At this point, it’s a prevailing view that the Marvel Cinematic Universe lost its steam after the culmination of the overarching Infinity War/Thanos storyline in Phases 1-3 and that the movies and television shows, despite being more prevalent, fell off quality-wise and viewership wise from Phase 4 and onward. Even Hulk actor Mark Ruffalo has expressed his thoughts about the MCU “losing its mystique” in past interviews.
Although box office hits like the $1.3 billion worldwide earning Deadpool & Wolverine, Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and Spider-Man: No Way Home showed that Marvel Studios couldn’t be counted out completely, disappointments like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, The Marvels and the recently released Captain America: Brave New World made the MCU’s offerings no longer must-see films and inconsistent quality-wise in the eyes of Marvel moviegoers.
We won’t get into exactly why the MCU lost steam in Phase 4 and onward as the details could fill a whole other article but there’s another prevailing view that with the recently released Thunderbolts*, which opened to an estimated $76 million domestically, the MCU is turning the corner once again.
“We all know that in our zeal to flood our streaming platform with more content, that we turned to all of our creative engines, including Marvel, and had them produce a lot more,” Disney president Bob Iger said in the latest company earnings call.
Iger continued, “We’ve also learned over over time that quantity does not necessarily beget quality. And frankly, we’ve all admitted to ourselves that we lost a little focus by making too much. By consolidating a bit and having Marvel focus much more on their films, we believe that will result in better quality. I think the first and best example is ‘Thunderbolts*.’ I feel very good about that.”
Much like DC’s Suicide Squad, the MCU’s Thunderbolts* features a team of anti-heroes — Yelena Belova/Black Widow (Florence Pugh), Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ghost (Hannah-John Kamen), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) and U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell) — enlisted to undertake a perilous mission.
As of this writing, Thunderbolts* continued to boast strong numbers, reaching $272.2 million globally during its second week at the box office.
What do you think of the fact that Disney CEO Bob Iger said that Thunderbolts* is the “first and best example” of MCU’s return to form and new movie strategy? Do you think Thunderbolts* shows that the MCU is turning the corner again with a quality over quantity mantra? Let us know in the comments.
