The Marvels Box Office Debuts With $6.6 Million in Previews

After a number of release date changes over the years, The Marvels, the long-awaited sequel to 2019's Captain Marvel, is finally in theaters, with Deadline reporting that Disney calculates $6.6 million in preview night numbers. This number puts it just slightly ahead of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania's preview night numbers of $6.4 million from earlier this year, but is just a fraction of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3's $17.5 million from May. While projections for The Marvels have been as high as $80 million, more recent projections have seen that number continue to decrease, while Thursday night numbers could put it as low as in the $40-million range.

One of the biggest complications about the film's release and the resulting box office is that it's the only entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's 15-year history that has suffered from an actors' strike that prevented a film's stars from promoting the project in any capacity. While the coronavirus pandemic understandably impacted the box office of multiple MCU films, the strike barred stars like Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani, and Samuel L. Jackson from doing any press to promote the film ahead of release, or even sharing that the film existed on social media. Luckily, this week's resolution to the strike has lifted those restrictions, with Larson set to appear tonight on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

While it's too early to tell how a lack of promotion by the film's cast could impact the overall box office, we can only assume that the cast now being able to promote the sequel will help it in the long run. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania would go on to earn $57.2 million in its opening weekend, so we can't rule out The Marvels ultimately landing in the $60-million territory. 

Critical reactions could also impact The Marvels, with Rotten Tomatoes calculating a 61% positive score based on more than 200 reviews. This puts it significantly ahead of Quantumania's 46%, with the upcoming promotional cycle from its stars and slightly better critical reviews also adding to the film's box-office longevity.

In The Marvels, which arrived in theaters on November 10th, Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) has reclaimed her identity from the tyrannical Kree and taken revenge on the Supreme Intelligence. But unintended consequences see Carol shouldering the burden of a destabilized universe. When her duties send her to an anomalous wormhole linked to a Kree revolutionary, her powers become entangled with that of Jersey City super-fan, Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) aka Ms. Marvel, and Carol's estranged niece, now S.A.B.E.R. astronaut Captain Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris). Together, this unlikely trio must team-up and learn to work in concert to save the universe as "The Marvels." The Marvels will also see the franchise returns of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Saagar Shaikh as Aamir Khan, Zenobia Shroff as Muneeba Khan, and Mohan Kapur as Yusuf Khan. New cast members include Zawe Ashton, Park Seo-joon, and Shamier Anderson. Produced by Marvel Studios, The Marvels is directed by Nia DaCosta with a script from DaCosta, Megan McDonnell, and Elissa Karasik.

The Marvels is in theaters now.

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