LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Stephen King recently slammed the gloating over Disney's latest release 'The Marvels', but in return was explained the reason for the non-remarkable box office numbers by the netizens.
The author of 'The Shining' took to his social media account and said that he finds the gloating over a low box office number to be "unpleasant."
King said, "I don’t go to MCU movies, don’t care for them, but I find this barely masked gloating over the low box office for THE MARVELS very unpleasant," before questioning, "Why gloat over failure?"
'The Marvels' has an ensemble cast of three superheroines played by Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris and Iman Vellani. Parris and Vellani's characters are based on their respective characters originating on Disney+ series.
The film is directed by Nia DaCosta, the first Black woman to helm a Marvel production.
How much did ‘The Marvels’ earn?
After having a worldwide release on November 10, ‘The Marvels’ managed to earn a paltry $110 million with a domestic gross of $47 million, as per The Numbers.
Internationally, the film cashed in $63 million. The film helmed by three superheroines is made at a budget of $274.8 million, as per Forbes.
The New York Times revealed that the opening for 'The Marvels' is the lowest for the franchise that delivered multiple mega-blockbusters in the last 15 years.
Previously, the lowest box-office number recorded by any Marvel film was 'The Incredible Hulk' which was released in 2008. the film debuted with $79 million in the US and Canada after adjusting for inflation.
Disney’s executive vice president of theatrical distribution Tony Chambers, after acknowledging that the box-office numbers are "disappointing," said, “There may have been a barrier to entry, with some people assuming they needed to have already watched the Disney+ shows in order to know what was going on in the film."
Disney’s chief executive, Robert A Iger said, “I’ve always felt that quantity can be actually a negative when it comes to quality,” before adding, “And I think that’s exactly what happened. We lost some focus.”
'A superhero movie is only as good as the villain after all'
Stephen King's tweet heralded a healthy discussion in the comment section where the social media users put forward their opinions on the less-than-impressive box-office numbers of Brie Larson's film.
One of the fans pointed out, "It’s the “didn’t-have-a-date-for-prom-to-hating-movies-that-have-women-stars” pipeline."
Someone else commented on the women-centric nature of the film and said, "It’s fronted by women, and most of the MCU fan base (mostly men) don’t like that. They trashed She Hulk before release, they complained about Black Panther being all women, etc."
Another fan cited the 'Blue Beetle' issue to be one of the issues, saying, "Feels like Blue Beetle effect. I thought the movie was enjoyable. I also don’t go by RT anything."
Another fan hypothesized the "wokeness" to be the main culprit, "Because we like the franchise and wokeness ruined it. Hoping calling it out will eliminate the wokeness and bring back good movies."
Another fan's theory was less scathing as they theorized, "The cast couldn’t even promote the film until very recently when the strike ended. It’s a fun movie."
Another fan observed, "Movie starring women. Movie starring people of color. Movie directed by a woman of color. Movie not made by DC Comics. Movie not directed by Martin Scorcese. Gee, I wonder why it would have so many vocal haters..."
"Misogyny, straight up It’s actually a good movie that suffered from having no actor promotion leading up to the release," declared someone else.
Someone else made a case for a better villain and said, "The movie needs a better villain. A super hero movie is only as good as the villain after all."
