After the impressive success of 23 movies in Phases 1-3, the MCU finally hit some major stumbling blocks avengers: endgameending in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantummania Getting a “Rotten” score at Rotten Tomatoes and crashing at the box office resulted in four big issues the Marvel Cinematic Universe needs to fix in Phase 5. The MCU is still one of the most successful franchises of all time, and some of its biggest hits have come after avengers: endgameBut there are still some concerning trends that the franchise needs to improve upon as it moves into Phase 5 and beyond.
began with a warm welcome to iron Man and overall positivity towards the rest of Phase 1, no one could have predicted how popular the franchise would become. the Avengers. The success of the MCU snowballed from there, with nearly every film earning average box office returns as well as rising average Rotten Tomatoes scores as the interconnected narrative built to the final defeat of Thanos (Josh Brolin). avengers: endgame, Unfortunately, the movies since that high-point haven’t seen the same near-universal acclaim that Phase 5 will need to fix.
4 The box office of the MCU is trending down
Some Phase 1 films had soft box office totals, such as the incredible Hulk$264.89 million or Captain America: The First Avenger$370.6 million at the worldwide box office, but Phase 1 averages still came in at $635.5 million and the MCU’s box office averages only increased from there. Phase 2’s box office average increased to $878.2 million, and Phase 3’s average reached $1.2 billion. Unfortunately, Phase 4’s box office dropped to $813 million, which is even lower than Phase 3’s non-Avengers average. Apart from the overall slump, the second weekend box office drop is running higher and higher.
It’s important to point out that most of Phase 4 took place during the pandemic, but since most of those films were also introducing new and unproven characters, it’s hard to know how much more they would have made without theater restrictions. Spider-Man: No Way Home became one of the highest-grossing films in the MCU, proving that box office heights are still possible, but Ant-Man and the Wasp: QuantummaniaThe decline at the box office is a crash of sorts that is part of a trend that will never happen in Phases 1-3. Phase 5 has sequels to more proven properties, which should help, but the MCU needs to reverse its box office trends.
3 The Rotten Tomatoes average of the MCU just keeps getting worse
Along with a steady increase in box office revenue, Phases 1–3 also enjoyed a steadily rising Rotten Tomatoes average, with a perfect “Fresh” score record for 25 consecutive films. There’s a sharp drop in average thanks to Phase 4 in large part eternal earned the MCU’s first Rotten Score with 47 percent, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantummania Phase 5 begins with the same Rotten 47 percent, the MCU’s worst average ever for a Phase 5 debut. The average viewership for the MCU has also declined slightly, so the gap between critics and audiences is widening.
Whereas Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantummania A Tough Way To Kick Off Phase 5, Other Upcoming Movies Like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Too little can be risky. given, with Ant-Man and the Wasp: QuantummaniaTo begin Phase 5 with a score of 47 percent, even if the rest of the Phase achieved higher Rotten Tomatoes scores, it would be impossible to bring the average back up to Phases 1–3 levels, but it would at least be on the way down. can reverse. The trend was observed throughout phase 4.
2 Popular Phase 1-3 characters took a back seat after endgame
avengers: endgame The film was the epic culmination of the first three phases of the MCU, but it also meant the return of some of the most popular characters in the MCU, notably Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), who made two of the MCU’s most popular appearances. Led sub-franchises. step 4 includes black mother, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Spider-Man: No Way Home, thor: love and thunderAnd Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, So there was no shortage of Avengers and Avengers-adjacent characters, but some pillars of the MCU’s early success were notably absent.
Phase 5 may suffer from the same problems, but is the only film in Phase 3 without pre-established MCU characters. blade, Which is already a popular Marvel movie property and could well see other MCU characters involved. between Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, MiracleCaptain America: New World OrderAnd Vajra, several popular MCU characters will be making their return to the big screen after Endgame. It may not bring box office averages back to Phase III levels, but box office revenue should start to ease further, especially as we move through the pandemic.
1 MCU Phase 4 Was Missing A New Post-Thanos Direction
While Iron Man and Captain America were major pillars of the MCU, most of Marvel Studios’ characters had little popularity initially and benefited greatly from the interconnectedness of the franchise. The “it’s all connected” narrative provided a major boost to the entire franchise, but slowly building Thanos up as the universe’s big bad was an important aspect of Crescendo’s build. Avengers: Endgame. Afterwards endgameThanos and all the rest of the MCU’s ongoing subplots were scrapped and ended, meaning Phase 4 had to start again from scratch, meaning it didn’t benefit from the shared universe nearly as much as the pre-endgame The movies did.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: QuantummaniaThe reviews and box office may not be the best way to start Phase 5, but thanks to the introduction of the MCU’s new big bad, Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Major), the rest of Phase 5 could continue to build out a more shared universe. Is. speed on the side road avengers: kong dynasty, In fact, while Thanos’ introduction came from a brief post-credits cameo the AvengersIntroduction to Kang Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantummania Covered a lot of his backstory and already established him as a looming threat. Till then avengers: kong dynasty Come on, Kang may be more established than Thanos-endgame,
Despite some big Phase 4 bright spots, the MCU is coming out of the roughest of ways in its 31 film stretch. The franchise needs to build new momentum after avengers: endgame Crescendo and Rotten Tomatoes both recovered from declining trends at the box office. Fortunately, Phase 5 has the tools it needs to recover from Phase 4’s fumbles. It’s unclear whether the MCU can ever return to the top box office following Rotten Tomatoes’ success it enjoyed in Phase 3, but the franchise has a lot to gain from compared to its recent low points.
