By: Paul Jefferson

At the end of 2023, Disney released “The Marvels” in theaters,  the latest in an ever growing line of Marvel movies to underperform at the box office.

Ever since the release of “Avengers: Endgame” in 2019, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has struggled to find an audience.

Sophomore Tannor Simpson has his thoughts as to why. “The franchise has burned too many bridges for me. There’s nothing special and I just see them as repetitive and, frankly, boring. There’s a lack of risk that I would have liked to see be taken.”

Simpson is not alone in feeling this way, as MCU projects have been struggling to find an audience in the past five years.

“The Marvels” made $206 million dollars in the worldwide box office on a $274.8 million dollar budget. When you account for marketing, the film lost money overall. Of the ten MCU movies released since “Avengers: Endgame,” five of them have lost money.

What improvements could Marvel make to attract more viewers?

“Do something new but that still has the same energy as the past movies. Implement more stylistic directing and in general just take more risk,” Simpson said.

This seems to be the key to finding success in modern superhero movies, as more experimental films like 2022’s “The Batman” and 2023’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” have received both financial and critical success.

For the MCU to start making money again, it’s going to have to start getting more experimental with its movies, or else it risks becoming the next cinematic universe to be canceled or forgotten.