Reaction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe since the high that was Endgame has been muted, even amongst the most loyal fans who have seen every movie. Both the box office and critical response has (mostly) come down from the zenith that was Endgame – which made $2.8 billion at the box office, and scored a 94% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Phase 4 struggled to maintain the amount of positive reviews that previous phases had held. Of the first two MCU movies directed by women – Black Widow got 79% ($380 million at the box office) and Eternals 47% ($400 million at the box office). Shang-Chi fared better with RT, gaining a score of 91%, but still only managed $432 million at the box office.
None of the three most recent MCU movies passed a billion at the box office. Thor: Love and Thunder got a RT score of 64% ($760 million), Doctor Strange 2 got 74% ($955 million), and Black Panther 2 got 84% ($855 million). The undoubted success story of Phase 4 was Spider-Man: No Way Home, which exploited the nostalgia of reuniting three Spider-Men, as well as legacy villains like Doc Ock – resulting in a whopping $1.9 billion at the box office.
Ant-Man 3 is supposed to launch Phase 5 and introduce the new “big bad” Kang the Conqueror, but it has matched Eternals’ low RT score – and is currently sitting at 48%. By contrast, Thor: The Dark World – which is (unfairly!) listed at the bottom of most MCU rankings – has a RT score of 66%. It’s too early to report on Ant-Man 3’s box office takings, but it does seem to be showing signs that there’s some serious MCU fatigue happening.
We all know the reasons why – over-saturation because of the Marvel series on Disney Plus, the lack of a cohesive purpose or a great Marvel villain, the introduction of multiverses and timeline variations. The stakes feel low (is anyone ever really dead?), and the characters aren’t as strong as the beloved Avengers. Some people even blame Phase 4’s underwhelming performance on Endgame itself.
We’ll have to wait and see how the rest of Phase 5 fares, but for now, things are looking a little dicey. Check out everything we know so far about The Marvels.