Why aren't Marvel blockbusters good?

The Chinese film market is also changing, the audience is not as fresh and eager for Hollywood blockbusters as before, with the improvement of domestic film production, the situation of Hollywood alone will gradually become history.

Author|Leon\Editor|Lone Dove

After the box office sales of the Spring Festival, new films were set one after another, and the film market became lively again. But this excitement has nothing to do with the American blockbusters we were once familiar with.

In February, "Black Panther 2" and "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum Frenz" ("Ant-Man 3") met with mainland audiences successively, and Marvel movies that had been absent from the mainland film market for three and a half years finally returned to the screen. I thought that I could bring the audience the joy of "Xiao Beisheng Newlywed", but the result is regrettable.

"Black Panther 2" was released 16 days ago, the box office only broke 100 million, and it is estimated that there will be no major changes in the future, and the Douban score is only 5.4 points. "Ant-Man 3" is slightly better, the Douban score barely passed the passing line, the box office was 153 million in 6 days of release, and Maoyan predicted that the box office was 278 million, far less than the results of the previous two films of 670 million and 831 million.

Whether it is word of mouth or box office, Marvel movies that have returned to the mainland market can be regarded as a rout and face an embarrassing situation. What's more, these two movies also occupy an important node in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the former is the finale of Marvel's fourth phase, and the latter is the opening of Marvel's fifth phase. After this setback, the future is unpredictable.

Recalling the highlight moment of Marvel movies in the mainland market, there is no doubt that when "Avengers 4" was released 4 years ago, every superhero appearance would be accompanied by the screams of the audience in the theater, and after Thanos snapped his fingers, not only half of the superheroes fell, but also made the theater wail. The film grossed 4.25 billion yuan at the mainland box office, and still occupies the position of the box office champion of imported films in mainland film history, and is also the only imported film in the top 10 box office lists of mainland film history.

Marvel blockbusters have had brilliant results, but now they are no longer majestic, what is the reason? Is there still a chance?

Successive defeats

The failure of Marvel movies in Chinese mainland was marked by "Black Panther".

As the first superhero movie with black people as the protagonist, 2018's "Black Panther" carries too much expectation from North American fans. With more than $700 million, it ranked 6th in the overall North American box office rankings. What is even more surprising is that the film was nominated for Best Picture at the 91st Academy Awards, becoming the first superhero film to be nominated for the award, making history.

But in China, "Black Panther" faces a different fate, grossing only 662 million yuan, the lowest-grossing of the 11 films in the third phase of Marvel movies. Word of mouth also received a mediocre response, with Douban only 6.5 points. The fate of "Black Panther 2" at home and abroad basically copied the first part, but the reputation was lower and the box office was worse.

Because Black Panther actor Chadwick Boseman died of illness, the script of "Black Panther 2" was overhauled several times, and finally focused the story on female characters. The combination of "feminism + skin color" made this superhero movie criticized as "too politically correct". In the film, the Kingdom of Talocan lives at the bottom of the sea, and was also ridiculed by netizens as "a low-end version of "Black Panther 2: The Way of Water". In the action scenes, the climax of the movie is set on a ship, and the two camps fight with cold weapons, like a family.

Because "Black Panther 2" was not released simultaneously with North America, when it was introduced in China, the film had already been launched on overseas streaming media, so that pirated film sources spread on the Internet, and the indirect impact was put at the box office. At the same time, the length of 161 minutes is not conducive to theater arrangement. But the core reason is cultural differences, and Chinese audiences can't empathize with the story and characters of the film.

In this case, "Black Panther 2" is still introduced, perhaps just as a test of the waters, a plate of appetizers, the next "Ant-Man 3" is the highlight of Marvel movies returning to the mainland market, a new beginning.

Many viewers may ask, why did Marvel use "Ant-Man 3" as the beginning of the fifth phase? Ant-Man is indeed the weakest among superheroes such as Iron Man and Captain America, but don't forget that the knowledge he provides in the quantum realm provides a key boost for everyone in "Avengers 4" to reverse defeat and defeat Thanos.

"Ant-Man 3" can pull the audience into the memories of "Avengers 4", connecting the previous stories and characters, and it does exactly that, and superheroes such as Captain America and Spider-Man are shaken out as baggage in the film.

But that's about it. At the beginning, the "Ant-Man" series mainly relied on some comedy baggage, as well as the physical characteristics of Ant-Man that can freely become larger and smaller, capturing a group of audiences, but it cannot last long, and there is no novelty after using it twice.

Sequels to Marvel's single-player superhero movies will face a problem, which is how to upgrade. The normal operation is that the protagonist still appears, but will lead to several new people, in "Ant-Man 3", it is three generations together, teaming up to enter the quantum realm, but the script is still a hard injury.

The popularity of the IP of the characters itself is not large, and if you do not work the narrative and do not mobilize the emotions of the audience, the failure is also obvious.

From prosperity to decline

Chinese mainland movie market has witnessed the rise and glory of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The Marvel Universe started with "Iron Man" in 2008, and then filmed "The Incredible Hulk", "Thor", "Captain America", etc., but the performance when entering the mainland market was mediocre. It was not until 2012 that "The Avengers" brought together the "original six" Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Hulk and Hawkeye, and it was a success in one fell swoop, earning 560 million yuan at the box office.

Since then, Marvel superheroes have become a big IP, engraved in the cultural consumption genes of mainland audiences.

On the basis of the "original six", the second phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe introduced "Guardians of the Galaxy" and "Ant-Man", raising the mainland box office level to more than 1 billion yuan. In 2015, "Avengers 2" reached a box office of 1.463 billion yuan, ranking fifth in the annual mainland box office list.

