Despite reviews that describe “The Marvels” as “such a fun time at the movies,” the movie has suffered the worst opening for Marvel Studios since “The Incredible Hulk” debuted in 2008. Self-described “fans” have been complaining about Captain Marvel ever since her first movie was released in 2019, but the negative voices have reached such a high pitch that even Stephen King is weighing in.
In a tweet posted on Sunday, King admits he doesn’t watch Marvel movies but says, “I find this barely masked gloating over the low box office for THE MARVELS very unpleasant. Why gloat over failure?”
While there are no exact statistics on who is gloating and why, many people in the comments offered up possible explanations.
Comedian Jay Black pinned the reason down to the social lives of the biggest complainers. He said, “It’s the ‘didn’t-have-a-date-for-prom-to-hating-movies-that-have-women-stars’ pipeline.”
Twitter user @KnewOnEarth agreed and added, “particularly when it just happens to be the most FEMALE-CHARACTER driven Marvel movie they’ve released. That doesn’t really strike me as coincidence, especially given the gross misogynistic nature of these comments.”
It’s true — the film features not just one but three female heroes, representing different ethnicities, including the young Muslim Ms. Marvel.
Industry estimates have shown the movie bringing in a dismal $47 million domestically, which falls below the $55 million opening weekend DC’s “The Flash” suffered earlier this year.
On Thursday, Nia DaCosta, the movie’s director, spoke about the backlash. She said, “There are pockets where you go because you’re like, ‘I’m a super fan. I want to exist in the space of just adoration’ — which includes civilized critique.”
Unfortunately, DaCosta continued, “Then there are pockets that are really virulent and violent and racist — and sexist and homophobic and all those awful things. And I choose the side of the light. That’s the part of fandom I’m most attracted to.”