From Iron Man to Avengers Endgame, the MCU just kept getting better and better.
Yet following the Marvel epic and leaving the likes of Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man and Chris Evans’ Captain America behind was always going to be a challenge.
As Disney+ launched so did the MCU’s TV show age, seeing the shared universe stretch across both the big and small screens – yet sadly to varying degrees of quality.
The Multiverse Saga’s Phases 4 and 5 have suffered poor reviews and dire box office for some of the franchise’s latest movies, a far cry from the billion-dollar mega-hits of the Infinity Saga.
In 2021, Eternals became the MCU’s first poorly reviewed entry with a green splat on Rotten Tomatoes and a disappointing $400 million made on a budget of $236 million.
Meanwhile, last year was the MCU’s worst year yet. Aside from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 making $845 million on a budget of $250 million, Ant-Man: Quantumania and The Marvels bombed. Ant-Man 3 took $476 million on a budget of $275 million, failing to break even and Captain Marvel faired worse as the lowest-grossing MCU film with a box office taking of $206 million to a budget of $274 million.
Poor critical responses and the fact that fans can always wait a few months before the films come to Disney+ really didn’t help. And now the latest news is that Disney boss Bob Iger is scrapping planned sequels to three underperforming MCU franchises.
Respected scooper Daniel Richtman reports that Eternals 2, Ant-Man 4 and Captain Marvel 3 are no longer in the works as Disney believes they’ll be guaranteed box office flops. That’s despite Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige desiring to make an Eternals sequel.
The studio’s decision isn’t too surprising though, given its recent struggles and Iger’s commitment to focusing on what are considered guaranteed $1 billion hits like Frozen 3 and Toy Story 5.
