China’s coveted movie market.
Thor: Love and Thunder didn’t play in China either, but it still clocked over 300 million global dollars in its first weekend and finished with over 770 dollars to its name when the dust settled (it passed Thor: Ragnarok’s domestic total in August). Toss China (as well as Russia) into the mix and the Odinson at least shakes hands with a ten digit final gross.
And remember when Spider-Man: No Way Home made enough money to buy half of Europe last Christmas? Not a single one of its almost two billion dollars came from China. Yep, it became the sixth highest grossing movie in history without the Far East.
Four MCU DisneyPlus shows garnered a total of nine Emmy nominations at the most recent Emmy’s, including a post-humous nod to Chadwick Boseman (I’m not crying your crying!). Just imagine the levels of success the MCU might reach when it finally introduces the Fantastic Four and the X-Men to its cinematic universe proper.
But all this also plants a giant target firmly on the MCU’s back. Critics and pundits think this popularity and success gives them permission to turn their noses up at the MCU and its fans. Remember Martin Scorsese’s and Francis Ford Coppola’s condescending opinions that MCU movies weren’t “real?” Scorsese even recently claimed that box office wasn’t a criteria of cinematic success. Remember when Bill Maher doubled down on trashing Stan Lee shortly after the comic legend’s death and his insistence that comic book movies were responsible for Donald Trump (sorry, what)? Stephen Dorff jumped on the bash-Marvel-train shortly after Black Widow’s release and Mickey Rourke added his pair of pennies to the anti-MCU crusade recently as well.
Terry Gilliam couldn’t keep his sour opinions to himself (did anyone ever really ask him?) and even James Cameron took some unprovoked shots recently, probably in hair-brained attempt to promote the upcoming release of the (very) long awaited Avatar: The Way of Water.
When Dr. Strange MoM was kicking ass at the box office, Elizabeth Olson said she felt the contempt the MCU gets is insulting to all the tradespeople who work on the films as well as the directors, producers and stars. She said it was a kick to the teeth of the set designers, FX artists, costume designers, stunt performers, make-up artists and the hundred other occupations that made blockbuster movies a reality. While her remarks garnered a lot of support online, they also received a river of condescending contempt from the usual suspects as well.
Despite its initial box office success, Thor 4 immediately drew the ire of MCU haters, pretentious film students and the self proclaimed film bourgeois. It started with the fourth lowest Rotten Tomatoes score of any MCU movie before sinking to the very bottom. And you can bet a large part of that was a result of chronic MCU haters.
And let’s not ignore the Celestial in the room; the MCU finds itself firmly in the crosshairs of incels, racists and misogynists because of its dedication to gender equality and ethnic diversity (the next person who smugly vomits out the “go woke, go broke” stupidity deserves to get punched in the face. With barbed wire. That’s on fire). Make no mistake, much of the hate She-Hulk and Ms. Marvel received was racially and politically motivated.
This isn’t a blanket endorsement of the MCU. Marvel should never be above legitimate criticism and should never be given a pass. Make no mistake, the MCU has put out some questionable entries and there are likely one or two that Kevin Feige probably wishes he could have back. Law of averages and all that.
Are some MCU fans obsessive purity defenders and gatekeepers who put everything Marvel on a pedestal to be worshipped? There sure are. Are some members of that tribe now turning on the franchise either because it’s fashionable or because the MCU is daring to venture in different creative directions? Ditto.
Is the the MCU at a creative crossroads. You betcha. Does it face the possibility of becoming bloated and collapsing beneath its own swollen weight? Sure thing. The argument that the franchise hasn’t had the same steam since 2019’s Avengers: Endgame does have some merit. And Emmy nominations or no, the MCU’s DisneyPlus shows are guilty of a misstep or three. All bubbles burst and the MCU’s will as well. If Kevin Feige and company aren’t careful, the MCU could well topple from its place at the top of the global box office food chain sooner rather than later (to the applause and glee of its haters). Everyone (fans included) would be advised to remember that.
But the MCU has always been at a creative crossroads and it has managed to steer itself in the right direction time and again. The Marvel bubble will eventually pop, but Marvel’s track record should give everyone reason to believe that its inevitable collapse is still a ways down the road.
After all is said and done, the MCU offers people a bright, fun escape. While Marvel movies should never be given an unconditional seal of approval, they almost always accomplish what they set out to do; entertain. They aren’t supposed to be Oscar winners. They aren’t supposed to be emotionally provocative sagas of Shakespearian storytelling. They’re supposed to be fun spectacles that people can lose themselves in for an hour or two in an increasingly chaotic and hostile world. And they make billions of dollars in the process.
Don’t like them? Fine, no one says you have to. Want some gangster porn that occasionally revels in racist and sexist stereotypes? Martin Scorsese probably has another four hour marathon hitting Netflix later this year. Want some millennial hating, “in my day” crankiness disguised as comedy? Bill Maher is on Friday nights. What’s that? We shouldn’t mock what other people create and enjoy? You’re absolutely right and congratulations if you just ran face first into the point.
Everything has its place and everything should be appreciated and respected on its own merits and its own achievements. Quiet, introspective stories with emotional power that burn themselves into your memory are important. But equally so are visual spectacles and uplifting stories of heroism meant to entertain. One is no less important (or in Marvel parlance, worthy) than the other.
So the haters can all sit down and shut up. The MCU will run out of gas eventually (everything does) and the elitist cheerleaders will throw dance parties when that happens. But until then why don’t we all just let everyone enjoy what they want in peace and keep the snark to ourselves (that includes you too, overzealous MCU fans). And as far as the pretentious snobs who insist on turning their noses up at popular success, just remember, there’s a reason no Martin Scorsese movie ever made a billion dollars. And at the end of the day, money is the loudest language Hollywood speaks.
So stick that in your Freudian pipe and smoke it Francis Ford Coppala.
