Stephen King Has A Theory About Why The Marvels Is Not Doing Great At The Box Office

Author and "Mambo No. 5" superfan Stephen King has weighed in on the recent struggles of The Marvels at the box office, saying the poor opening-weekend results may be due, in part, to "adolescent fanboy hate."

Posting on X (formerly Twitter), King said he doesn't watch Marvel movies and doesn't like them. But he said he finds the "barely masked gloating" by some about The Marvels' box office performance to be "very unpleasant." He asked, "Why gloat over failure?"

I don’t go to MCU movies, don’t care for them, but I find this barely masked gloating over the low box office for THE MARVELS very unpleasant. Why gloat over failure?
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) November 12, 2023

Some of the rejection of THE MARVELS may be adolescent fanboy hate. You know, "Yuck! GIRLS!"
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) November 13, 2023

In another post, King said he believes some of the "rejection" to The Marvels could be "adolescent fanboy hate. You know, 'Yuck! GIRLS.'"

King may be referring to how The Marvels centers upon a main cast comprised of women, including Brie Larson, Iman Vellani, Teyonath Parris, and Zawe Ashton. The movie was also directed by a woman, Nia DaCosta.

According to a story from The Hollywood Reporter, Disney and Marvel knew that The Marvels "was in trouble" before it was released in theaters on November 10. The movie made $46 million for its opening weekend in the US, the lowest-ever for the MCU, dating back more than a decade. For comparison, its predecessor, Captain Marvel, made $153 million in the US for its opening weekend back in 2019, prior to the onset of the pandemic.

The SAG-AFTRA strike ended just a day before The Marvels released in theaters, so its stars were not able to promote the film like they normally would. Critics generally enjoyed The Marvels, but the audience score, as measured by CinemaScore, was tied with Eternals and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania as the lowest in MCU history.

GameSpot's The Marvels review scored the film an 7/10 and called it "meaningless fun."

Some have also wondered what impact the so-called "superhero fatigue" element might have played in The Marvels underperforming at the box office. For its part, Disney CEO Bob Iger said the rush to create so much Marvel content negatively affected quality. In 2024, Marvel plans to release just one film--Deadpool 3.