Starting with 2016's Captain America 3, the Marvel Cinematic Universe entered its third phase. The superhero movies familiar to the audience have successively launched sequels, and new superheroes such as "Doctor Strange", "Black Panther" and "Captain Marvel" have joined. Marvel movies have reached a blowout in the mainland film market, and "Avengers 3" and "Avengers 4" pushed the box office to 2 billion+ and 4 billion+.

However, entering the fourth phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, word of mouth and box office fell sharply. Of the 22 films in the first three stages, only two films "Black Panther" and "Captain Marvel" have a Douban score below 7 points, while among the 7 Marvel movies in the fourth stage, not even one has a score of 7, and "Thor 4" and "Black Panther 2" only have 5.4 points.

From the box office point of view, only "Spider-Man: Homeless" can be beaten, with a global box office of $1.92 billion, and the global box office of the remaining 6 films has not exceeded $1 billion.

After almost every movie is released, it will be criticized by netizens. "Black Widow", which debuted in this stage, squeezed out the last value of Scarlett Johansson. "Black Widow", a superhero, was a sexy and charismatic female character when she appeared in the Avengers, but when she appeared as the protagonist in a single-player superhero movie, her charm was greatly reduced.

In addition, "Shang Qi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" is like a big stew that combines Chinese and Western styles, which is not different; "The Eternals" only caters to Hollywood's political correctness; "Doctor Strange 2" is like the director's bad taste experiment with Marvel movies, putting in a lot of horror film elements, which is difficult to accept for a while; "Thor 4" was the most criticized, and netizens commented that "even the banter is so boring".

"Spider-Man: Homeless" is the best reputation of Marvel in the fourth stage, largely due to the director's hard work, combining three generations of Spider-Man in the film, giving the audience an unforgettable memory kill.

On the whole, the fourth phase of Marvel movies is too scattered and chaotic, each film is its own battle, and there is basically no linkage in the story, unlike the first three stages, which have the end of "Avengers". More importantly, today's Marvel movie stories are mediocre and boring, the characters lack charm, the visual effects and aesthetic fatigue, I really don't know what to watch.

In response to these problems, in recent years, many directors in Hollywood have come forward to "bombard" Marvel movies. In 2019, Martin Scorsese made a statement: "Marvel movies are not movies, they are theme parks. After that, Quentin took over: "The actors in those Marvel movies are not real movie stars, the real stars are the characters they play." Spielberg also said: "Marvel movies will gradually decline like Westerns once were." ”

Even insiders can't stand it, and Marvel blockbusters can't conquer the global market as they once did.

Still confident?

The successive failures of Marvel movies at the box office and word of mouth are not unrelated to the radical strategic adjustment of parent company Disney during the epidemic.

In the past few years of the global epidemic, the film industry has been hit hard, and under these difficult conditions, Marvel Movies still launched 11 series and 7 movies in two years, such a tight rhythm will inevitably compress the script polishing time, affecting shooting and post-work.

Former Disney CEO Bob Chapek once boasted during his tenure: "Even without the Chinese market, we can succeed." His appointment of Karim Daniel, chairman of the media and entertainment distribution division, has a monopoly on controlling the financial and final decision-making power of studios, including Marvel and Pixar, causing great displeasure among executives and creators.

At the end of last year, Robert Iger, who served as Disney's CEO for 15 years and advocated the acquisition of Marvel Studios, returned to Disney. One of the first things he did when he took office was to adjust the organization, fire Daniel, and put more power back in the hands of creative leaders. This is good news for Marvel movies, as the creative team will decide what content to produce, with more autonomy.

How to redeem the lost reputation of Marvel movies and let the audience regain confidence in Marvel movies is what Marvel executives are most concerned about.

At the press conference of "Ant-Man 3", Marvel Studios CEO Kevin Feige said, "Now we are reorganizing the fifth and sixth phases, and I am conceiving the seventh phase, I will participate in the design of specific stories." "A renewed focus on content development is an essential part of Marvel's turnaround.

Now, "Ant-Man 3" has opened the fifth phase of Marvel movies, and the villain "Kang the Conqueror" appeared in the film, known as the villain of Thanos, hoping to bring some changes to the fifth phase of Marvel. In order to prepare for the subsequent Avengers war, Marvel put more effort into paving and shaping the ultimate villain "Kang the Conqueror".

In 2023, Marvel's fifth phase of films will also include "Guardians of the Galaxy 3" and "Captain Marvel 2", and it is no surprise that both movies can be introduced into the mainland. Their predecessors, one in the mainland box office of 686 million yuan, the other is 1.035 billion yuan, although it is not a hit, there is no lack of success. Especially "Captain Marvel", this time will also join the spectrum in "WandaVision" and "Ms. Marvel" Kamala, the lineup is upgraded, and it is estimated that the box office will be better than the current "Ant-Man 3".

In addition, there are "Captain America 4" and "Thunder Agents" at this stage, and the effect is not optimistic due to the lack of support from popular characters. The entire Marvel Phase V narrative is in a state of foreshadowing, lacking big moves, and it is not an exaggeration to call it "rotten".

The real hope is that by the sixth stage, "Avengers 5: Kan's Dynasty" and "Avengers 6: Secret War" will gather new heroes, and whether the new alliance can be as exciting as when the original Avengers assembled, remains to be verified.

At the same time, the Chinese film market is also changing, the audience is not as fresh and eager for Hollywood blockbusters as before, with the improvement of domestic film production, the situation of Hollywood alone has gradually become history.