Disney CEO Bob Iger calls «Thunderbolts» the first successful example of Marvel’s new strategy, which involves making fewer films with a focus on quality.
The once-reliable Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has weakened in the post-pandemic era, and since 2019, none of the projects have come close to the success of the hit «Avengers: Endgame». Only 2023, for example, was marked by only one successful launch («Guardians of the Galaxy 3»), while the rest of the titles broke records for unpopularity (the movie «Marvel» secured the title ofthe MCU movie with the worst box office in history).
In the last two years, the studio has changed its strategy and promised to release «only 2-3 films a year», focusing on quality rather than quantity. And now the boss Disney, the studio that owns Marvel, says that its latest project, a movie about the anti-hero team «Thunderbolts», has finally demonstrated the successful results of these changes.
«In our quest to fill the streaming platform with more content, we reached out to all of our creative engines, including Marvel, and tasked them with creating much more,» Iger said during a meeting with investors on Wednesday. «Over time, we’ve realized that quantity doesn’t necessarily breed quality. And to be honest, we lost a little bit of focus by creating too much. After we got Marvel to focus on single projects, the quality came back. The first and best example of this is — Thunderbolts».
The movie «Thunderbolts» was released last weekend, having earned $162 million worldwide — despite the fact that the box office is slightly lower than previous Marvel titles, analysts believe that its run at the box office will be stable. For now the movie has 88% on Rotten Tomatoes (one of the highest scores for MCU films) and an encouraging «A-» in CinemaScore exit polls.
Moreover, the film, which Marvel has already officially renamed to «New Avengers» is closely related to at least two upcoming MCU projects that are predicted to be similarly successful: «Fantastic Four» and the actual «Avengers: Doomsday», buttons to combine these two commands on the screen.
Iger expects the box office recovery to spread to other Disney projects and the next 18 months will bring the company back to 2019’s performance, given such high-profile releases as «Lilo and Stitch», «Zootropolis 2», «Avatar: Fire and ashes» (all will be released in 2025),«Mandalorian and Grog» and «Toy Story 5» (to be released in 2026), as well as the aforementioned «Avengers» and «Fantastic Four».
«It’s a pretty strong list,», said Aiger. «Stronger than any I’ve seen in a long time».
Disney has long dominated the box office among studios, but in recent years it has barely reached its own standards. 2023, for example, did notbrought the company no «billion-dollar movie»(there were 7 in 2019) and was remembered exclusively forfailed«Marvels» and«Desire». Although, it should be noted that last year’s results were already significantly better — Disney became the first (and only) studio to earn $5 billionwhere half of it was brought by «Inside Out 2» and «Deadpool and Wolverine».
Source: Variety
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