Why The Marvels Flopped

There's been much discussion about "superhero fatigue" in recent years - the suggestion that audiences are simply getting burned out on the abundance of superhero-themed content being released.

And while for a time there was a fair argument that the MCU seemed to fend this off, it's a claim that's become much tougher to deny throughout Phases 4 and 5.

In many ways, Avengers: Endgame felt like a proper ending for the original iteration of the MCU - a suitable leaping-off point for casual viewers to take their leave.

And the fact that the franchise's quality has been so aggressively middling ever since - bar a few exceptions - has done nothing to help at all, making it easy for audiences en masse to mentally check-out of the ongoing storylines.

Aside from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3's solid box office performance earlier this year, the MCU is struggling both in terms of big-screen dollars and streaming metrics, with even a well-received show like Loki season two seeing declining metrics from its first.

While it's likely that general audiences will be lured back in decent numbers for Deadpool 3, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, and Secret Wars - especially if, as rumoured, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, and other legacy stars return - that does little to dissuade that overall interest in the franchise has waned.

In a year which has seen every single superhero movie except Guardians Vol. 3 and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse underperform or flop outright, it now seems impossible to deny that paying customers have grown tired of the genre.