Marvel Cinematic Universe Part II

[Albert1981]

The Delta variant had next to zero impact on moviegoers as the last weeks have shown. Other movies like Free Guy also did well during the Delta variant rise so that theory can be put to rest. There are people who avoid theatres because of the virus but these people did so in July as much as they do now, whereas most people who didn't care in July also don't care now. Nothing points to the Delta variant having a big impact.

What is a big factor that can't be denied although you were nonetheless completely ignoring it in your posting is the parallel release on Disney+, and therefore one can't make a fair comparison of their respective box office results. But if you want to compare them it may be surprising to you that even with theatrical exclusivity Shang-Chi will barely beat Black Widow's worldwide box office as BW did better overseas, but of course most media coverage is only mentioning the US result to paint their preferred picture.

As things stand BW will likely turn out more profit (including Disney+ PA) for Disney than Shang-Chi (at least as long as we are ignoring a potentially expensive lawsuit ), so much for it being a disappointment.

Here's how: Minus the share of theater owners and streaming device producers BW has brought in roughly 300 million USD to Disney's pockets. To reach the same amount Shang-Chi would need a box office of at least 550 million, which is completely out of the cards (barring a miraculous China release), it will land at 450 million worldwide at best.

Yeah, I forgot about the simultaneous streaming and theatre release. Marvel shouldn't have done that. Aren't Shang-Chi and Black Widow the top two performing movies of all of 2021 thus far? That's what I've read. Black Widow did well. I guess my view is that hardly anybody outside of the comic book reading community knows who the hell Shang-Chi is. Practically everybody who loves superhero movies knows who Natasha is by now. So I think Simu's movie overperformed. To ME there's just this weird miasma surrounding Black Widow that saddens me. Maybe it's because of ScarJo's lawsuit against Disney, the vibe is kinda negative to me. Black Widow, of all MCU characters, did NOT need to be involved in a huge CGI spectacle in the third act! She doesn't have any superpowers. That's one of the best parts of her character! And Marvel's villain "problem" came back with a vengeance in this movie. To me Dreykov was a weird combination of Jeffrey Epstein and Don Corleone. And Natasha's "mother" Vostokov felt like the MCU's answer to Ghislaine Maxwell (how is what she did in her past any better than Wanda's alleged crimes). I just wish Natasha had an epic fight (without too much CGI) at the end of the movie with the Taskmaster (I don't care about the gender swap. But Taskmaster at the beginning of the movie clearly had a dick. So my expectations were not "subverted"). There was a lot of potential unfulfilled in Black Widow. Black Widow's cast was probably the most talented one of any MCU movie. I also hated the fallopian tube and uterus jokes (Feige and Whedon can be blamed for those indirectly). Those quips were strange to me. I'm not saying I didn't like Black Widow (I did). I thought ScarJo gave her best MCU performance by far, and it was a pretty solid picture. Speaking for myself, I was disappointed. I will say Marvel/Disney has mastered de-aging technology brilliantly however. The fake family looked great at the beginning of the picture.