The Marvels Is On Track For One Of The MCU's Lowest Box Office Openings

"The Marvels" is not getting off to a heroic start at the box office. The latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a sequel to 2019's massive hit "Captain Marvel," arrived in theaters on Thursday and, while it's early, the numbers are not encouraging. Based on what the film took in during preview screenings, it now looks like director Nia DaCosta's superhero blockbuster is going to wind up with one of the smallest opening weekends in the history of the MCU. Brace for impact.

With showings that started at 3 p.m., "The Marvels" took in $6.6 million in Thursday preview screenings, per The Numbers. Much could happen between now and Monday morning but those numbers suggest an opening weekend well below original projections, likely in the mid-$50 million range, give or take. Early box office tracking had the film earning as much as $90 million on opening weekend. Even in a best-case scenario at this point, the movie will end up opening nowhere near that.

The lowest opening weekends in MCU history belong to 2008's "The Incredible Hulk" ($55.4 million), 2015's "Ant-Man" ($57.2 million), and 2011's "Captain America: The First Avenger" ($65 million). It's been quite some time since we've seen a film in this franchise open below $60 million. Even all of the films released in 2021 — "Black Widow," "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," and "Eternals" — opened above $70 million, and that was when the pandemic was a much larger factor. This is to say, things are not looking good for "The Marvels," particularly in light of the film's sizable budget, which is said to be between $220 and $250 million.

On the optimistic front, "The First Avenger" only did $4 million in previews before opening to $65 million. But that was a long time ago. We can also look at something like "The Flash," which did $9.7 million in previews over the summer but opened to just $55 million. The film ended up topping out at an abysmal $268 million worldwide.