There was once a time when it felt like all Marvel movies were meant to be huge hits, but that’s not the case anymore. Spider-Man: Brand New Day may have officially become a $2 billion dollar winner, but it follows a string of MCU flicks that have performed below expectations. Someone just asked Marvel boss Kevin Feige if it has to do with the movies being “the same," and he had a point to make.
In an interview with Variety, Feige was asked if he thinks “audiences are getting tired of more of the same story.” I was surprised he answered the question, but he made a thoughtful point:
Many things can be true at once. I think last year’s Fantastic Four looked and sounded like nothing that had been done in a superhero movie before, and it only [grossed] $521 million. Brand New Day is very directly a Part Four. It picks up right after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, and yet it tells a story that resonates.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps came out last summer to underwhelming commercial results. While the movie had an awesome first weekend at the box office, it saw a significant drop in its second weekend. Ultimately, it’s the 11th-lowest grossing film among MCU films even though as Kevin Feige suggested, it was a new look and feel for the universe.
To Feige’s point, First Steps certainly stands out among MCU movies. It’s set in an alternate universe in the 1960s of a retro-futuristic world. It also didn’t include any cameos from other Avengers or MCU characters and had the old-timey feel of its original comic books.
Surely, there are other reasons why audiences weren’t clobbering to the movie theaters for Fantastic Four. For one, there’s been three previous movies about the team across the past 20 years. Then, there’s the “superhero fatigue” of it all.
A couple of years ago, Kevin Feige got honest with CinemaBlend about there being an “overabundance” of MCU movies and TV shows. Lately, Marvel has been slowing down the roll out of upcoming MCU projects. For example, this year there are just two new 2026 movie releases and three live-action seasons of MCU-related TV shows. (Well, for those with a Disney+ subscription). It’s a change of pace from, say 2021, when there were four big-screen releases and three seasons of live-action TV all in the same twelve months.
The massive success of Spider-Man: Brand New Day shows that people are very excited to show up for Tom Holland’s Spider-Man. Superhero movies are not as much of a slam dunk as they used to be, but they can still be big. Next up is Avengers: Doomsday, which is already reportedly projecting ahead of Brand New Day in presales. We’ll see how the latest MCU movie does when it comes out this December 18.
