Marvel’s Latest Box Office Disappointment Is a Streaming Hit

Over the course of the 2010s, the Marvel Cinematic Universe established itself as Hollywood’s highest-grossing franchise with a string of box office hits that starred everyone from Spider-Man to Ant-Man. During this decade, it seemed Marvel Studios could do no wrong, making household names out of even the most obscure comic book characters. However, in the years since Avengers: Endgame broke records, Marvel is no longer the box office juggernaut it once was. Some of the studio’s more recent titles — even those that are well-received — have struggled to sell tickets. Fortunately, the home media and streaming markets exist to give those films a new lease on life, and one Marvel flop is taking advantage.

The film in question is Thunderbolts*, which recently became available to rent and purchase on various platforms (including Amazon and Apple). Viewers didn’t come out in full force to support Thunderbolts* in theaters, but the movie’s proven to be a hit in homes. According to FlixPatrol, which charts the popularity of movies and shows on streaming services, Thunderbolts* is the No. 1 film on both the Amazon and iTunes storefronts. On the former, it has a slim lead over Final Destination Bloodlines, while it’s further ahead of Bloodlines and 28 Days Later on the latter.

Kicking off the summer movie season in early May, Thunderbolts* earned widely positive reviews (it has an 88% Certified Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes), with many praising it for its combination of genre entertainment and deep thematic material. Despite the strong word of mouth, Thunderbolts* had a relatively soft opening weekend (by Marvel standards) of $74.3 million domestically. It is one of the lowest-grossing MCU titles of all time with a worldwide haul of just $381.8 million, less than that of fellow disappointment Captain America: Brave New World.

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Thunderbolts* became available to rent and purchase digitally on Tuesday, July 1st. Physical copies will be released on Tuesday, July 29th. Disney has not announced when Thunderbolts* will stream on Disney+ as of this writing.

Seeing that Captain America: Brave New World (which earned mixed reviews) recently became the biggest movie on streaming according to Nielsen data, it isn’t surprising to see Thunderbolts* soar to the top of the PVOD charts. People are still interested in watching Marvel movies, keeping up to date with the ever-evolving storyline of the Multiverse Saga. Some viewers are just being more selective about what they go to see on the big screen. Marvel’s uneven quality over the last handful of years seemingly has dissuaded casual audiences from checking out every MCU movie in theaters. Hopefully, Thunderbolts* restored some good will for the franchise, paving the way for The Fantastic Four: First Steps to have a lucrative run later this month.

While Marvel would have liked to have seen Thunderbolts* become a box office hit, it’s nevertheless an encouraging sign that it’s a draw on home media. The film’s main characters are all set to return in Avengers: Doomsday, so viewers are doing their homework so they know what’s up with Yelena, Red Guardian, and the rest of the New Avengers by the time Doctor Doom arrives in the MCU. Thunderbolts* could catch on in living rooms even more once it becomes available on Disney+ and people can catch it for just the cost of a subscription.